BASIC RESEARCH IN PRIVATE RESEARCH INSTITUTES 



seriously about it, the noninvolved workers in the relevant 

 scientific field are frequently unable to say why the results ob- 

 tained should be considered so important, except that they cost 

 a lot or involve such a spectacular effort. Most of our present 

 hoop-la about space is certainly in this category. 



Creation of Favorable Environment 



What has all this to do with basic research in private re- 

 search institutes? I can say it very simply. The enormous expan- 

 sion of funds and activities called research has left the private re- 

 search institute as only a minuscule item in the whole picture, 

 but the function of a research institute seems thereby to have 

 become even more clearcut and conspicuous. It must function 

 as a stable and continuing prototype. In discussing the activities 

 of my own department in the Carnegie Institution I have said 

 for some years that it is very simply our aim "to be just a good 

 old-fashioned example of the real thing." By this, of course, we 

 mean that we attempt to support the highly personal activity of 

 the individual research man who does his own research work. 

 This is our interpretation of the "support of ideas." The support 

 of thinking, in the search for new knowledge, is always the 

 support of a man. No newer idea, no team concept, and no 

 devotion to huge facilities can take the place of this old require- 

 ment and this traditional precept. 



This basic idea of Mr. Carnegie and his advisors, of buying 

 a man's time and giving it back to him, as a support for his 

 ideas and his thinking, has some important corollary aspects. 

 One is that he must not have too many people interfering with 

 his time or he becomes a manager and an operator more than 

 a research man. Another corollary is, especially in these days, 

 that his equipment will be smaller and less complicated than the 

 best equipment in his field of work, or again he will be con- 

 verted into a manager or a constructor or a big time operator. 



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