Is there a place for propaganda in science? Should scientists be in the business of promoting an agenda?

As stated by others, the true scientist strives to be completely objective. She can have a personal agenda (wiping out malaria for example), and propaganda does play a role in this, as people must be made aware of how malaria is spread and . It is very difficult to separate politics from science and technology. Nuclear weapons, after all, were developed for political and military reasons. The world is not a pure place and people have mixed motives for many goals. As far as scientists are concerned the only real sin is lying and falsifying results. Speculation is fine, as long as it is labelled as such, and agitating for a cause (like antiseptic measures before surgery) can be perfectly justifiable.