DAEL WOLFLE 



otherwise interesting scientific leads. Under eertain industrial 

 or military eircumstances, the researcher is under some degree 

 of compulsion to stick closely to an assigned problem. These 

 examples illustrate applied research; the methods and knowl- 

 edge of science are in these cases being applied to solve practical 

 problems. Yet it must be remembered that not infrequently cer- 

 tain pieces of fundamental knowledge needed for the solution 

 of a practical problem may be totally lacking and must be ac- 

 quired before further progress on the practical problem can be 

 achieved; thus what is commonly called applied research often 

 involves some component of basic research. 



Sometimes all the scientist seeks is understanding. What 

 he learns may well turn out to be useful. If it is, usually he is 

 pleased, but usefulness is not his goal. His goal is to learn 

 more about the nature of things. He seeks to extend man's 

 knowledge. He is engaged in basic research. 



The purpose of all scholarly activity, including research, 

 is to develop the structure of knowledge. To this end, both ap- 

 plied and basic research contribute. Moreover, there is constant 

 interaction and reciprocal fertilization between the two. Basic 

 research provides a firm foundation for practical applications, 

 and applied research may lead to beautiful basic science. The 

 practical problems of aviation necessitated studies that have 

 greatly extended man's fundamental knowledge of fluid me- 

 chanics. When Pasteur was asked to try to save the silkworm in- 

 dustry of France — surely a practical problem — he used a basic 

 research approach that yielded information of fundamental 

 importance to biology and medicine. The productivity of an 

 earlier American scientist was attributed by one reviewer to 

 "the combination of an enviable analytic power with sturdy 

 practical experience." Of science in the large it is also true that 

 the interplay of the analytic power of basic research and the 



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