Basic Research 

 in PRIVATE 

 RESEARCH 

 INSTITUTES 



MERLE A. TUVE 



Carnegie Institution of Washington 



1 BELIEVE that most of us accepted the in- 

 vitation to participate in this symposium because we found 

 ourselves rather largely in agreement with Dr. Weaver's pro- 

 vocative statement in calling for these discussions. Regardless of 

 the doubling and redoubling year by year of the announced 

 annual expenditures by government and industrv for basic re- 

 search in science, we all feel a bit helpless and disappointed 

 because these large sums seem to contribute so little to the 

 really basic core of scholarly accomplishment which is central 

 to all the varied degrees and qualities of activity we now seem 

 to include under the term basic research. 



I liked particularly Dr. Weaver's third paragraph and one 

 or two of his questions and comments: 



Strong evidence has been accumulating that we are in fact 

 capable of creating new knowledge. But in spite of our verbal 

 dedication to the importance of basic research, and in spite of our 

 emerging confidence that we have the national resources of 

 imaginative, competent, and dedicated individuals to carrv out 



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