ALAN T. WATERMAN 



not be well with science throughout the nation if government 

 supports basic research only for such practical reasons. Mind 

 you, I do not wish to criticize the need for support on these 

 grounds — it is very great indeed — but this principle will cer- 

 tainly cause fields of science to be neglected where the con- 

 nection with immediate practical objectives is not so obvious. 

 Furthermore, there is a philosophical objection which in the 

 long-run may outweigh the one just stated. In time there may 

 be danger that science will come to be regarded only as a means 

 to practical ends. Such motivation is short-sighted and makes 

 ever more remote the chance of fundamental, completely novel 

 discovery in science. History is very convincing on this point. 



How then can the difficulty be resolved? It can be done — 

 by considering basic research as an investment. Since basic 

 research is exploration into the unknown, the degree of success 

 any single piece of research may achieve is uncertain. Support 

 must therefore be planned and carried out over a wide range of 

 subjects. Then, statistically, one may be assured of a high 

 return on a fair percentage of the work undertaken. In practice, 

 one mav even state with some confidence that the return on 

 this small percentage far more than pays the cost of the entire 

 investment. The analogy can be carried further. One should 

 invest in daring projects that appear to have small chance of 

 succeeding but a big pay-off if they do. And there should be a 

 fair proportion of standard gilt-edge projects that promise a 

 small but reliable return. In this way, one can manage to 

 include all fields of basic research, and in so doing feel happy 

 to have found an approach that appeals to budget-minded 

 citizens. 



Nevertheless, the fact remains that, in this country espe- 

 cially, we have not vet reached the point where we can step 

 forth boldly and justify basic research in terms of its important 

 objective, namely, the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake — 



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