As this is a forum for learning and discovery, I wanted to
stay away from any form of writing that might come across as a rant. But perhaps you will permit me, this
one time, to go off on a slight tangent.
Some of this article has appeared in Queen’s Health Science Journal,
volume 13, 2013.
I was inspired but a recent editorial by Bob MacDonald, a
well-known, well-liked Canadian science journalist who works for the Canadian
Broadcast Corporation. In his
editorial (check it out here), he argues for increased funding for the basic
sciences. The trend across many
countries involves funneling research dollars away from basic research to those
projects most likely to have direct impact on its citizens and/or on economic
growth. Quite frankly, this trend
is short-sited. As MacDonald
writes, “To focus only on applied sciences is to limit future possibilities”1.
