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User: Blah+Bernard

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  1. Not Yet, But Loss of Basic Science Funding Is Key on US Losing its Scientific Dominance · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but I'm posting an old blog of mine. The significance of the U.S.'s loss in science leadership is the eventual loss in it's economic leadership:

    http://www.bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2003_11_30_b er nardmoon_archive.html#107035264302580921

    Nelson and others within the same camp believe technical advance or growth in technology account for 50%-70%+ of long-term economic growth. Seeing how the U.S. has become the world's foremost economic power, it's difficult to deny some of the truth and theories developed from Nelson and others. Whole new industries were created by developments that sprouted from U.S. R&D labs throughout the 20th century. From Xerox's fabled Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to AT&T's Bell Labs to DARPA, inventions such as laser printing (1971), Ethernet, the graphical user interface, the Internet (1969), and cellular communications (1947) were given birth to in these halls. .....
    One danger that is recently occuring is the decrease in funding for basic research. Basic research allows scientistics to research for the sake of researching. To seek out their curiosities and find the truths of the universe. This is more of a non-linear approach that allows for a wide-range of possibilities, and many inventions that have changed our lives have come from basic research (e.g. x-rays, superconductivity, laser... what would you do without CDs or DVDs?). Over the past decade, corporations under pressure to perform have cut back or closed down their basic research efforts and only focused on applied research that seeks out a specific solution or product that can eventually generate revenue for the company. Even universities have scaled back on their basic research efforts since the licensing of their patents and inventions have become huge sources of funding since the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, and have become more focused on applied research.