In this week’s NATURE
Daniel Sarewitz, a well-known science policy guru, states that the rightful
place of science is in service to society. While it is hard to argue against
the idea that one of the main goals of research should be to benefit health
care, the economy, or other aspects of societal well being, there is an
unsettling underlying theme to Sarewitz’s commentary. In this article he outlines several attempts
by the federal government to more effectively harness basic research to
national goals. This includes the NIH’s National Center for Advancing
Translational Sciences, the DOE’s-Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and
a new National Additive Manufacturing Institute. Sarewitz contrasts these goal-oriented
efforts to what he feels has been the bloated and wasteful state of basic
research, especially basic biomedical research, in this country. This theme of devaluing
undirected basic research has been prominent in Sarewitz’s previous writings
over the last few years.
While the NATURE
commentary makes many valid points, it is fundamentally flawed because it
ignores one of the key aspects of science, the unpredictable ‘Black Swan’
nature of basic research. Certainly there is merit in coupling many aspects of
science to societal goals and priorities. Much research is rather mundane and
consists of filling in gaps in the knowledge base. Nonetheless now and then
truly unique and unexpected insights emerge that change the entire scientific
paradigm. One might point to the
discovery of RNA interference by biologists or of exoplanets by astronomers as
contemporary examples. If much of the nation’s basic research effort is put in
harness to short to medium term technological goals, will such fundamental
breakthroughs continue to emerge? While much of our investment in R&D
should be directed toward pragmatic goals, it will still be essential to
maintain a substantial core of unfettered, undirected basic research.
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