First off, he admits that spending lots of money on
scientific research and development has historically been a great idea. If you compare how most people in the
U. S. lived in 1900 with the way things are done in 2000, most of the good
differences—modern medicine, jet aircraft, cars, air conditioning, the
Internet, wireless devices, computers, down to electric toothbrushes—are due to
technological innovations that grew out of research directed at certain
goals. And Sarewitz has no problem
with that. The federal government
was not a big player in research prior to World War II, but the lessons we
learned then about how heavy investments in military technologies such as radar
and nuclear weapons could pay off led to the creation of the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
The NSF was the brainchild of MIT engineer Vannevar Bush,
who directed most government-funded research during the war. Sarewitz says that in order to get his
idea enacted, Bush told "a beautiful lie," and summarizes the lie
this way: "Scientific
progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects,
working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their
curiosity for exploration of the unknown." Sarewitz spends the rest of his article showing just what
was wrong about this "lie," and how it has led to inefficient and
often simply incorrect research that taxpayers (and corporations too, for that
matter) are paying billions for today.
In support of his thesis, he cites studies showing the
increasing rate of retractions from peer-reviewed research journal in recent
years. Another source indicates
that between 75 and 90 percent of all basic and preclinical biomedical studies
are not reproducible.
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