What if tech stagnation, declining growth rates, and the near-inevitable seeming collapse of the West are all because we got worried a few scientists would run off with our tax dollars?
That’s the broad thesis behind Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization. Published originally in 2008, Scientific Freedom chronicles the journey of physicist Don Braben, as he designs and builds a Venture Research arm at British Petroleum in the 1980s. Braben was successful in funding a transformative research initiative at BP (transformative meaning it fundamentally changes humanity thinks about a subject). In his estimation, 14 out of the 26 groups funded made a transformative discovery, at the cost of only 30 million pounds over 10 years! A few examples of transformative discoveries made by groups funded by Braben in his time at BP are:
* Mike Bennett and Pat Heslop – Harrison discovered a new pathway for evolution and genetic control
* Terry Clark pioneered the study of macroscopic quantum objects
* Stan Clough and Tony Horsewill solved the quantum – classical transition problem by developing new relativity and quantum theories
* Steve Davies developed small artificial enzymes for efficient chiral selection
* Nigel Franks, Jean Louis Deneubourg, Simon Goss, and Chris Tofts quantified the rules describing distributed intelligence in animals
* Herbert Huppert and Steve Sparks pioneered the new field of geologic fluid mechanics
* Jeff Kimble pioneered squeezed states of light
* Graham Parkhouse derived a novel theory of engineering design relating performance to shapes and materials
* Alan Paton, Eunice Allen, and Anne Glover discovered a new symbiosis between plants and bacteria
* Martyn Poliakoff transformed green chemistry
* Colin Self demonstrated that antibodies in vivo can be activated by light
* Gene Stanley and Jos é Teixeira discovered a new liquid – liquid phase transition in water that accounts for many of water’s anomalous properties
* Harry Swinne