Vernon Ehlers: “First of all, I'll make a deal with you; I won't make any judgments…”

On the recordMay 2, 2007

First of all, I'll make a deal with you; I won't make any judgments about medical research if you don't make judgments about NSF research. The point of this really is that you cannot predict what will result from the research; that is the idea behind basic research. Years ago when I was a graduate student at Berkeley, we were spending tremendous amounts of money to examine the behavior of elementary particles, protons, neutrons, mesons, and so on. And no one, even in the scientific community, could ever imagine any practical use for that. But later on the results from doing that research led to the development of a CAT scanner and the MRI. Now, who would ever have thought that elementary particle physics would lead to major findings in medicine which every doctor relies upon today?

Said by

Vernon Ehlers

Republican · Michigan

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the unpredictability of outcomes in basic research during a debate.

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Vernon Ehlers: “First of all, I'll make a deal with you; I won't make any judgments about medical research if you don't make judgments…”

Editor's note · Context