Posted on 12/16/2005 1:08:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
WASHINGTON — U.S. high-tech industry executives met earlier this week with Vice President Dick Cheney to lobby for more U.S. support for basic science research, sources said Friday (Dec. 16).
The meeting came as two U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation this week designed to boost U.S. innovation. The National Innovation Act of 2005 introduced Wednesday by Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) seeks to increase investment in basic research, improve science and technology talent and develop a robust innovation infrastructure.
The proposal would also create a President's Council on Innovation to "develop a comprehensive agenda to promote innovation in the public and private sectors," according to Lieberman's office.
Details of the meeting between Cheney and executives from the U.S. semiconductor and other high-tech industries were not known. However, industry sources said the meeting with Cheney illustrates how the threat to U.S. competitiveness will be a key issue in next year's budget battles.
So according to you then, no basic research was ever done before the federal government subsidized it?
So then your point then is that no basic research before the federal government subsidized it? How did we ever get to where we were before the federal government started subsidizing it?
OK, I stand corrected on Intel. The rest of your post is quite interesting, and I agree that patent infringement should be criminal. As it stands now, and individual researcher can have his ideas stolen by anyone with more resources than him, as he can't afford the cost of protecting his/her patent.
Somehow I am not surprised that you have a financial interest in this debate.
In early times it was subsidized by royalty, e.g., "patrons." Galileo, Descartes, Copernicus, etc. were subsidized by various members of royal families. For others who were rich, there was their own wealth, but they were rare. Other early basic research scientists were allowed to do research while subisidized by the hospitals to which they were appointed, e.g., John Hunter, William Harvey. Today, some companies do basic research, e.g., IBM at their Mohansic Laboratory. But, by and large, basic research in phsyics, for example, requires hugely expensive equipment and facilities all of which are subsidized via University and Govt. joint funding.
Not any more...I'm retired, but teach part-time and have a part-time clinical practice.
How many people realize that Niels Bohr literaly was living off beer money when he was busy establishing the foundations of quantum mechanics?
Bohr's Beer?
Carlsberg, to be precise. The brewery helped pay for Bohr's studies, and in funding the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen.
Didn't know that...I used to drink a Carlsberg now and then, but I still can't handle theoretical physics.
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