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Why Do Basic Research? and Why Double It?

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Why Do Basic Research? and Why Double It? www.mrs.org/publications/bulletin Letter from the President Why Do Basic Research? And Why Double It? More so than in any previous year, this a new scientific possibility. Many other year’s Nobel prizes in both chemistry and answers are also possible. For many physics stand as triumphal moments for young scientists, it might be the notion of materials research. The physics prize to a research apprenticeship as the start of a Herbert Kroemer, Zhores I. Alferov, and multidimensional career encompassing Jack S. Kilby for semiconductor hetero- science, technology, and business. For the structures and integrated circuits recog- growing cadre of young scientists from nized the profound link between seminal developing nations, the meritocratic research ideas and enormous societal nature of basic research is attractive, being impact. The chemistry prize to Alan J. relatively unimpeded by language-based Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, and Hideki and cultural barriers that they might face Shirakawa recognized ideas critical to the in other professions. understanding of electrical conductivity Why do corporations do basic materials in polymers, which hold promise for research? Increasingly, the honest answer organic light-emitting diodes and plastic is that, in large measure, they don’t. The transistors. Against tradition, the Nobel financial pressures on publicly held cor- committees cited achievements that are porations act to deter corporate leaders indisputably technological, in contrast to from making long-term research invest- the usual tendency to favor discoveries “It is a different sort of ments. In the information era, it is simply probing extremes of nature that are inac- genius that audaciously posits more profitable for companies to exploit cessible to the knowledge and imagina- the subtle interactions among the results of research done elsewhere tion of most people. Because this year’s under other support to create the building chemistry and physics prizes celebrate the a complicated ensemble blocks for new technologies. A modicum Materials Research Society’s values of of atoms.” of basic research serves some companies interdisciplinary, goal-oriented materials well in the form of public relations via research, they have for all of us a special patronage of basic research as a kind of tangibility and proximity. And so, now it highly technological branch of the fine is indeed possible to find a few past (and arts. The excitement generated by such probably some future!) Nobelists in the properties of the physical world around basic research may also aid in recruiting MRS directory.* As never before, a young us. To reach an understanding of materi- talented employees. Though they are will- MRS member somewhere can say with als, it is necessary but ludicrously insuffi- ing recipients of its insights, by and large, conviction, “Gee, I could win a Nobel cient to know the masses of the nucleons corporations cannot be significant sources prize….” or the force laws governing two-body of basic research in the current economy. Was this work basic research? interactions. We materials researchers So it is left to governments to provide Science writer John Horgan in his 1996 also have to postulate notions of complex- substantial support for basic research. book The End of Science asserts that all the ity, such as the idea that many atoms Data from the American Association for truly important and knowable basic scien- might be involved. Or that subtle changes the Advancement of Science† indicate that tific ideas and phenomena have already in atomic positions, coupled with the in the United States, research and devel- been discovered and understood. From presence of astutely chosen impurities, opment as a fraction of gross national Horgan’s perspective, all that lies before might enable the high conductivity in product have remained constant at us are the unknowable or untestable ideas Heeger et al.’s polymers. Or that substi- approximately 2.7% over the last 40 years. of “ironic science,” such as the existence tuting some Al atoms for some Ga atoms The U.S. government’s share has dropped of superstrings or the end state of the uni- would allow electrostatic potential wells from 1.9% to 0.8% over the same period, verse. Beyond that, all that remains for to be created that allowed the electron- with an increase in industrial research him is the dull and dreary task of sorting and hole-confinement required for real- and development from 0.8% to 1.9%. and matching known basic principles to ization of a quantum-well laser, as in However, since industry’s support is dis- churn out mundane applications. Kroemer and Alferov’s heterostructures. proportionately for development rather Such a viewpoint, it seems to me, belies So this type of research can be viewed as than basic research, these numbers repre- the magical premise of materials. For basic, but a different sort of basic, from sent an overall decline in basic research in what is science, if not the attempt to make determination of the charge on the elec- the United States from 1960 to 2000. In the sense of the world around us in its com- tron or finding the full complement of last 10 years, support for research by the plexity as well as its simplicity? And quarks. A different sort of genius it is that Departments of Energy and Defense materials are complex ensembles of atoms audaciously posits the subtle interactions (which are large patrons of materials re- that in concert—almost in conversation— among a complicated ensemble of atoms. search) declined by 20% and 10%, respec- define the macroscopically observable It is basic materials research. tively, in constant dollars. Meanwhile, sup- So why do basic materials research? For *Heeger and MacDiarmid are currently mem- this year’s Nobelists, it was likely curiosi- †Access www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/guihist. bers of MRS. ty followed by the sheer joy of elucidating htm. MRS BULLETIN/DECEMBER 2000 3 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.219, on 27 Sep 2021 at 16:34:47, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2000.232 Letter from the President port for research by the National Institutes research, with balance between physical known informally as the “doubling for Health (NIH) has risen by 80% in the and biological sciences. Why do they group,” who have worked both hard and same period. This has prompted even agree on this issue? Because they see the selflessly on this issue out of a sense of its prominent biologists such as Harold potential for balanced basic research importance to the United States and the Varmus, former director of NIH, to call for investments by the federal government to world. Their efforts may not be wholly parity in funding between physical sciences promote a future of economic growth, successful in this cycle of the federal bud- and engineering and biological sciences. better health, improved education, and get, and if not, they will persevere. To Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), former increased military and energy security. them, on behalf of the young materials Speaker of the U.S. House of Representa- Unknown to most scientists, the success researcher who now thinks she or he can tives (1995–1999) Newt Gingrich, and the at raising the visibility of basic research win a Nobel prize, I say “thank you.” I president of the NASDAQ stock exchange funding in Congress is due to the efforts hope you will join me. are unlikely allies in support of legislation of a small group of Washington-based HARRY ATWATER that would double spending on basic volunteers, legislators, and lobbyists 2000 MRS President 4 www.mrs.org/publications/bulletin MRS BULLETIN/DECEMBER 2000 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.219, on 27 Sep 2021 at 16:34:47, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2000.232.
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