But Geraldine O'Connell, the national secretary for the union Prospect, which represents scientists at Fera, said: "One of our biggest concerns is that science has a long-term responsibility.
"It concerns us that science is being used in a very selective manner and groups, like the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are bringing together scientists on a campaigning basis to create studies that are reported as being definitive but are extremely weak from a scientific view, in our opinion.
What such concerns overlook is that science is already playing a significant role in high-level politics.
There is increased concern since 2011 that science is over-sensationalised by the media, that journalists don't check their facts before publishing and that politicians lack credibility when discussing science.
So one must grant that science concerns itself with the reality of "objects".
Concern that science and math achievement was not keeping pace with the nation's economic competitors had been building even before the most recent Timss survey, in which the highest-performing nations were Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.
The figures released today cannot provide much information on this, but there is a real concern that science is predominantly the preserve of the middle classes, thereby holding back many potentially gifted students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Grattan Institute report makes the narrow assumption that science is a vocational degree that trains people to be scientists, and is concerned that "science graduates are pushing into a general labour market in which they must compete with graduates from other fields".
Here he founded a second flourishing research school to study metals and alloys, silicates, and proteins, but he was also deeply concerned that science students have time to enjoy a full education and come to understand something of the meaning and purpose of life.
