Culling badgers, building nuclear power stations or a Severn barrage, planting GM crops: we face these difficult decisions. As we try to find a way forward we call in the experts – scientists whose views we think of as impartial and unbiased. Publicly funded scientific research is inevitably influenced by Government priorities and scientific research continually raises questions about the viability of current policy. Meanwhile, funding bodies are increasingly committed to leading and directing research in the sciences, framing its questions and targeting funds at ‘key areas’.