The notion that every well educated person would have a mastery of at least the basic elements of the humanities, sciences, and social sciences is a far cry from the specialized education that most students today receive, particularly in the research universities.
Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.
I'm truly glad I've managed to get the public interested in questions about basic research.
I do think actually in this case the government does get credit for funding some of the basic research.
I have always focused on basic research, motivated by a desire to understand the world.
A lot of the basic research that helped us figure out fracking came from the federal government.
In basic research, intellectual rigor and sentimental freedom necessarily alternate.
The U.S. can still maintain research institutions, such as Caltech, that are the envy of the world, yet it would be hubristic and naive to think that this position is sustainable without investing in science education and basic research.
A meticulous virtual copy of the human brain would enable basic research on brain cells and circuits or computer-based drug trials.
The United States should pursue a more robust agenda for U.S. competitiveness and innovation focused on a lower-carbon economy, including investments in education, basic research and development, infrastructure, retraining, retirement security, and universal health care.
Industry now should become a full partner of government in supporting longrange basic research.
If you don't invest in basic research at some stage you start losing the basis of applied research.
Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.
Whilst worthy in themselves, applications shouldn't be the only way to drive basic research.
Basic research is very useful, but it should be more geared toward application than it was before.
The work I was involved in had no obvious therapeutic benefit. It was purely of scientific interest. I hope the country will continue to support basic research even though it may have no obvious practical value.
It is particularly pleasing to see how purely basic research, originally aimed at testing the genetic identity of different cell types in the body, has turned out to have clear human health prospects.
This is an appropriate role for the federal government - to invest in basic research.
We benefited from an enlightened post-war period in the United States: Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research.
Science fiction has its own history, its own legacy of what's been done, what's been superseded, what's so much part of the furniture it's practically part of the fabric now, what's become no more than a joke... and so on. It's just plain foolish, as well as comically arrogant, to ignore all this, to fail to do the most basic research.