CRAWFORD H. GREENEWALT 



greater cooperation, understanding, and respect between indus- 

 trial and academic scientists. Today industrial scientists at 

 meetings of learned societies rub elbows on equal terms with 

 their academic associates. In the Journal and at the meetings of 

 the American Chemical Society, the percentage of papers pre- 

 sented by industrial authors is increasing steadily. I suspect that 

 this is true also in other fields. The use of academic consultants 

 in industrial research has increased greatly in recent years. 



This intermingling of industrial and academic scientists 

 has created a warm and fruitful relationship for both and has, 

 I am sure, done much to forward the cause of basic research. 



These developments are encouraging, but I do not mean 

 to imply that basic research in industry will keep our aggregate 

 effort at a sufficiently high level. In fact, I am quite certain that 

 it will not, and that basic research, particularly in the univer- 

 sities, must be greatly expanded and diversified. 



In industry, basic research must of necessity be restricted 

 to fields which are at least of potential commercial interest. 

 Du Pont, for example, can profitably undertake such research 

 in the fields of high polymers or organic chemistry, but it would 

 be difficult for us to justify research in oceanography, for 

 example, or in astronomy, or in paleontology. These areas and 

 many others are inevitably the province of the universities, and 

 means must be found to make sure that their exploration will 

 be aggressively pursued. 



In such disciplines, the significance of new discovery can 

 never be predicted or justified on the basis of utility or profit- 

 ability. Nonetheless, one can be certain that new knowledge 

 is never wasted, that someday, somehow, it can be turned to the 

 benefit of mankind. We can be sure also that today no area of 

 science stands alone, that more and more, important new discov- 

 eries are the result of a synthesis of contributions from many 

 seemingly unrelated disciplines. The support of what might be 



130 



