FRONTIERS IN OCEANIC RESEARCH 9 



So that the whole area of studying the behavior of radioactivity 

 in the oceans we believe is a very important one. 



Now, last but not least, we have the whole area of basic research, 

 and this we believe is the most important area of all. 



This is research which is done for its own sake, without any real 

 thought of practical applications, yet the fact remains that practi- 

 cally all practical applications stem from the source of basic research. 



The very nature of basic research is that the results which are ob- 

 tained are unpredictable. 



I am reminded of a little story in this connection which illustrates 

 just how we have difficulty predicting. 



One can project oneself back to the time when we were using lamps 

 for illumination, and let us suppose that we were to establish a founda- 

 tion to improve home lighting at that time. This foundation would 

 probably give out all sorts of research grants to universities and to 

 various organizations, and these research grants would almost all go 

 to the pursuit of the obvious. 



Large grants would be given to study the improvement in the effi- 

 ciency of burning whale oil; perhaps some of the more farsighted 

 grants would go to the study of the habits of whales; the mating 

 habits, and so forth. 



But one can ask, how much of this money would have gone to sup- 

 port the rather remote work of Michael Faraday and Clerk Max- 

 well? I believe that the answer would be very little, and yet their 

 work provided the really basic foundations for the emergence of 

 electricity. 



Similarly, when we speak of basic research in the oceans, we speak 

 of work which is done where the results are unpredictable and where 

 the practical applications certainly are unpredictable. Yet, of all 

 aspects of research that I have thus far mentioned, I believe that it is 

 the most important. 



Following this discussion of some of the problems, I would now like 

 to discuss with you some of our recommendations. 



We based our recommendations upon the assumption that it would 

 be possible for us to double the volume of basic research being under- 

 taken in the marine sciences in the United States in the next 10 

 years. 



It would be very fine if we could proceed at a rate which is greater 

 than that, and I believe all of the members of our committee would 

 like to see us do that. But there are certain limiting factors which 

 are involved, and perhaps the most important limiting factor is that 

 of technical manpower. 



It takes, well, really, about 22 years to train a scientist or an engi- 

 neer these days. You've got to start awfully young. 



So you just can't turn on a faucet and have oceanographers pouring 

 out of it. 



As a result we believe that we can double the number of scientists 

 and engineers involved in basic research in the next 10 years, but it 

 will be difficult to do more. Even the doubling is going to take a 

 great deal of cooperation and a great deal of effort. 



In addition to doubling our basic research during the next 10 years, 

 we believe it terribly important that we institute a major program of 

 oceanwide, ocean-deep surveys. These are surveys designed just to 

 make maps of the oceans, and what is in the oceans. 



