Sir

I was interested to read in your News story “Academics fume as university refuses to reject tobacco dollars” (Nature 422, 361; 200310.1038/422361a) a scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, quoted as saying it is immoral to accept research funds from tobacco companies because “it is not appropriate to take money from an industry that kills 5 million people worldwide and constantly lies”.

I guess that means that no research funds should be accepted from the US Department of Defense, nor from its corporate headquarters — the US government. Other national governments would presumably also be banned from supporting research under these new politically correct guidelines.