were little known to scholars, but which might help in 

 the solution of other problems if explanations of these 

 empirical facts could be devised. Thus began the age of 

 reasoned enquiry into Nature, in which enquiry the re- 

 lation between academic thinker and practical craftsman 

 has been of the greatest importance from the start. Always 

 advances in pure scientific knowledge and in the application 

 of new knowledge to serve Man have gone together, 

 although the practical utilization of a new discovery has 

 often been delayed for a decade or so after the discovery 

 was made. But just as mankind cannot achieve any rapid 

 advances in daily life without the unhurried original 

 research of the pure scientist, so the latter cannot advance 

 far in his never-ending search for new truths without the 

 help of the practical man who can make new equipment 

 for the scientist to use in his work. However it is most 

 important to note that the rate of scientific advance is 

 governed by the rate at which the leading scientists work, 

 by the numbers of scientists doing original pure research, 

 and by the extent to which these scientists receive finan- 

 cial support for their work: it has recently become appar- 

 ent that some governments, for example that of the United 

 States, are inclined to hold the view that only heavily 

 financed researches can produce important new discoveries, 

 ignoring the fact that practically all of the great dis- 

 coveries of the past have been made by individual or 

 small groups of scientists, often working with rather 

 simple equipment. Furthermore, it is also necessary to 

 point out that it is often not possible to predict in advance 

 which scientific discoveries made at any given time will 

 prove to be of practical importance say ten years hence, 

 so that it is diflicult for the sponsors of science (govern- 

 ments largely, today) to support those researches of great- 



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