>One of my family members turned down an offer of double his salary because it would entail working on military systems, and he's a conscientious objector.
This happens a lot in my field (cognitive neuroscience). The Army Research Lab is a huge recruiter at cognitive neuroscience conventions, but there are many who refuse to work with them on principle, citing gitmo/drones/abu grahib/mk ultra/extraordinary rendition/etc...
At the end of the day, Army research tends to be shittier than public research, and I attribute this to two equally-weighted factors:
1. Army research is done in relative isolation. Collaboration of ideas is difficult because of OPSEC rules.
2. The best researchers, by and large, tend to be wary of Army laboratories, in no small part because the majority of them are foreign.
This happens a lot in my field (cognitive neuroscience). The Army Research Lab is a huge recruiter at cognitive neuroscience conventions, but there are many who refuse to work with them on principle, citing gitmo/drones/abu grahib/mk ultra/extraordinary rendition/etc...
At the end of the day, Army research tends to be shittier than public research, and I attribute this to two equally-weighted factors:
1. Army research is done in relative isolation. Collaboration of ideas is difficult because of OPSEC rules.
2. The best researchers, by and large, tend to be wary of Army laboratories, in no small part because the majority of them are foreign.