Jessica Hume, reporting for the Toronto Sun:
The government of Canada believes there is a place for curiosity-driven, fundamental scientific research, but the National Research Council is not that place.
“Scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value,” John McDougall, president of the NRC, said in announcing the shift in the NRC’s research focus away from discovery science solely to research the government deems “commercially viable”.
In my view, this mindset is absurd because the link between fundamental research and commercial viability is not always clear. For instance, as Dr. James Correia points out, it was black hole research that helped lead to Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, this short-sighted, politically-driven mentality is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States:
[Rep. Lamar Smith] said in a statement to The Huffington Post that the NSF projects for which he has requested more information do not meet the foundation’s standards.
“The NSF has great potential to promote American innovation and expand our economy,” Smith said.
The politicalization of science is a dangerous road to travel down.
(via: Kevin Manross)