That's in principle what academic tenure is for, it guarantees independence and research freedom. And while you may talk about how there's always this or that p

That's in principle what academic tenure is for, it guarantees independence and research freedom. And while you may talk about how there's always this or that political topic that anyone will shy away from, at least in the hard sciences I think academic freedom is largely intact. In a company you can always be fired and the singular goal is the bottom line. Much more so since modern companies seem to not operate with the mentality of the old corporate research labs like Bell, but keep a much tighter lid on things, always pushing for products.