BASIC RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES 



vided we choose to make them available. Whether or not we are 

 making a wise or sufficient apportionment of these financial 

 resources is a critical issue for this symposium. For purposes 

 of generalization, however, one may say that research in the 

 United States differs from research in other countries chiefly 

 in its diversity and volume. This may not be entirely true in 

 comparison with the USSR, whose natural resources in many 

 ways compete with our own, and whose present drive for 

 scientific and technical accomplishment represents a major 

 challenge. 



o 



One more distinguishing characteristic of US research as 

 a whole should be mentioned: the nation's emphasis upon 

 applied science — "inventions" — and its outstanding success in 

 technology. This characteristic was early observed by de 

 Tocqueville : 



In America the purelv practical part of science is admirably 

 understood, and careful attention is paid to the theoretical portion 

 which is immediately requisite to application. On this head the 

 Americans always display a clear, free, original, and inventive 

 power of mind. But scarcely any one in the United States devotes 

 himself to the essentially theoretical and abstract portion of human 

 knowledoe. . . . These very Americans, who have not discovered 

 one of the general laws of mechanics, have introduced into naviga- 

 tion an engine which changes the aspect of the world. . . . 



Within the past thirty years or so, however, our strength and 

 interest in basic research have grown until now one hears the 

 words on everyone's lips. In fact, one worries lest through over- 

 use "basic research" lose its main impact. It is well to bear in 

 mind the Athenian statesman Aristides, who lost an election 

 simply because people were tired of hearing him called "The 

 Just."' 



The term "basic research" first received general recog- 

 nition when used by Vannevar Bush in the well-known report, 



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