federal funding has been behind a lot of basic research. this is applied research where private money is very productive. do you know where harvard medical school gets their funding?
btw this is probably the most spectacular news this year.
As evidenced by the many replies. ;-)
I am sure it takes a lot of effort to get adequate research funding there or anywhere else. That they had support from so many different sources means that they never tired of telling what they thought to be a good story to the funding agencies, and evidently the funding agencies liked what they heard.