Finally, remember that the best students need to be challenged by inclusion of difficult material. It is not possible to avoid taking a stance on social, ethical or public issues because refusal to say or do anything is tantamount to support of the status quo. Theoretical chemists are not confronted with difficult decisions about possible military or medical implications of their research. However, they must make many other choices involving social issues. One has to decide whether to accept funding from the military- industrial complex.
Funding can be of an indirect sort.
For example, an arms manufacturer who wanted to establish a factory in our community offered a research chair for our department. I felt that acceptance of the chair would be implicit approval of the manufacturer's activities. It so happened that no action was required on my part because the manufacturer chose not to locate in our community. However, if the factory had come to our community, I do not know whether I would have had the resolve to oppose vigorously the establishment of the research chair in our department. There are other situations in which we have to resist being co-opted into systems we oppose.