There is a book, Longitude by Dava Sobel, that should be required reading in Jr. & Senior High science courses.
It’s tale - about the development of the means for mariners to know true longitude at sea, at all times (and how involved in that process were governments) and it closely resembles the current bad state of affairs between true science and those cast as “official” scientists by either their government appointment or their funding by government, & how that funding is a two-way street that corrupts both that funding and science.
In another sense it is about how easily corruption & power seduces humans to put the possession of power, and keeping it - including the power of being the “official authority” on something, above scientific truth. It is a truth in any age; no less in the days of the hero portrayed in Longitude than today.
I read that book (Longitude) years ago. It is an excellent book.