By X,
Research, as Wikiversity argues, is the “human activity which is based on intellectual application in the investigation of matter”.
Picture 1: The research room at the New York Public Library, an example of secondary research in progress.
Contents:
2. The main problem associated with Basic Research 5. Quotes 7. See relevant Wikis in Wikipedia 8. References
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| "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." Zora Neale Hurston |
There are different types of research, which are further distinguished from each other according to various criteria. Usually, research separates into two main categories depending on whether the information of the research has a practical application or not, and on whether the research is a product of a university or a company. The two main categories are: the Basic Research and the Applied Research. The aim of this Wiki is to present the main differences between these two types of research raising the benefits of basic research.
In the vast majority of cases the Basic Research is mainly realised by universities. However the main characteristic of the outcomes of Basic Research is that usually, these results do not have any direct practical interest.
Basic research focuses on the development of new theories, new concepts, new technologies or new knowledge. As the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) argues on its web site Basic Research separates into two subcategories. In the first category the researchers are free to initiate a subject area by themselves. On the other hand, the scope of the second category, which called targeted or directed research, is to support R&D and to provide further research on specific flaws of the current knowledge. The outputs of the researches, which usually are the same for both categories, become available for the readers through international journals.
Examples of outcomes of Basic Research:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLpwGam_gI] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEZaH-b4U0] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC7Sg41Bp-U] |
X-Rays (by students of CHWS) | CERN | E=mc2 |
This type of research is usually undertaken by companies and as main aim has to develop specific products, processes or solutions for a commercial, state, or client specific needs. The following videos explain how the companies exploited the previous outcomes of Basic Research in order to produce new products:
Examples of outcomes of Applied Research:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx-0emi4m8s&feature=related] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEZaH-b4U0] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS6wsJRGqnQ] |
CT Scan | World Wide Web | Laser TV |
There are several problems associated with Basic Research, most of them are related with financial issues. However, probably the main problem is the budget that should be available for investments in Basic research.
In the last years and especially after the undertaking of the new program by CERN and the contraction of the new world’s largest and highest –energy accelerator LHC, in order to discover what exactly happened in the few seconds after the Big Bang, there are not a few who support that it is not the best possible way to spend so much money for particular experiments of Basic Research when the same money could be invested in more important sectors helping many people who really need them. Therefore, an obvious question which arises is: “How much we should invest in Basic Research?” or in other words “How important is the development of Basic Research for the humanity?”
The following section by proving evident and historical data will prove the necessity of the continuous development of Fundamental Research. As Mary Lasker, a powerful and tireless philanthropist, argued: “If you think that research is expensive, try disease.” In the following video the problem for the vast majority of the researchers becomes obvious; as a result, many of them have to re-define the aim of their project from curiosity-driven research to Applied Research in order to have financial help from government and firms.
[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLztx5VwIxc] |
Basic Vs Applied Research: A huge challenge |
Empirical data support that there is an analogical relationship between the levels of basic research of a country with the levels of GDP (Lazaridis, 2009). Additionally, there are many reasons why a country must focus on the basic research even if it does not produce a “final product”.
According to Dr. Lazaridi, there are two main reasons which support the idea that a country must focus its interest on Basic Research; Firstly, comparing the outcomes of Basic Research with the Golden Medals in Olympics and Nobel Prices Lazaridis argues that probably there is not an obvious positive outcome for the country which wins a Golden Medal or a Nobel Price; however, intangible advantages, like reputation and fame are more important than financial prizes. Secondly, continuing the Basic Research a country offers incentives to its researchers to stay in the country and be attractive for foreign researchers. Researchers have very important role for a country for many reasons; participating in the local societies, leading the students to success and writing articles and books. In the long term only the investments in humans are able to achieve progress and growth for a country.
Especially when it comes to medical and technological issues the field of basic research gains important meaning. More specifically, biological system signalling often rely on cascade events, which refer to complex chain cellular reactions where one molecule activates next downstream target molecule and so on, until a biological response is achieved. Practically, each one of the intermediate molecules of a signalling pathway serves as putative pharmacological target, in order to prevent the completion of the process. Unless these complex pathways are studied and elucidated, new drug design is hindered. Basic research, therefore, contributes to this direction by providing the platform on which applied science is based, in order to exploit essential knowledge of biological systems in order to confront and combat human diseases. Moreover, basic research concerning the flora and fauna of the planet quite often leads to astonishing findings applied in everyday life (e.g. fragrances which derive from animal tissues, ointments containing healing substances from plants etc.).
There is a small difference between Basic and Applied research which make Basic research so important. Basic Research is curiosity-driven research while Applied Research focuses on financial outcomes (Smith, 1997). As a result Basic Research, exempted from the idea of direct financial returns, contributes in the deeper understanding of the causes of the natural activities, while, it constitutes the bases for the development of new technologies and innovation. The outcomes of the Basic research are usually widely available and without the restrictions and the secrecy that impose the consolidations of license in the products of applied research and innovation.
Finally, according to the former director of CERN Smith (1997), Basic Research is possible to lead to discoveries of enormous economic and practical importance. As Casimir (1966) argued in one of his speeches there are many examples which support that argument.
"I have heard statements that the role of academic research in innovation is slight. It is about the most blatant piece of nonsense it has been my fortune to stumble upon.
Certainly, one might speculate idly whether transistors might have been discovered by people who had not been trained in and had not contributed to wave mechanics or the quantum theory of solids. It so happened that the inventors of transistors were versed in and contributed to the quantum theory of solids.
One might ask whether basic circuits in computers might have been found by people who wanted to build computers. As it happens, they were discovered in the thirties by physicists dealing with the counting of nuclear particles because they were interested in nuclear physics.
One might ask whether there would be nuclear power because people wanted new power sources or whether the urge to have new power would have led to the discovery of the nucleus. Perhaps - only it didn't happen that way.
One might ask whether an electronic industry could exist without the previous discovery of electrons by people like Thomson and H.A. Lorentz. Again it didn't happen that way.
One might ask even whether induction coils in motor cars might have been made by enterprises which wanted to make motor transport and whether then they would have stumbled on the laws of induction. But the laws of induction had been found by Faraday many decades before that.
Or whether, in an urge to provide better communication, one might have found electromagnetic waves. They weren't found that way. They were found by Hertz who emphasised the beauty of physics and who based his work on the theoretical considerations of Maxwell. I think there is hardly any example of twentieth century innovation which is not indebted in this way to basic scientific thought."
There have been several attempts in order to quantify the “pay-offs” from Basic Research. The most important of these attempts were (Smith, 1997):
According to a research of US National Science Foundation, 73 percent of the application for industrial patents were published “public science” which have been produced by government laboratories and top universities worldwide.
Additionally, as Kay and Smith argue (1985), based on the most conservative assumption which supports that the national income would be 5 percent less than it is, the benefit of the developments of electricity by Faraday and Maxwell would have been for the UK economy at least 40 billion pounds (in 1997). Mrs Thatcher used this argument later to support her view that the contribution of Faraday in the development of knowledge was more valuable than the British Stock Market.
As Dr. George Smoot (2007) of LBNL argues, "People cannot foresee the future well enough to predict what's going to develop from basic research. If we only did applied research, we would still be making better spears".
Greece
Unfortunately, Greece does not follow the same policy for Basic Research as the rest of the European Union. The European Commission through the European Research Council (ERC) recognizing the positive effects of Basic Research in the development of knowledge offer the opportunity to many researchers to develop their projects within the 7th Framework Program. On the other hand, Greece was on the 23rd position of European countries according to its investments in Research; Greece was spending only 0.6% of GDP for Research when the average amount for the European countries is 1.98% (European Union, 2003). In the same time US was spending 2.6% of GDP and as the previous president Bush had argued, that amount would increase the following years (2004).
“By research in pure science I mean research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the Laws of Nature. I will give just one example of the “utility” of this kind of research, one that has been brought into great prominence by the War - I mean the use of X-rays in surgery….
Now how was this method discovered? It was not the result of a research in applied science starting to find an improved method of locating bullet wounds. This might have led to improved probes, but we cannot imagine it leading to the discovery of the X-rays. No, this method is due to an investigation in pure science, made with the object of discovering what is the nature of Electricity.”
J. J. Thomson (1916)
“To invent an infallible remedy against toothache, which would take it away in a moment, might be as valuable and more than to discover a new planet…. But I do not know how to start the diary of this year with a more important topic than the news of the new planet”
Christoph Lichtenberg, (January 1782)
Socrates: Shall we set down astronomy among the subjects of study?
Glaucon: I think so, to know something about the seasons, the months and the years is of use for military purposes, as well as for agriculture and navigation
Socrates: It amuses me to see how afraid you are, lest the people should accuse you of recommending useless studies
Plato, the Republic (380 B.C.)
of Research
From the French “recherché” where “chercher” means to search closely – to investigate thoroughly. (Wikipedia)
relevant Wikis in Wikipedia
§ Participatory action research § Psychological research methods |
BaSic Research, Greek University Forum, viewed 11 March 2009, http://greekuniversityreform.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/γιατί-πρέπει-το-ελληνικό-κράτος-να-στη/
Big Bang Theory, All About Science, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.big-bang-theory.com/
Casimir H.G.B, (1966), Contribution to Symposium on Technology and World Trade, Us Department of Commerce.
ERC, European Research Council, viewed 11 March 2009,
http://ec.europa.eu/research/future/basic_research/index_en.html
Faraday M., Science World, viewed 11 March 2009, http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Faraday.html
GDP, BEA, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm
George W. Bush, the White House, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewbush/
Glaucon, Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucon
Greece, Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece
Hertz H., Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Hertz
Kay J.A., Official Site, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.johnkay.com/
Lasker M., Columbia University, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/laskerm/profile.html
LBNL, Berkeley Lab, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.lbl.gov/
Lichtenberg C., Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Christoph_Lichtenberg
Llewellyn Smith C.H. (1997), What is the Use of Basic Science, CERN: European Organization Nuclear Research, viewed 11 March 2009, http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/About/BasicScience1-en.html
Maxwell J. C., Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell
Plato, Philosophy pages, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm
Research and Development, Answers.com, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.answers.com/topic/research-and-development
Research, Wikiversity, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page
Science Policy and Public Spending, J.A. Kay & C.H. Llewellyn Smith, Fiscal Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 14, 1985.
Smoot G., Smoot Group, viewed 11 March 2009, http://aether.lbl.gov/
Socrates, Philosophy pages, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm
Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Official Site, viewed 11 March 2009, “http://www.trf.or.th/en/types.asp”
Thatcher M., Time, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN, viewed 11 March 2009, http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/
The New York Public Library, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.nypl.org/
The Republic (Plato), Classics Archive, viewed 11 March 2009, http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html
Thomson J.J., American Institute of Physics, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.aip.org/history/electron/jjthomson.htm
UK Economy, Economy Watch, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/united-kingdom/
United States, Wikipedia, viewed 11 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
World War I, First World War, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.firstworldwar.com/
X-Rays (by students of CHWS), YouTube, viewed 11 March 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLpwGam_gI
X-Rays, NASA, viewed 11 March 2009, http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/xrays.html
International Foundation for Science
National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA)
Official site of European Union for research issues
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