38 Research and National Purpose 



hand, there may be specific aspects of these broader fields 

 which are of unique relevance to one agency, or have a special 

 flavor which is characteristic of the agency's needs, e.g., high 

 strength metals and composites for deep submergence in the 

 Navy. 



(c) Fields which at present show no obvious promise as 

 sources of concepts or research results for near term agency 

 exploitation but which, in the mainstream of imaginatively 

 advancing science, can produce results of potentially significant 

 repercussions. These areas — such as pure mathematics or ele- 

 mentary particle physics — may have significance either through 

 discoveries which arise directly in the science or, more com- 

 monly, the chain of evolution of scientific ideas which always 

 links the fields of greatest scientific interest to those of extensive 

 value. 



In considering the relevance of a field to agency missions an 

 aspect often forgotten is the significance of new tools of basic 

 research for future technology. Thus, for example, one might 

 have questioned the relevance of the results of nuclear physics 

 to the Navy's mission; yet it is clear that this field, by challeng- 

 ing the most advanced electrical technology, has been the 

 instrument of many technological advances of great importance 

 to the Navy and to Defense; high powered klystrons, high 

 speed circuitry, developments in computer software and pat- 

 tern recognition, high vacuum technology, and many other 

 fields, of which I will give more detailed examples later. 



The approaches to these different types of basic research 

 may be different, but some participation in all three is needed 

 if the agency is to realize the maximum and most timely ad- 

 vantage from ongoing science. 



The first category I mentioned — the fields uniquely relevant 

 to the mission of a particular agency — often include areas 

 which do not receive much attention through the internal 

 dynamics of science. In a field such as this, of which underwater 

 acoustics is a good example in the Navy — or indeed, classical 

 hydrodynamics — the agency's support should be limited only 



