9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything - 3 Quarks Daily

9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything - 3 Quarks Daily

Alan Burdick et al in The New York Times: Science seldom works in straight lines. Sometimes it’s “applied” to solve specific problems: Let’s put people on the moon; we need a Covid vaccine. Much of the time it’s “basic,” aimed at understanding, say, cell division or the physics of cloud formation, with the hope that — somehow, someday — the knowledge will prove useful. Basic science is applied science that hasn’t been applied yet. That’s the pre…