EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE
Author:
Date: Saturday, October 16, 1993
Page: 10
Section: EDITORIAL PAGE
Charming as the story of using chicken wire to help win a Nobel Prize may
be, the triumph of two former University of Massachusetts professors is a
reminder of the importance of adequate funding in basic sciences at both state
and federal levels.
The detection of binary pulsars by Joseph H. Taylor and Russell E. Hulse
was a landmark achievement, providing important affirmation of aspects of
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The work of these two
astrophysicists, and others like them, depends heavily on continuing support
for basic scientific research.
Their presence at UMass-Amherst in the 1970s was in part the consequence
of a major state effort to bolster the school's academic excellence. Its
aggregation of outstanding scientists made the university a significant center
of research. While it is impressive that UMass has been able to sustain
elements of that excellence despite lapses in the level of support during
stretches of fiscal constraint, it is clear that any such program requires
continuous, long-term support.
At the federal level, funding for basic research is essential to overall
excellence in the scientific community. Applied research that ultimately
yields products and services for the general public will always be enhanced by
basic research, even as abstract as that done by Taylor and Hulse.
The debate over research funding in recent years has been clouded by
conflict between "big" science programs like the superconducting supercollider
and small-scale research programs in individual laboratories. This pitting of
one branch of science against the other is misused effort. Each contributes to
the success of the other. Both represent sound investments in efforts that
will contribute to human understanding of the universe and to the general
improvement of life.
The return on those investments may not be immediate, and any given
project may fail to yield results. That in no way diminishes the need to keep
science in the forefront of the nation's -- and the state's -- priorities.
DAVIDS;10/15 NKELLY;10/17,16:05 ESCIENC16
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