willbobaggins

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