216 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1957 



this ratio becomes infinite and a replot of our previous figure in 

 terms of this information ratio becomes as shown in figure 4. This 

 curve emphasizes basic research, the acquisition of knowledge for 

 its own sake. 



DEVELOPMENT CONTRIBUTION 



DOLLARS 



TIME 



Figure 3. 



The scientist's work as a scientist is completed when a new item 

 of information is established and recorded. It is no concern of the 

 scientist, as a scientist, whether the information is useful or not. 

 It is for this reason that we can say with conviction that it is not 

 scientists who create technology. It is society itself which chooses 

 to create a technology based on the information which the scientist has 

 uncovered. This problem of application is the function of the engi- 

 neer. At the beginning of the scientific era, science and engineering 

 were widely separated in time. With the development of our current 

 technological civilization, applications have followed more and more 

 closely on the heels of discovery, with the result that in many fields 

 the search for new information and understanding is carried out 

 simultaneously with the application — that is, the effort to solve some 

 practical problem. Though activities may overlap, the distinction 

 in function remains. The same man who makes a discovery may 

 choose, or be persuaded, to attempt to apply it to a practical problem. 

 In this case he ceases to be a scientist and works essentially as an 

 engineer, and is motivated not internally as a scientist but externally 

 by society. I dwell on this point to counter the argument often 

 advanced that it is the scientist who has created the complexities of 



