Government, Scientists, and the Priorities of Science

Massive federal financing of the sciences which in principle should be strengthening American society, in practice threatens to divert science and higher education from their proper goals. In the universities, the influx of government funds has often narrowed rather than broadened the search for knowledge and has resulted in neglect of teaching. In general, the harvest of scientific discovery is disappointing, considering the investment involved, for too often the supervision of governmental agencies has reinforced the trend toward bureaucratized projects which produce trivial, non-controversial findings.

Apart from the effects of federal financing on the universities, one must question the results of concentrating funds in resear...