Mike Palij wrote: > One phrase in the article that caught my eye was " 'Blue sky' > research" which is described as "the kind of basic experimentation > that leads to a greater understanding of how the world works". > I must not have gotten the memo saying that we would now > refer to basic research as "Blue sky research". When did basic > research for the understanding of reality become a "romantic notion"? > > About 1980, sadly, though it didn't really gain consensus in university administrations until the mid-1990s. I first began to realize that it wasn't merely an aberation of the Reagan years when I was a grad student and found that we were having to fight for the continued funding of what we then called "curiosity-driven" research. Then, at my PhD convocation (1992), the invited speaker was some engineer who, instead of giving the standard give-back-to-your-community speech, waxed not-particularly-poetic about how we should be thinking of how many patents we were going to win for ourselves and for our school.
Now, after 15 years in the biz, I can clearly see that he saw the future clearly, and I was being "romantic." :-( Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
