Basic research can be easy to mock as pointless and wasteful of resources. But it's very often the foundation for future innovation – even in ways the original scientists couldn't have imagined.
China’s political system sets the course for the science in universities, government labs and industry.
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China's government is prioritizing world-class science and tech. An expert describes the Chinese research landscape – and questions its sustainability.
Money doesn’t grow in flasks – scientists have to find funds outside the lab.
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Money always seems tight for university scientists. A sociologist conducted hundreds of interviews to see how they think about funding sources and profit motives for basic and applied research.
You can’t keep a good scientist down.
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President Trump's first year was a rough one for scientists and others who value truth and expertise. Many rallied to the cause, while others used research to make the case for the value of science.
Scientists are using a powerful gene editing technique to understand how human embryos develop.
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A new gene editing experiment explores human development. With this comes new ethical questions: How do scientists acquire embryos and how are their projects approved?
Basic research and applications coexist in a tangled two-way ecosystem.
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Research dollars don't stay locked up in academia and government labs. R&D collaborations with the private sector are common – and grow the innovation economy.
Polysaccharide molecules such as cellulose, seen here, are long chains of sugars that are very hard to break apart. Enzymes – proteins that can degrade polysaccharides – have many industrial uses.
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Bio-prospecting is the search for useful materials from natural sources. A biologist explains what we can learn from bacteria about breaking down plant material, and how we can use that knowledge.
Academic researchers need funding – especially as the federal government devotes less to basic research.
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With federal support for on-campus R&D dwindling as a percentage of GDP, keeping basic research afloat is a challenge. Schools and researchers are left to try to fill in the funding gaps.
Embarking on the path to a PhD is a scary business.
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Peter Ngure, African Population and Health Research Center
Many people are left floundering when they try to get working on their PhDs. In Africa, this is often because the skills they need haven't been developed earlier in their academic careers.
The red Cas9 nuclease protein uses a blue guide RNA sequence to cut yellow DNA at a complementary site.
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Until more is understood, it's sensible to limit experimentation that would make changes to germ line cells that would be passed on to future generations.
Decreasing funding for fruit-fly research will hurt people, not flies.
John Tann
These insects are so much more than just the scourge of fruit bowls everywhere. They're a key model system for all kinds of research that teaches us about our own brain and body systems.