Saving Science
Quote: &quot;First, scientific knowledge advances most rapidly, and is of most value to society, not when its course is determined by the “free play of free intellects” but when it is steered to solve problems.&quot;<p>But the history of science boldly and flatly contradicts this claim. The most productive and society-reshaping products of science arise in pure, not applied, research.<p>Quote: &quot;Second, when science is not steered to solve such problems, it tends to go off half-cocked in ways that can be highly detrimental to science itself.&quot;<p>Also contradicted by history. As just one example, the success of Bell Labs over the decades resulted, not from a focus on solving particular problems, but a focus on research for the sake of research -- pure science.<p>The author of the article raises an alarm about a supposed scientific crisis, and eventually reveals what he thinks is the source of the problem -- a waste of scientific talent spent on pure research. He needs to read the history of science with an open mind.<p>Quote: &quot;It was military purchases that kept the new transistor, semiconductor, and integrated-circuit industries afloat in the early and mid-1950s.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s true, but it&#x27;s misleading because the development of the transistor at Bell Labs wasn&#x27;t an applied science project, it resulted from pure research in materials science and physics.<p>The author isn&#x27;t reporting on the state of science, he&#x27;s complaining that it&#x27;s not what he thinks it should be, in a way that stands at odds with science&#x27;s history.