“I wonder if the massive demand for students in the STEM fields has led to a decrease in academic rigor. More students means more research, which leaves colleges with relatively fewer/less-qualified reviewers to oversee and troubleshoot.
Plus, there is little short-term incentive for universities to chase away paying students. Long-term, allowing sub-par students to succeed only hurts the sciences – but academia today is very compartmentalized and ethics is about as far from STEM as any discipline can be.
I’m not suggesting that STEM professionals are any less ethical than anyone else; just that ethics have become a legal checklist rather than true moral principles. There are, no doubt, truly ethical professionals out there who remain uncompromising in their standards; I just worry they’re the academic equivalent of the northern white rhino – old and infertile, just waiting to see which is the last of a once-proud breed.”
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.