Gurpreet Singh
Physics
Mr. Peterie
January 27, 2012
Should government Fund Fundamental Research
Fundamental is the study of the laws of nature that govern the behavior of the universe, from the very smallest scales of sub-atomic particles. But some people might think it costs billions of dollars but we don't see the help full side of it. Science is a fundamental ingredient of many studies in many fields, from agriculture to engineering, are affected by the science, directly or not. A government should act in the interest of its people and can be held accountable for its decisions and actions and does not necessarily expect a profitable return on its funding. Government should fund fundamental science because it helps to cure cancer or other things. Government should fund fundamental science because acquisition of new knowledge, social benefits to society and economic gains.
Government should fund fundamental science because acquisition of new knowledge. Some Officials from Texas believe that "state should not support scientific research that does not provide immediate benefits, and that university research is harmful to teaching." New knowledge is the primary product of fundamental research. This information once stored exclusively in printed format is increasingly available in searchable and down-loadable form. Although there are debate about the costs and benefits of electronic publishing. But it will probably dominate the way scientific information is handled in future.
Government should fund fundamental science because it can give us social benefits. The social benefits of educating high quality scientists, technologists and engineers are an immediately recognizable of fundamental research. People are turn in other careers like commerce, law and medicine where, from the point of view of science, they remain lost. Fundamental research is a crucial part of a research training, which in turn has important implications for the social cohesion of a nation.
Government should fund fundamental science because of economic gains. The economic returns from fundamental research can be considerable far in excess of the initial costs of the research. But because of the difficulty in separating funding levels for fundamental research and applied (goal-oriented) research, it is difficult and even impossible to statistically evaluate the economic returns from fundamental research alone. "The US Department of Defense recently concluded that basic research was the principal contributor to product development and that the delay between the basic discovery and its application was significantly less for basic than for applied research."
In conclusion government should fund fundamental science research because it can give us new knowledge, social benefits to society and economic gains. It also can help people that are in need or improve earth.
