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Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot  What's becoming increasingly clear to me is that Modern Science is basically driven by Money. If you say you want to research ABC, and you demonstrate that there could be a commercially valuable application for your research (eg you are going to invent a new handphone technology), oh you'll get your funding, alright.
If you say you want to research something where the commercial application is less obvious - eg why meditation increases brain size or the breeding habits of the red-spotted Brazilian tree frog - you're going to have a much more difficult time getting your funding. |
I support what Godot says concerning research, it's all about the reserach grants.
However, there are some universities and government agencies that sponsor non-commercial research, with the idea that it might someday serve some commercial purpose, or might one day advance the human species in some way.
But that funding is absolutely dwarfed by the vast amount of money available for commercial and militariy research. When I worked in a research facility in the US the first what everyone tried was to get funding through DARPA, that's basically the MoD spending obscene amounts of money on research that might someday however slightly give them an military advantage. And of course the big tech companies throw some money around.
Since I have done research, I have become rather sceptical about it. I'm not saying it's wrong or anything, or that they purposly lie for more money, however I take care not to take it too serious. Research in general is just extremely difficult, it's difficult to fully prove things, especially in complex systems, like the human body, or nanotechnology that's starting to border on quatum mechenics. But I'm digressing again.