THE SUPPORT OF BASIC RESEARCH 



sturdy practical experience of applied work lends strength to 

 both. 



One of these is not a higher, or a better, kind of research 

 than the other, but there is some separation of responsibility 

 for the two. In the main, universities and some of the private 

 research institutions concentrate on basic research, while indus- 

 trial and government laboratories emphasize applied research. 

 There is overlap, however, and although the generalization is 

 reasonable and useful, there is no sharp cleavage between insti- 

 tutions that engage in basic research and those that engage in 

 applied research. 



There are also differences between the two research areas 

 in their support and popular appeal. The amount of money 

 spent on applied research and development is ten or twenty 

 times as great as the amount spent to broaden and deepen 

 knowledge of the workings of nature. In part, this difference 

 results from the inherently greater costs of much applied work, 

 and in part from a greater popular interest in applied research. 

 It is easier to understand, and therefore easier to support, an 

 effort to improve the preparation of polio vaccine or to extend 

 the range of a radar network than it is to understand the bio- 

 chemistry of heredity or the fall of parity. 



There are no sharp divisions between basic and applied 

 research, yet even imperfect distinctions and definitions are 

 useful. A considerable number of symposium participants strug- 

 gled with the problem of defining basic research. 



Problems of Definition 



The difficulty in agreeing on definitions results from the 

 fact that basic and applied research inevitably overlap each 

 other, not only in one dimension, but in several. Thus, sug- 

 gested criteria of differentiation always get confused. The moti- 



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