From Bacon to Banks: the vision and the realities of pursuing science for the common good.

Francis Bacon's call for philosophers to investigate nature and "join in consultation for the common good" is one example of a powerful vision that helped to shape modern science. His ideal clearly linked the experimental method with the production of beneficial effects that could be used both as "pledges of truth" and for "the comforts of life." When Bacon's program was implemented in the following generation, however, the tensions inherent in his vision became all too real.