Examples of Basic Research 



It is well known that the early history of ONR 

 involved much support of basic research. Not 

 only was there support of individual research pro- 

 jects, entire fields were developed, such as radio 

 astronomy and low temperature physics; tech- 

 niques were evolved with far-reaching consequ- 

 ences in research and technology, such as nuclear 

 magnetic resonance for chemistry and defect 

 theory in metallurgy; and instrumentation and fa- 

 cilities were developed over many years for use in 

 geophysical research. This Nation's postwar lead- 

 ership in high-energy nuclear physics would have 

 been impossible without the major efforts of 

 ONR. 



This early activity provides a background for 

 discussion of more recent accomplishments. In 

 this inquiry, no attempt was made to cover all 

 areas of Navy research. The Navy is not as ex- 

 tensively involved in basic research as was once 

 the case. The following examples should be con- 

 sidered as selected, representative accomplish- 

 ments. 



Geophysics. In some areas of geophysics, it is 

 possible to state broadly that the Navy is still a 

 strong participant in relatively basic aspects of 

 research. Thus, ONR participated in, and contin- 

 ued to support a significant part of the large-scale 

 experiments in oceanography that have occurred 

 recently and some of which are still going on: 

 MCDE. POLYMODE, NORPAX, INDEX, AND 

 MILE. In the Arctic, likewise, ONR participated 

 in the preparatory phases, logistics, and part of 

 the research support for the major AIDJEX ex- 

 periment. The Vetlesen Prize in 1975 was awarded 

 Dr. C. L. Pekeris for his work on the tides, sup- 

 ported for many years by ONR. 



Astronomy. The Naval Research Laboratory 

 (NRL) has remained active in the areas of ra- 

 dioastronomy, x-ray and ultraviolet astronomy, 

 and solar ultraviolet and x-ray astronomy, under 

 H. Friedman and R. Tousey. Among the creden- 

 tials attesting to the merit of this work can be cit- 

 ed the award of the Medal of Science to Dr. 

 Friedman and the continued participation by NRL 

 in Skylab and in other space vehicles on a com- 

 petitive basis. Recent papers from these efforts at 

 NRL that have a significant number of recent cita- 

 tions are: G. R. Carruthers, Astrophys. J. Vol. 

 161 L, 1970, p. 81; Science, Vol. 177, 1972. p. 788; 

 R. Tousey, Solar Phys., Vol. 33, 1973, p. 265; M. 

 M. Shapiro, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Sci.. Vol. 20, 1970, 

 p. 323. Also at NRL, the work of the Karles on 

 molecular and crystal structure has received much 

 recognition. I. L. Karle, J. Am. Chem. Soc Vol. 

 92, p. 3755, 1970; J. Am. Chem. Soc, Vol. 94, p. 

 81, 1972; Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., US, Vol. 70, p. 

 1836; Biochemistry, Vol. 13, p. 2155, 1974. 



Physical science. In the physical science areas, 

 Nobel Laureate Dr. C. H. Townes was also 

 awarded the 1977 Earle K. Plyer Prize of the 

 American Physical Society for his work using 

 maser and laser techniques in molecular spectros- 

 copy, notably those in interstellar space. ONR 

 participated in the support of Dr. Townes' recent 

 efforts to explore the millimeter and near infrared 

 wavelengths using maser techniques as well as his 

 earlier pre-Nobel Prize research. Drs. W. Kohn 

 and N. Lang were awarded the 1977 Davisson- 

 Germer Prize of the American Physical Society 

 for their contributions to the understanding of the 

 inhomogeneous interacting electron gas and of its 

 application to electronic phenomena at sur- 

 faces. This work was supported in part by ONR. 

 ONR also participated in the atomic clock meas- 

 urement by Dr. C. O. Alley of the general relativis- 

 tic time differences produced by aircraft flights. 

 The time difference between two interchangeable 

 sets of macroscopic cesium atomic clocks was 

 measured by direct comparison before and after 

 one set was flown in a radar-tracked naval aircraft 

 in five independent flights. Remote comparison 

 was made using laser pulses. The results confirm 

 Einstein's equivalence principle and constitute the 

 first practical application of his theory of gravita- 

 tion. 



Chemistry. The work on boranes for which W. 

 N. Lipscomb was awarded the Nobel Prize in 

 chemistry was supported in large part by ONR.' 



Fundamental research. Recent techniques of 

 significance for fundamental research include: 

 Two photon spectroscopy, Doppler-free, extended 

 to the study of general atomic and molecular tran- 

 sitions by use of a nitrogen-pumped dye laser. 

 The narrow line width promises a more precise 

 measurement of the Rydberg constant and also 

 possibly an optical frequency standard.- 



Mathematics. In the mathematics area, the gen- 

 esis of the field of sparse matrix analysis by graph 

 theoretical characterization was the work of ONR 

 contractors, S. Porter and later D. Ross. Another 

 example of this type was the thesis of J. A. 

 George on the finite element method. This work is 

 considered to have set the proper questions for 

 further work which has fundamentally changed 

 the way many types of partial differential equa- 

 tions are solved numerically. Still another exam- 

 ple is the publication of the book by Y. S. Chow, 

 H. Robbins, and D. Siegmund, "Great Expecta- 



I'The Boranes and Their Relatives," Les Prix Nobel. 1*^76. 



2-Hydrogen ls-2s Isotope Shift and Is Lamb Shift Measured 

 by Laser Spectroscopy," S. A. Lee. R. Wallenstein. and T. W. 

 Hansch, Phys. Rev. Letters. Vol, 35, p. 1262, 1975. Another 

 technique originated under ONR sponsorship is that of phos- 

 phorescence microwave double resonance, useful in research 

 on transitions of triplet states in chemistry. 



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