The Role of Science in Our Society

Technical Report · Wed Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/799117· OSTI ID:799117

Richter, Matthew ^[1]

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1. SLAC

Science, particularly physics, has been in a relatively privileged position since the end of World War II. Support by the government has been generous and those of us whose careers have spanned the period since World War II have, until recently, seen research funding increasing in real terms. Our support really rested on two assumptions: science would improve the lives of the citizens and science would make us secure in a world that seemed very dangerous because of the US/USSR confrontation. The world situation has changed radically, both politically and economically. The USSR is no more, and economic concerns loom much larger as our deficit has grown and as economic rivals have become much stronger. With these changes has come a re-examination of many of the assumptions about priorities for government activities. It should be no surprise that the rationale for the support of science is one of those things being re-examined. Being re-examined is not very comfortable for those under the microscope, for we are in effect being asked to rejustify our existence in terms of the relevance of our work to the problems that society perceives to be most immediate.

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 799117
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-9284
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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