The myth of science as a public good

OK, I was sceptical until the Q&A (about 45 minutes in), when he is asked about blue-sky research. His answer - private companies and foundations do a lot of blue-sky research (think Bell Labs), and governments are actually pretty lousy about doing it as they only care about economic growth (and the next election). It would be nice if it was expanded a bit though.

Towards the end, he also points out that patents in pharmaceuticals are acceptable, because of the costs of regulatory compliance. If 99% of your costs are getting FDA approval (which are needed, to stop drug companies pushing ineffective and dangerous quack treatments), then the patent is needed to protect you.