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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
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Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 9, 2006 / 11 Shevat, 5766

Who does research?

By Michael Barone


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Charles Krauthammer notes that only 30 percent of basic scientific research is funded by government today, as compared with 60 percent in the past. He notes, correctly, that this is not a sign of decline but of progress:


Some are alarmed that government R&D funding has fallen from a 60 percent to a 30 percent share of total funding. So what? Does government necessarily make wiser investment decisions than private companies? The mistake of the Soviets, Japanese, and so many others was to assume that creativity could be achieved with enough government planning and funding. But the very essence of creativity is spontaneity. A society's creativity is directly proportionate to the rate of free interaction of people and ideas in a vast unplanned national chemical reaction. There is no country anywhere more given to the unencumbered, unfettered, unregulated exchange of ideas than the U.S.


Let me share with you readers an idea I've had about scientific research — and ask for your comments and help, since this is an area in which my knowledge is very far from complete and I suspect that some of you will know far more about it than I do. My idea is this: In the first couple of decades after World War II, the government took the lead in scientific research, but in the last couple of decades the lead has been taken over by the private sector.


The great impetus behind government research was defense spending. The Manhattan Project consumed, secretly, a significant percentage of gross national product during World War II and produced not only the atomic bomb but also civilian nuclear energy. Defense spending drove the development of jet aircraft and rockets. Up through the 1970s, the Defense Department produced in rapid succession generations of weapons systems at the cutting edge of technology. And the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency invented the Internet (with a little help from Al Gore, who as a young congressman did in fact take a helpful interest in the project).


But who drives technology now? The private sector. Government procurement rules require such a long lead time that new systems cannot be completed before their technology has been surpassed. The Pentagon has been developing the F-22 for something like 20 years — far longer than the development of new planes in the post-WWII decades. The Internal Revenue Service and the FAA have had to abandon computerization projects as unworkable, with hundreds of millions of dollars simply lost. Col. Jack Warden, who helped design the air strategy in the Gulf War, told me that the Air Force developed precision bombing techniques in the 1990s not by going through the procurement process to buy new weapons but by buying GPS devices at places like Radio Shack and attaching them to airplanes, including the B-52, which started flying in the 1950s.


Meanwhile, the private sector has been developing computer software and biotech transformation at the speed of Moore's law. The government effort to read the DNA code was hastened by private-sector competition from Craig Ventner. The government recently doubled spending on basic research at NIH — a worthy project, I think. But we've also witnessed rapid development of useful drugs by the private-sector pharmaceutical industry — though there's a danger that government in the form of the FDA and the trashing of the pharmaceuticals' business model may be slowing that down unduly.


As I said, my knowledge in this area is very incomplete. I'd be interested in comments from readers who know more than I do, including those who think my idea is wrong. I'd like to post some interesting responses.

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BARONE'S LATEST
Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future  

America is divided into two camps, according to U.S. News and World Reports writer and Fox commentator Michael Barone. No, not Red and Blue, though one suspects Barone may taint the two groups in the hues of the 2000 presidential election. Barone's divided America is one part Hard, one part Soft. Hard America is steeled by the competition and accountability of the free market, while Soft America is the product of public school and government largesse. Inspired by the notion that America produces incompetent 18 year olds and remarkably competent 30 year olds, Barone embarks on a breezy 162-page commentary that will spark mostly huzzahs from the right and jeers from the left. Sales help fund JWR.

JWR contributor Michael Barone is a columnist at U.S. News & World Report. Comment by clicking here.




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