Papers Commissioned for a Workshop on the Federal Role in Research and Development (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 173-198
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From page 175... ...
Most federal development programs-chiefly, national defense and space transportation -- have noneconomic purposes; only research is sufficiently multipurpose in its goals to affect the maricet sector sigr~ificancly, and, eaten then, only as a byproduct of other goals. Finally, I have limited my examination to phys ics and chemistry because scheme is more information available on returns in Chose fields and because space is limi~ced.
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From page 176... ...
ABLE 1 Percentage of Government R&D Devoted to Various National Obj ectives in Fire Countries (1981-1984) National Ob j ectives Count r Industrial Growth Knowledge Agriculture pefenseiSoace United States 0.
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From page 177... ...
in support of goods and services sold for profit in the priorate market should be ache sole responsibility of the private sector. Although, in practice, this ideology has been violated often, it has generally l:ed to a ~ ow expectation of economic returns from government-sponsored R&D.
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From page 178... ...
To illustrate, in 1964 the National Research Council surveyed about 1, 900 doctoral scientists working in industry in solid state hys ics and electronics . By that time, most of the important dvances in solid state devices Sad already been made.
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From page 179... ...
Source: Phys ics Survey Committee . Physics In Perspec rive : Recommendations and Program Emphases.
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From page 180... ...
FIGURE 1 Histograms of ache Survey Committee Average Jury Rating of the Internal Physics Subtields in Terms of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Criteria. The s traight lines superimposed on ache histograms are drawn simply to provide a characteristic signature for each subfield.
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From page 181... ...
The 1972 COSPUP report on phys ics t: divides the field into seven "core subfield": elementary particle physics; nuclear physics; atomic, molecular, and electron physics; condensed utter physics; op~cics; acoustics) and plasma physics and the physics of fluids .
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From page 182... ...
. Partly for this reason, virtually all support far particle physics comes frogs the federal government, in con~crast with such other fief ds as condensed matter physics or atomic and molecular physics, where industry is an almost equally generous patron .
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From page 183... ...
These radiation sources have become important new tools for research in condensed matter physics and even in biology.l4 Thus, there has existed a symbiosis between particle physics and sophisticated engineering that has benefited both fields. Without a strong engineering base in the electrical and instrumentation industries, particle physics could not have advanced as fast as it has, nor could research facilities have been as access Able to as wide a group of scientists.
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From page 184... ...
The marketing of radioisotopes alone had grown to ~ 330 million-a-year business by 1970, while related equipment and instn~ment9sales had become a several hundred million dollars - a-year bus ines s . While nuclear physics is, of course, at the heart of nuclear weapons design and she understanding of nuclear weapons effects, the focus of frontier research in nuclear structure physics has diverged more and more from such applications in recent years .
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From page 185... ...
It is primarily the applications of quantum mechanical theory, scented and honed originally in the simpler systems that are the sub; ect matter of AME ~ that first revoluefonized chemistry, then biology and biochemistry. At the same time, AME and condensed matter physics are connected so intimately with each other that it is difficult to talk about the return on federal investments in one without mentioning the other.
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From page 186... ...
The success of this technology is, of course, dependent equally on developments in condensed matter physics and strong contributions from the chemistry of materials. Other technologies that desire fairly directly from AME include high~precision surveying using laser technology, including geophysical strain gauges that use laser interferomeery and other techniques to detect small differential earth movements in seismic areas.
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From page 187... ...
CONI) ENSED HATTER PHYSICS Condensed matter physics is dacha name preferred currently for a subj eat that developed under ache name of solid state physics ~ The name was changed because the field come to embrace many forums of matter other than crystals and simple solids; now it includes liquids and amorphous materials, such as glasses, for which scheme is no sharp transition from the solid Deco ache liquid state.
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From page 188... ...
Raman spent rosco py sources; tunable sources for optical insiru n~entation; new ranging and signaiing devices; commercial as well as military a pplications; optical corn puter memories; application In A~S1;~terials processing; metrology A ~raricty Of new quantum detectors for astrophysics and particle physics; ChanncAtron desec20rs and arrays: the x-ray intensifier for medical and other applications; other new image intensifier devices Useful superconductors: sources of high magnetic fields; ma~nctometcrs and sensing devices; eventually power distribut ion.
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From page 189... ...
TABLE 3 ~ continued) Ash D~owcries 9.
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From page 190... ...
In marry ways, Europe was on a par wi Ah the United S tares when one looks solely at tics progress in the component disciplines, yet Europe failed to achieve the some synergy among institutions, people, and disciplines that appears necessary for competitive commercial success. Frequently, the United States and, more recently, Japan have been able to build more rapidly and effectively on discoveries made in Europe than the Europeans themselves hare The teas ic knowledge underlying industrial development derived from condensed matter physics is much more fully in the public domain than is the case in such areas as chemistry or pharmaceuticals.
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From page 191... ...
n Chemistry research involves few maj or capital investments or large teem proj ects requiring collaboration among scientists of different disciplines. Because of ache small-scale, pervasive, and diffuse nature of federally sponsored chemistry research, it has been especial' y difficult to locate responsibility for the health of chemistry as a discipline in any one or small group of federal agencies.
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From page 192... ...
Committee ~co Survey Opportunities in the Chemical Sciences opDortuni ~ies in Chemisery. Washington, ]
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From page 193... ...
Indeed, it seems true that chemistry has provided one of the principal routes by which ache results of all the physical sciences have found their way into industrial application. lye debt of industry to the chemical sciences is matched by the debt of ache chemical sciences Deco the other physical sciences, particularly through the vehicle of physical instrumentation, but also through the elaboration and refinement of concepts devised originally in physics for simpler and more idealized phys ical sys tems .
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From page 194... ...
The benefits of chemistry flow both ways -- into derivative sciences and engineering closer to societal applications and back into more fundamental sciences, such as physics. In turn, physicists often could not obtain reproducible and reliable results without the well-controlled materials provided by the chemist.
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From page 195... ...
364- 374. 8 O Phys ics Survey Commi thee .
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From page 196... ...
27. Committee deco Survey Opportunities in the Chemical Sciences.
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From page 197... ...
Ibid., p.
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