A Call for Pure Research
On September 10, the world will be witnessing the rise of the most powerful particle accelerator ever with the activation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider. This will be carried out in Europe with, largely, America acting in the role of an observer.
Meanwhile, one has to wonder whether America will ever really take the steps necessary to devote ourselves to the study of pure science again. Bell Labs earned 6 Nobel Prizes, including the invention of the transistor and the laser, arguably two of the most fundamental technological developments of the 20th century, which allowed for the creation of computers and communication devices on a scale that made them able to transform our day-to-day lives!
This research was not carried out because of market trends, but because of a dedication to learning more about the world. It was "pure research" but also was carried out with an understanding that gaining knowledge, and leveraging it in effective ways, yields positive economic results.
Now, though, the scope of pure research is diminishing throughout America. Bell Labs is certainly not alone in its myopic desire to focus on only a handful of applied technologies, growing ever more specialized. Science departments at universities grow similarly focused on the one or two areas where they have, historically, excelled the most.
In 1904, the fields of inquiry which had the greatest impact throughout the twentieth century - quantum physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, relativity, particle physics, lasers, transistor electronics, and so on - were literally non-existent. It was the most pure of pure research, thought experiments on purely abstract topics such as how to explain Brownian motion and the motion of charged particles, which brought about the television, nuclear energy (and bombs), cell phones and communication transformations, lasers, personal computing, and the like.
The transformation of tomorrow lies with knowledge that is just without our reach today. In order to access it, pure research must be allowed the chance to raise its arms up high, resting on the shoulders of government and industry. Without having the chance to perform this research, it is sad to think what will happen to our country and our world ... or, even worse, what will not be allowed to happen.
Related Articles:
- The Great Beyond Blog @ Nature - Bell Labs: it tolls for thee
- EE Times - Bell Labs exits chip research
- Wired - Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research
- Nature - Bell Labs bottoms out (Nature subscription or payment required to access article)
Comments
Well, the American situation is sad as this is the future. One big problem with basic research is the lack of a precise goal: you have to follow the data as it comes in. So, we are not looking for other life, not really even the first second of the universe, but rather a specific set of response to stimuli including applications in physics. Othee counties continue the research like the U.K through G.E. Italy through the revised graviton project and of course France with ITER, megajoule and a myiad of related projects from Limousin to Metz not to mention the Russian particle beam projects. What positive information can I add? We eventually got the energy transfer and are about to control the unified energy field. The last stages, however, took odd turns and we were obliged to recognize our success or at least the path to it in ways we had not anticipated. That seems to be the problem authorities and governments now have no patience with these detours imposed by basic research. This is not one stroke science. As Einstein said “If I knew what I was doing, they would not call it research”. Fortunately for us, we ended up with what we wanted but some of the detours created possible sciences–quite a few, which we did not want to develop and some governments opposed.