284 



As to social value, "It is not every society * * * that has the opportunity 

 to support an undertaking with as much potential importance, both intellectually 

 and technologically, as the proposed high-energy program you are examining." 



In the discussion that followed these brief statements, Dr. Seitz ob- 

 served that there was no opinion that the field should be abandoned 

 or even stabilized; the question was merely as to its rate of further 

 expansion. Dr. Piore protested that the position seemed to have been 

 established that hi^h-energy physics was an expensive area of re- 

 search, in competition with the rest of science which was inexpen- 

 sive. Many other branches of science (oceanography, low-energy phys- 

 ics, space, even biology) were also costly. However, he said: "I think 

 we all can afford * * * these costly equipments for the good of our 

 souls and for the good of our society." 



Dr. Panofsky proposed that "the ratio of our investment in basic 

 research should go up relative to the investment in trying to exploit 

 the basic research." At this point in the hearing a staff memorandum 

 on allocation of Federal funds to basic and applied research was 

 introduced, (See table 4.) Then a concluding comment was offered by 

 Dr. Seitz, who acknowledged that Dr. Abelson's comments "get close 

 to the heart of issues that all of us concerned with the process of 

 relating science and society must worry about continuously." It was, 

 he said, "quite likely" that high-energy physics "will do little to 

 alleviate the problems of transportation * * * or add very little to 

 the evolution of household equipment." 



TABLE 4 1.— ESTIMATES, FISCAL YEAR 1964— FEDERAL FUNDS 

 Iln millions of dollars] 



A— Total 

 research 



B— Basic 

 research 



A-B— Ap- 

 plied research 



Life sciences (biology, medicine, agriculture) 



Behavioral sciences (psychology, sociology, economics, etc.) 



Astronomy 



Chemistry. 



Earth sciences (atmosphere, ocean, solid earth) 



Elementary particle physics (high-energy physics) 



Nuclear structure (medium-energy physics plus some low-energy) 

 Atomic, molecular, and solid state (low-energy plus solid state)... 



Other physics 



Other physical sciences 



Mathematical sciences 



Engineering sciences 



Other sciences 



Total 



4,571 



1,635 



2,936 



« Ibid., p. 232. 



The thing that we have to keep in mind [concluded Dr. Seitz] is 

 that its ultimate applications may be in spheres which we simply cannot 

 imagine today because they are either on the periphery or over the 

 horizon. The important thing about classical high-energy physics, the 

 nuclear physics of the 1930"s, is that it opened up a completely new 

 energy source, visualized dimly only by a few. 



Similarly, it might turn out that present-day high-energy physics 

 would play a great role in the devices we develop, for planetary sci- 

 ence and engineering including matters such as control of the atmos- 

 phere, and so forth. We simply must recognize that there are many 

 open doorways which we are not bright enough to peer into at the 

 present time. 



