closer to truth how does basic science

Closer to Truth > How Does Basic Science Defend America?

I love this show. Luckily Howard University Television (WHUT, Channel

32 in DC) actually carries this. The show is a panel discussion with

experts from different fields with different points of view.

While supporting basic science research is indeed essential for

protecting national security, can that be our sole primary

motivation for pursuing knowledge of the natural world? When asked

by Congress whether Fermilab, the expensive atomic accelerator,

would contribute to the national defense, its founding director

replied that the contribution would be "... not to the defense of

the nation, but rather to what made the nation worth defending."

This session is very timely -- for NASA and EPA, too. In government,

it seems that they're really pulling away from having scientists on

the payroll (not as contractors) who do basic research that may not

have an immediate practical use.

Sean Carroll, a Physicist at the University of Chicago, recently