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DuPont is a pretty well-run company. Under the leadership of Ellen Kullman, a company veteran who became its chief executive in 2009, this once unwieldy conglomerate has undergone a great deal of change, with more still to come. It has cut some $2 billion in costs, eliminating a third of its management; announced the spinoff of its performance chemicals business; and “refreshed” its board with such corporate stalwarts as Edward Breen, who is best known for turning around Tyco International in the early 2000s. Since Kullman took over, the company has delivered 266 percent in total shareholder returns, easily outpacing the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. It is in the middle of a major restructuring designed to boost earnings growth.

Have we really gotten to the point where the activist now gets the benefit of the doubt, no matter how well run the company?

In the DuPont/Trian fight, the hedge fund is on record as saying that the company is not getting a return on its research-and-development spending. Yet R.& D. — science — is at the very heart of DuPont’s business model and always has been. And it can take years to turn a scientific advance into a successful product. A DuPont stripped of much of its R.& D. doesn’t just hurt the company; it hurts the country.

Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer, have manipulated the genes of the soybean to radically alter the composition of its oil to make it longer-lasting, potentially healthier and free of trans fats.

“It almost mirrors olive oil in terms of the composition of fatty acids.”

“We have been told if we have a product that is beneficial to consumers it will be much more acceptable,”

Germs changed all that. More than a hundred years ago, germ theory — the discovery that microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses caused disease — had a profound impact on almost every aspect of human behavior, just as the novel coronavirus could do after the current pandemic ends.

Sharing beds, whether at home or in public lodgings, became unacceptable; laws against spitting in public went on the books; and restaurants began requiring waiters to shave their beards and mustaches. Out went the fashion for long skirts and Victorian decor with its heavy drapery, where germs might lurk. In came an entire industry of sanitary products and disinfectants, such as Listerine, and spotless porcelain toilet fixtures.

By the end of the 19th century, mothers and other primary caretakers became cautious about cuddling or touching their children for fear of breeding deadly infections.