mation. It also provides new ways of grasping the 

 possibilities and limitations of nature. Sometimes 

 these attain the status of new fundamental laws. 

 Perhaps more often they are simply mental con- 

 structs based on analogies or physical models. 

 Using language borrowed from psychology, we 

 can call these ways of grasping nature "new ^e.s- 

 talts. "They account for most of the revolutionary 

 impact basic research can have. They spread rap- 

 idly. They become an intellectual tool available 

 throughout the scientific community. A significant 

 new gestalt can affect applied R&D programs in 

 ERDA very quickly. 



The sustaining research programs play only a 

 minor role in direct and immediate support of 

 demonstration and control-oriented efforts within 

 ERDA. The managers of the latter efforts need to 

 design their programs around use of the present 

 fund of scientific information and understanding. 

 They need to set goals and milestones for them- 

 selves they can be confident in meeting. In most 

 cases it would be impractical, as well as psycho- 

 logically inconsistent, for them to try to fit into 

 their schedules the information and discoveries 

 being sought in basic research. 



The need remains, however, for dealing with 

 problems common to many energy technologies in 

 a centralized way. In addition, ERDA needs to 

 provide a suitable place for systems in their infan- 

 cy that is separate from the harsh competition in 

 demonstration-oriented programs. These two func- 

 tions are becoming an increasingly important part 

 of the basic energy sciences program, but should 

 probably be considered as an applied research as- 

 pect of this program rather than an aspect of the 

 basic research function within ERDA. 



The role of basic energy sciences and general 

 life sciences programs in meeting research require- 

 ments of groups outside the Federal Government — 

 for example, of energy-related small businesses or 

 of associations concerned with protection of the 

 environment — warrants clearer recognition. The 

 need is readily seen. Basic research concerning 

 energy constitutes a long-term investment in na- 

 tional economic and technological resources. Al- 

 though industry participation is encouraged, few 

 private organizations can justify the high costs and 

 economic risks associated with long-term research 

 ventures. Therefore, the Federal Government 

 must assume the major responsibility for support- 

 ing basic research in the national interest. The na- 

 tional interest here should not be considered sim- 

 ply derivative of other Federal activities. Ideally, 

 these programs should seek to serve as a basic re- 

 search arm for all organizations dealing with ener- 

 gy problems that are unable to support their own 

 research. Contact with private organizations will 

 ordinarily be made through universities and nation- 



al laboratories, or, when the private groups include 

 active scientists, through the scientific and patent 

 literature. Direct commercialization of results from 

 ERDA basic research has occurred fairly often, 

 especially in the area of instrumentation. More 

 often, the benefits accrue as the accumulated 

 knowledge and understanding of detailed process- 

 es become part of the data on which applied tech- 

 nologies rest. Private organizations are served as 

 they draw upon this data. 



The central role for these programs remains that 

 of providing resources to sustain and enhance the 

 national energy R&D enterprise in the future. The 

 primary audience will be the scientists and engi- 

 neers working in that enterprise one and two de- 

 cades from now. Thus, the general life sciences 

 program conducts studies of damage, repair and 

 molecular interactions in cells of man and various 

 animal species in order to generalize the types of 

 damage and repair and improve the bases for esti- 

 mates of health hazards from the wide variety of 

 common pollutants. The basic energy sciences 

 program conducts studies of combustion to devel- 

 op a detailed and precise understanding of com- 

 bustion processes. The translation into improved 

 environmental standards and commercial combus- 

 tion processes takes time, perhaps many years. 



The key step in implementing this central role is 

 in the choice of scientific areas to pursue. The 

 areas need to be relevant to the future course of 

 energy development and demonstration. However, 

 the individual research tasks may have no clear 

 and apparent relationship to energy technology. 

 The rhetoric of relevance can lead to damaging 

 constraints. To avoid such damage, a clear concep- 

 tion is needed of the types of relevance appropri- 

 ate for ERDA's basic research. Five types may be 

 identified. Although the various types of relevance 

 are not easily separable, they help throw light on 

 the roles of the research and are described briefly 

 below for this purpose. 



• Type I relevance work is designed to produce 

 immediately useful information or techniques 

 — such as improved measurement of cross 

 sections for nuclear reactions of importance 

 to design of fusion energy systems or im- 

 proved methods for screening chemicals for 

 mutagenicity. 



• Type II relevance work concerns systems or 

 processes that are candidates for future direct 

 application. Studies of an "artificial leaf" are 

 an example, since the intent is to develop a 

 method for capturing solar energy modeled 

 closely on natural photosynthetic processes. 

 Another example is the effort underway to 

 develop model in vitro ceU systems that retain 

 the normal function of cells of key or critical 

 organs and tissues. 



ENERGY RESEARCH S DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION 1 65 



