MERLE A. TUVE 



basic research, it nevertheless remains true that as a nation, we 

 are not giving adequate and suitable support to basic research. 



He questions whether the applied research and massive de- 

 velopment activities initiated and supported by government 

 and by industry have been damaging to our activities in basic 

 research, and whether funds for basic research are made avail- 

 able with "the flexibility, stability and freedom from intellec- 

 tually dishonest commitment with which competent scholarship 

 should be supported." 



I was particularly unhappy to find myself giving a more 

 than halfway affirmative answer to his question four: 



Are not universities so deeply invaded by the demands for solv- 

 ing immediate problems and by the temptation of income for so do- 

 ing that there are all too few cases of competent scholars ponder- 

 ing about problems simply because it interests them to do so? Is 

 there not a real danger that the scholars in our universities will 

 lose — and indeed have already partly lost — the "maneuvering 

 room for their continuing reanalysis of the universe?" 



We are grateful for the invitation "to examine with candor 

 . . . and inquire realistically what are the blocks which pre- 

 vent our doing what we all say we believe is important. ..." 



Importance of the Individual Researcher 



This is a fine challenge, and I doubt that we have yet 

 fully measured up to the incisiveness of the invitation. I am 

 still troubled by the general consent we seem to yield for the 

 inclusion of a huge array of very expensive subsidiary or periph- 

 eral items of activity and expenditure on the same level and in 

 the same fiscal totals with the one single item we all know to 

 be central to the entire question, namely, the nurture and sup- 

 port and encouragement and protection of the creative individ- 

 ual investigator. The competent, interested, dedicated, lively 

 individual investigator who participates directly and personally 



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