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 Science
is nothing more than the study and
explanation of how things work using length
mass and time. Its language is mathematics.
There are two branches of science
Basic And Applied they are different only in
their goals. Basic wants to know how everything
in nature works. Applied science uses this
knowledge to
build things.
Humans by Era,
Average Lifespan (in years) and how
it has changed with time with the use of basic scientific research.
- Neanderthal, 20
- Neolithic, 20
- Classical Greece, 28
- Classical Rome, 28
- Medieval England, 33
- End of 18th Century1700 , 37
- Early 20th Century1900, 50
- Circa 1940, 65
- Current (in the West)77 - 81
Life expectancy has dramatically
increased over the last few centuries of human
history. These changes are largely the result of the
fruits of basic research used by the applied
research and engineering communities in public
health, medicine, nutrition, and agriculture.
The greatest improvements have been made in the
richest parts of the world, where there is endorsement of
basic and
applied research. The same effects are now spreading to other
parts of the world as they adopt the fruits of basic and applied
research in economies and
infrastructure . Ref 1
Basic scientific research is vital to our
future.
It
is the science of discovery yet it and
its funding is the least understood, even among
the scientific community, because of this It is
the most fragile of disciplines and is poorly
funded compared to its value to the us and our
planets future.
Why is this true? Some of the reasons
are;
1; Most of us don't speak the
language of science and therefore can't
understand how it and
its funding work.
2;
It is like there is a hidden science, hidden in the
language of mathematics, and cute labels like
string, quantum, or relativity theory.
3; Like it or not for the most part the
media, our only source of information
about science and scientist, has found it useful
to make a mockery of science and scientist
not to be mean but to hold your attention while
their advertisers can sell you products.
3;
Some feel uncomfortable with funding it because
it doesn't seem to have a product goal or direction.
Its like searching knowledge only
for knowledge sake. True but of course that's
where the important and unexpected discoveries
have come from. Read NSF definitions
in right the column.
4; It's very hard doing basic research. It
takes years of education and experience plus
great concentration, It takes enormous patience.
teasing out the secrets of nature. It is very
difficult because most the things being studied
one can't see touch, hear, or smell with
human sensors.
5; The basic researcher reward is not
money. They give the knowledge away to all of us
and just maybe they might get a unit of
science or a star named after them.
Below basic researchers
at work, in heart if not body. The smile on
their faces is what a true basic researcher
feels like in side when one make a discovery,
and generally that's reward enough.
Join us call and ask for more funding for basic
scientific research.
It's in your ,Your children,Your
grandchildren's, etc. best interest.
Sadly some of us as we get older stop being basic research scientist and
stop learning. The world moves on and we become victims rather than
beneficiaries of progress. Is this fair to our children, our grandchildren
etc., ourselves.?
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What and why is basic scientific research, so important, so different,
so special yet so neglected?
Click
here to see why there is such a mistrust of Scientific research.
Basic research is designed to give us new discoveries;
applied research uses these discoveries to gives us tangibles.
Basic research and
applied research both use the same measuring instruments
and methods and work together as one, but they are treated very differently in their goals and funding.
Both are very important. But basic research gives us new
discoveries and is poorly funded.
The National Science Foundation's, NSF, official definition of basic and
applied research are given below. These are the labels in
soliciting funding for the two sciences, see ref. 2.
It very important to know
and understand the differences between them because of the funding
issues. The visible or public difference is: Applied Research is very
familiar to the public; Basic Research is
not.
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NSF definitions of Basic
Research and Applied Research with comments from the authors. |
Basic
research; Its objective is to gain fuller
knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomenon
and of observable facts
without specific applications toward processes or products in
mind, ref. 2.
Basic research goal is to find out how all things in nature work.
It puts together all the pieces of nature's puzzle to form a
complete picture of our lives, environment, world, solar system, and
universe.
Basic research discoveries are needed for applied
research.
This agenda helps us be partners with nature benefiting from its
many wonders and learning to live safely together with its tsunamis
and viruses.
It's one of the most reliable tools for building civilized
civilizations. It gives us the why and how of things. It is a
"search and find" activity in which we never know the nature of what
will be discovered until it is discovered. Basic research is the
corner stone to our future. It is building a knowledge base
that does not become obsolete. We have used the discoveries of the
past to get to here today. We need to expand our discoveries
today to move on to the future. |
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Applied
research; Its objective is to gain knowledge or
understanding necessary to determine the means by which a
recognized and specific need may be met, ref. 2.
Applied research has very specific
goals or agendas. Applied deals with processes or products. It
depends on discoveries from basic research for the future.
Applied researchers can not spend much time in the small details
of how things work. Their focus is on the details necessary to build and sell the products that we
need and use every day at prices we can afford.
For
the most part the results of their work are
owned by business for profit. We invest in these businesses to
increase our earning power and save for retirement. It's a
good working system.Business cannot afford to spend very much on basic research because it
does not get the immediate return in profits needed to survive.
At times basic research can give bad news to business, but help
the customers. The tobacco
companies were not happy when basic research showed that smoking
was shorting the life of their customers. |
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Below are a few examples and comparisons of where basic research
has played a major role in our everyday lives. We hope they will
provide a clearer understanding for the value of basic
research. They also can be used as examples when we call our
congressmen. |
First: There is more than a little
basic research scientist in all of us and it
starts at birth.
-
An
example of
basic research scientists at work which we all can identify with:
Children,
even as they pop out of the womb crying out for
attention and information, they are little basic research scientists gathering data about how their
world works. All of their senses - sight, hearing, smelling, feeling,
tasting - are gathering data and processing it. They use this data putting together a model of their world, just as a basic
research scientist does, so that they can survive in it. As a child
grows it gets new data some of it contradicting earlier experience. It
revises its model making a more sophisticated one, just as the scientist
does. Unfortunately there may come a time when some will stop
being the scientist, and stop gathering new data, stop updating their model of the world. This can be bad- not keeping up.
One can
become a victim by making bad
decisions from out of date data and beliefs rather than a
beneficiary of progress from basic research.
- Basic research is the seed for all discoveries great and small.
We are trustees of the knowledge. We need to continually up date it. It
needs more funding. It
shines a light that shows the way to a
better more secure life and civilization.
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How to measure the progress of Basic Scientific Research!
Above all else the most precious possession to Homo sapiens is life
The struggle for a longer and better quality life is built into our genes.
The methods and tools of basic research; have steadily
and successively addressed this mission.
The data in the table on the left shows that
life expectancy has dramatically
increased over the last few centuries of human history. The greatest
improvements having been made in the richest parts of the world where there
has been the greatest endorsement of methods and tools of basic research and
where the results of the data were used by the applied research and
engineering communities in public health, medicine, nutrition, and
agriculture. Areas in the world where the citizens have not embraced
this life saving technology the life span is sadly very low, with some
area's of the world only 44 years.Over and above the increase in life
expectancy everything we do or use draws from methods, tools, and work of
the basic research community. The atom and all of its
collected parts - electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. were all being studied for
their own sake not because scientist wanted to make money from them
but just to understand how atoms work. Without our understanding about
electrons and electricity we would be living in a world of 1700 technology. The only
electricity would be that generated by petting our cat. We would not have
nuclear medicines. Modern chemical products.
Some of the biggest changes in our lives will come
from our understanding of DNA. The discoverers of DNA's structural
arrangement were basic research scientists with non profit goals- just
investigating how nature works
.
We have just barely scratched the surface of this knowledge which is crucial
to our future. We may be growing new parts for our hearts rather than taking
tons of pills to keep them working. More basic scientific
research is paramount to getting knowledge to continue our journey to a more
civilized civilization for all of us.
Alarmingly we take all this for granted - the remarkable technical
development of our modern world that was the result of basic
scientific inquiry. We don't fully appreciate that never in the history of
man have so many gained so much with so little time and money spent on
basic research. Without this basic research most of us would
simply not be here. We would have no tools, no clothing, no housing. We
would be less than hunter gatherers somewhere in the plains of central
Africa.
How
You can Help and become an important part of the
scientific team.
Basic scientific research pivotally need your help. Together we must champion through our
government officials more funding for basic research especially at
the university level. We need to educate and encourage our leaders to
support this most important work.
One of the best ways of achieving this is to concentrate on our federal
and state representatives . They look to re-election every 2 years
and, depending on where you live, have only 500,000 to a 1,000,000 citizens that they represent of which
only a fraction vote. Therefore they are proportionally very interested
in your view of government involvement in issues like basic research.
A few calls to them has greater leverage them most recognized so call
today. you will find the telephone, address, e-mail address below at a
single click. Wait for the response it a little slow.
So call, write, or visit your representatives now and ask for an increase in
funding for basic
research and tell them that its need is critical. They'll understand that its important to you. They
need your support at election time. Besides the president has put into his
state of the union address we need more basic research.
Click here to get the telephone number, address, or email
of your representative and senators.
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Call, visit, write or e-mail.
Familiarize yourself with some of the information above and ask for an
increase in funding for BASIC
Scientific Research He or She will understand. |
Good Luck! Please Call Your
Representatives and simply ask for more funding for Basic
Scientific Research. They will understand but they need your support to
make it happen.
About The Authors
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