Basic research may or may not lead to new technologies. Our safest bet in this gamble is to give our brightest minds the funding and freedom to dream big.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Flexner, A. The usefulness of useless knowledge. Harpers 544–552 (1939).
Planck, M. Das Wesen des Lichts. Naturwissenschaften 7, 903–909 (in German) (1919).
Thomas, J. M. Intellectual freedom in academic scientific research under threat. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 5654–5655 (2013).
Press, W. H. What's so special about science (and how much should we spend on it?). Science 342, 817–822 (2013).
Quack, M. in Incentives and Performance: Governance of Research Organizations (eds Welpe, I. M., Wollersheim, S., Ringelhan, S. & Osterloh, M. ) 223–238 (Springer, 2015).
Bush, V. Science — the Endless Frontier. A Report to the President on a Program for Postwar Scientific Research (National Science Foundation, 1945).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schwarz, H. On the usefulness of useless knowledge. Nat Rev Chem 1, 0001 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-016-0001
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-016-0001
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
The purposes of research support: the Australian example
Biophysical Reviews (2023)
-
Molecular motor-functionalized porphyrin macrocycles
Nature Communications (2020)
-
The Ziegler catalysts
Resonance (2017)