By
Jim Cooper and and Alan I. Leshner
Jim Cooper, a Democrat, represents Tennessee’s Fifth
Congressional
District in the U.S. House. Alan I. Leshner is chief executive of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive
publisher of the journal Science.
Some policymakers, including
certain senators and members of Congress, cannot resist ridiculing any
research project with an unusual title. Their press releases are perhaps
already waiting in the drawer, with blanks for the name of the latest
scientist being attacked. The hottest topics for ridicule involve sex,
exotic animals and bugs.
The champion of mocking science was the late William Proxmire,
whose Golden Fleece Awards enlivened dull Senate floor proceedings from
1975 until 1988. His monthly awards became a staple of news coverage. He
generated good laughs back home by talking about a “wacko” in a lab
coat experimenting with something seemingly stupid. Proxmire did not
invent the mad-scientist stereotype, but he did much to popularize it.
The United States may now risk falling behind in scientific
discoveries as other countries increase their science funding. We need
to get serious about science. In fact, maybe it’s time for researchers
to fight back, to return a comeback for every punch line.
Toward that end, we are announcing this week the winners of the first
Golden Goose Awards,
which recognize the often-surprising benefits of science to society.
Charles H. Townes, for example, is hailed as a primary architect of
laser technology. Early in his career, though, he was reportedly warned
not to waste resources on an obscure technique for amplifying radiation
waves into an intense, continuous stream. In 1964, he shared the Nobel
Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov.
Similarly,
research on jellyfish nervous systems by Osamu Shimomura, Martin
Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien unexpectedly led to advances in cancer
diagnosis and treatment, increased understanding of brain diseases such
as Alzheimer’s, and improved detection of poisons in drinking water. In
2008, the trio received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this initially
silly-seeming research. Four other Golden Goose Award winners — the late
Jon Weber as well as Eugene White, Rodney White and Della Roy —
developed special ceramics based on coral’s microstructure that is now
used in bone grafts and prosthetic eyes.
Across society, we don’t
have to look far for examples of basic research that paid off. Larry
Page and Sergey Brin, then a National Science Foundation fellow, did not
intend to invent the Google search engine. Originally, they were
intrigued by a mathematical challenge, so they developed an algorithm to
rank Web pages. Today, Google is one of the world’s most highly valued
brands, employing more than
30,000 people.
It is human nature to chuckle at a study titled “
Acoustic Trauma in the Guinea Pig,”
yet this research led to a treatment for hearing loss in infants.
Similar examples abound. Transformative technologies such as the
Internet, fiber optics, the Global Positioning System, magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI), computer touch-screens and lithium-ion
batteries were all products of federally funded research.
Yes, “
the sex life of the screwworm”
sounds funny. But a $250,000 study of this pest, which is lethal to
livestock, has, over time, saved the U.S. cattle industry more than $20
billion. Remember: The United States itself is the product of
serendipity: Columbus’s voyage was government-funded. Remember, too,
that basic science, the seed corn of innovation, is primarily supported
by the federal government — not industry, which is typically more
interested in applied research and development.
While some
policymakers continue to mock these kinds of efforts, researchers have
remained focused on improving our quality of life. Scientific know-how,
the engine of American prosperity, is especially critical amid intense
budgetary pressures. Federal investments in R&D have fueled half of
the nation’s economic growth since World War II. This is why a
bipartisan team of U.S. lawmakers joined a coalition of science,
business and education leaders to
launch the Golden Goose Awards.
Federal
support for basic science is at risk: We are already investing a
smaller share of our economy in science as compared with seven other
countries, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Since 1999, the
United States has increased R&D funding, as a percentage of the
economy, by 10 percent. Over the same period, the share of R&D in
the economies of Finland, Germany and Israel have grown about twice as
fast. In Taiwan, it has grown five times as fast; in South Korea, six
times as fast; in China; 10 times. In the United States, meanwhile,
additional budget
cuts have been proposed
to R&D spending for non-defense areas. If budget-control
negotiations fail, drastic across-the-board cuts will take effect in
January that could decimate entire scientific fields.
Columbus
thought he knew where he was going, but he didn’t know what he had found
until many years later. He was searching for the Orient, but he
discovered something even better: the New World.
Let’s honor our modern-day explorers. We need more of them. They deserve the last laugh.
Did
you watch a whodunit movie with someone who later proclaimed that he knew
the killer all along? Don't be annoyed with such people for they probably
couldn't help it. They may be suffering from "hindsight bias":
ANCIENT GLASS
