Threatening the endless frontier of U.S. science

Eighty years ago, presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush delivered to President Harry S. Truman a remarkable report entitled “Science-The Endless Frontier.” In this report, Bush described the immense benefits of government support for academic science that could then, in turn, provide ever-expanding knowledge to benefit industrial, national security, and societal interests of the United States. This report led directly to the formation of the National Science Foundation and has been a model for the tight interplay of university-based research with societal needs over the past eight decades. It has led to a science and engineering enterprise in the U.S. that is the envy of the rest of the world. The list of positive results of government investment is — as the Bush report suggests — endless.