Government funds science primarily to help the national economy and expects the funding to pay a dividend in the short term. Government support therefore concentrates largely on applied scientific research, that is research designed to solve practical problems and produce economic goods.
Basic research, aimed at increasing human knowledge of how the world works, tends to get the Cinderella treatment because it cannot promise a practical spin-off in the short-term. However, the simple truth is that basic research is the foundation on which all of science rests. Take away the foundation and the edifice collapses. Basic research must be funded as strongly as applied research.
Basic scientific research is a natural human instinct. People delight in understanding how the world works. Science, like art, music, literature and architecture, is a hallmark of human culture and no country could call itself civilised that did not support research in proportion to its means.
It struck me as I was writing the last paragraph that this point might seem esoteric or a case of special pleading. We have become so used in the universities to justifying ourselves using the language of the market economy that when I state this most powerful point I begin to feel self-conscious and "airy-fairy". The pursuit of truth and basic knowledge is a defining characteristic of a university and we must constantly proclaim this even while chasing big grants for applied research.
But even if we forget about the cultural argument, support for basic research can be fully justified on its utilitarian value alone. Obviously there could be no appliance of science for practical purposes if there were no science there to apply. If basic research stopped, no new knowledge would be produced and we would quickly use up all the practical applications of existing knowledge. At this point all future practical advances would have to depend on the excruciatingly slow process of trial and error. It is sometimes naively proposed in hard times that a country of limited resources, such as Ireland, could save money by not funding basic research and only supporting applied research. It is proposed that Irish scientists could keep up with advances in fundamental knowledge by reading the papers written by scientists in other countries.
However, this would quickly produce an Irish scientist population with no feel for what new fundamental knowledge was mature enough to be reliably applied to solve practical problems. Not to mention that such a policy would make Irish science a laughing stock on the international scene.
Most of the technology on which the modern world runs was developed by applying the results of basic scientific research carried out with no foreknowledge that the results would have practical applications. Consider electricity, for example, the most useful form of energy that powers almost every device and without which the modern world is inconceivable.
ELECTRICITY was recognised as a basic natural phenomenon by the Greek philosopher Thales about 600 BC. From about 1700 onwards the nature of electricity was studied by scientists with increasing intensity and notable advances were made by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Charles de Coulomb (1736-1806), Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836) and Allesandro Volta (1745-1827).
But Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the great English physicist and chemist, was the man who came up with a complete theory of electricity and magnetism. Faraday was director of the Royal Institution where he carried out basic research and also did consultancy work for industry. In 1830 his income from consultancy was £1,000. He decided to devote his entire time to basic research, which reduced his income by two-thirds. By the end of 1831 he had discovered the nature of the link between electricity and magnetism.
Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) had found that a magnetic compass needle is always deflected when placed near a wire carrying electric current - the electric current produces a magnetic force that moves the compass needle. Faraday investigated this further and also showed that a magnet moving past a wire creates an electric current in the wire. These two discoveries formed the basis of the electric motor and the electricity generator. In the electric motor, electric current passing through coils of wire causes a set of magnets attached to the motor drive shaft to rotate. In an electricity generator, magnets are rotated in a coil of wire, causing current to flow in the wire.
Faraday studied every aspect of electromagnetic phenomena for 25 years after 1831 until, in one of the greatest scientific achievements, he had formulated a complete descriptive theory of electromagnetism. Shortly after Faraday discovered how to generate electricity (the dynamo effect), the then Prime Minister, Robert Peel, visited the Royal Institution. After watching a demonstration he asked what practical use the discovery was, and Faraday replied: "I know not Sir, but I wager that one day your Government will tax it".
Within 50 years, electric trains were running in Europe and America.
William Reville is associate professor of biochemistry and director of microscopy at UCC