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一、为什么要支持基础研究人们通常说,“基础”研究和“应用”研究的真正差别,只不过是时间尺度问题,大多数研究不管多么深奥,最终都将被应用。但越是“基础的”研究,要证明其有用,所花费的时间也就越长。如乔治·黎曼和威廉·罗恩·哈密顿在19世纪所作的深奥的数学研究,不得不等待大半个世纪,才在现代物理学中找到了它的用场。距我们时代不远,卢瑟福勋爵曾大声宣称,他在本世纪20年代关于原子结构的工作毫无用处,可是第一座原子反应堆在1942年
First, why do we support basic research? People usually say that the real difference between “basic” research and “applied” research is only a matter of time scale, and most studies will ultimately be applied no matter how esoteric. But the more “basic” research is, the longer it takes to prove it useful. The esoteric mathematical studies of George Riemann and William Ron Hamilton in the 19th century have had to wait for more than half a century before they find their use in modern physics. Not far from our time, Lord Rutherford has declared loudly that he had no use in the work of atomic structures in the 1920s, but the first atomic reactor in 1942