Part Two 



Present Status and Trends In American Science 



To aid in formulating policies of 

 assistance to research, it will be help- 

 ful first to analyze the important 

 types of scientific activity and to 

 sketch the deyelopment of the prin- 

 cipal types of American scientific 

 institutions. 



A. The Nature of Scientific 

 Research 



Scientific research may be divided 

 into the following broad categories: 

 (1) pure research, (2) background 

 research, and (3) applied research 

 and development. The boundaries 

 between them are by no means clear- 

 cut and it is frequently difficult to 

 assign a given investigation to any 

 single category. On the other hand, 

 typical instances are easily recog- 

 nized, and study of them reveals that 

 each category requires different in- 

 stitutional arrangements for maxi- 

 mum development. 



1. Pure Research 



Pure research is research without 

 specific practical ends. It results in 

 general knowledge and understand- 

 ing of nature and its laws. This gen- 

 eral knowledge provides the means 

 of answering a large number of im- 

 portant practical problems, though it 

 may not give a specific solution to 

 any one of them. The pure scientist 

 may not be at all interested in the 

 practical applications of his work; vet 

 the development of important new 

 industries depends primarily on a 



continuing vigcuous progress of pure 

 science. 



One of the peculiarities of [)ure 

 science is the variety of paths which 

 lead to productive advance. Many of 

 the most important discoveries have 

 come as a result of experiments un- 

 dertaken with quite different pur- 

 poses in mind. Statistically it is cer- 

 tain that important and highly useful 

 discoveries will result from some frac- 

 tion of the work undertaken; but the 

 results of any one particular inves- 

 tigation cannot be predicted with 

 accuracy. 



The unpredictable nature of pure 

 science makes desirable the provision 

 of rather special circumstances for its 

 pursuit. Pure research demands from 

 its followers the freedom of mind to 

 look at familiar facts from unfamiliar 

 points of view. It does not always 

 lend itself to organized efforts and is 

 refractory to direction from above. In 

 fact, nowhere else is the principle of 

 freedom more important for signifi- 

 cant achievement. It should be 

 pointed out, however, that many 

 branches of pure science increasingly 

 involve the cooperative efforts of nu- 

 merous, individuals, and expensive 

 capital equipment shared by many 

 workers. 



By general consent the discoveries 

 of pure science have for centuries 

 been immediately consigned to the 

 public domain and no valid prece- 

 dent exists for restricting the advan- 

 tages of knowledge of this sort to any 



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