The appointment of National Research Council president John MacDougall in Canada — effectively the country’s top scientist — is being received by scientists the way James Watt was received by environmentalists in the Reagan Administration as head of the national park system. Like Watt, MacDougall seems antagonistic to the field that is supposed to be fostering with federal funds. Recently, MacDougall announced that “Scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value.” It turns out that all of that stuff by Galileo was just academic crap.
Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, announced that the NRC will shift its focus away from basic research to “large-scale research projects that are directed by and for Canadian business.” That will mean little or no funding for basic research under the $900 million annual budget. It is part of the conservative governments shift toward industry despite protests from leading scientists that the approach is simplistic and shortsighted. Those commercial applications are built on a foundation of basic research.
McDougall’s bio says that he began his career as a petroleum engineer and ultimately became the owner of an international engineering consulting firm.
The shift in funding and policy is a major blow for universities in Canada and will hurt both the scientific and educational communities in Canada. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of science — a type of science philistines, people who are “guided by materialism and . . . disdainful of intellectual or artistic values.”
Source: Harper
“Bless me Father for I have sinned; it has been 4 decades since my last confession, so get comfortable, Padre..we’re going to be here awhile.”
The United States, and now perhaps Canada are no longer committed to having all of its citizens reach their full educational potential. If this continues too long, it will threaten and eventually reduce our standing in the world with dire economic, social and geopolital consequences.
All for the love of money.
Nick,
You’re not showing your manners…. You’re supposed to say…. Thank you, Father Larry Fitzpatrick …well….
I will give you an Emerald Isle dispensation nick!
AY, I thought you knew me well enough that you could say the frog now goes, “wop, wop, wop..” And remember, raff, I’m half Irish so I have immunity when it comes to the Emerald Isle dwellers.
True…. But you know as well as I that there is no true research for altruistic purpose unless the government has its finger in it….. Look at what’s become of NASA….. Something business wants a piece of without restrictions…. You think Lockheed… Boeing…. McDonald Douglass…. Are sharing profits with the government although they derive 90% of there revenues/funding from the US Government,…, one way or another….
AY,
Okaaaaay . . . but I didn’t mention any of that.
I was addressing the value of pure science.
Free thought in the public sector with public funding being siphoned off for revenue streams…what price freedom? What the F…does freedom mean anymore when it is reduced to dollar signs by public officials that have captured the position to advance their own. Control Fraud anyone?
But raff…. I’m gonna be called a racist if I answer that….. Cause now alls the frog can do is flop…. No longer a ……nick can finish it….
AY,
Are you sure that wasn’t an Italian frog? 🙂
RTC,
I checked all the filters and nothing from you was in them. Sometimes WordPress simply eats stuff and it disappears. When I wrote my story last week about the aging prison population and hit the publish icon, all but two paragraphs disappeared. Nowhere to be found. Suggest you try again. I have learned that if I write a long comment and put a lot of effort into it, I right-click and copy so I can paste it into a re-post if that happens.
Not all Irish logic is faulty though nick….. But this one is in he same breath….
You three are a right pair if ever I saw one…. True Irish Logic…
AY, Lol!
seriously, my comments regarding the snail darter were taken down?
An Irish scientist working with a frog.
He cut off it’s front left leg. Tells it to jump and it jumps.
He cut off it’s front right leg. Tells it to jump and it jumps.
He cut off it’s back left leg. Tells it to jump and it jumps.
He cut off it’s back right leg. Tells it to jump and it doesn’t jump.
Conclusion:- After cutting off all the frog’s legs, frog loses it’s hearing!
And what nick said. My thoughts exactly.
The conundrum is that when a science project is undertaken, no one knows what the outcome will be. Sometimes the results are exactly the opposite to what is expected.
Something else occurs to me. Will government fund, or help fund, scientific projects which promise to eliminate large portions of the industrial-financial establishment? We are seeing active hostility and opposition to projects such as the Tesla car. Cold fusion, to use an example, has been relegated to the dustbin by official science funding sources. Some scientists say it will never work, while still others say it might, if as much funding is thrown at it as has been thrown at projects such as aircraft carriers and jet fighters we don’t need. Just supposing here, but what if it worked and a small cold fusion reactor (or power source similar to it) could replace batteries in an electric car? Or a large one running as a power source for homes and businesses? It would make fossil fuel irrelevant. Can’t have that.
When examples such as Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci are brought up, people tend to forget that it was common for such men to have wealthy patrons who served the same function as government funding agencies do now. Same for some of the great artists and musicians down through history. The patron did not expect to make money off the geniuses they sponsored.
I don’t have much scientific aptitude but I have always been fascinated w/ scientists and their discoveries. I do have a historical aptitude and understand that to truly understand history and life in general you have to appreciate irony and serendipity. Nova is one of my favorite shows. They did a show on serendipitous discoveries in medicine. Those discoveries include quinine for malaria, small pox vaccine, x-rays, insulin[ironically by 2 Canadian scientists who won a Nobel Prize, pap smears, and penicillin.
Mr. McDougall obviously has no appreciation that so much of life is serendipitous. Quite ironic.
I think this man’s outlook is appropriate if you view his comments in context. He was trying to express the idea that if the government is going to spend tax dollars on research, the discoveries derived therefrom should be commercially marketable, so that the tax payers can, at least in theory, get their money’s worth out of it. This is simply prudent and responsible stewardship of public funds, which, despite what some may tell you, are in fact limited. Did he mean that there is no sentimental, spiritual, or philosophical value at all from non-marketable scientific discoveries? I sincerely doubt it. It is more likely that he meant research into such non-marketable scientific ventures are better funded by private individuals, businesses, and institutions, much like Galileo’s was.