The desire to fund only science that is clearly predictable to be in the Public

Interest – is, on the face of it, an excellent motive

…unfortunately it overlooks THE most crucial aspect of Science

©

The really important breakthroughs in science almost always come out from left field

i.e. - they are totally unexpected

In 1970 applied science in the UK received about 85% of the total

research budget for science and about 15% went to fundamental research.

The Public and Politicians tend only to understand science in terms of its value to society ie strategically

This is quite understandable

However this results in a major problem

By introducing “so-called” strategic initiatives, Mrs Thatcher cut the UK

fundamental science budget by ½ and so diverted an extra 7½% to the

applied area

… which already had 85% !!

This was essentially peanuts as far as applied science was concerned and

has made little impact

…but it has been catastrophic for fundamental Science in the UK

as a cut of 50% in that budget takes it below the threshold of viability

Note: The Fullerenes were discovered in an experiment designed to understand the chemistry in carbon stars

…not in combustion flames

…not in combustion flames

Now Fullerenes are produced commercially by

combustion !!!! by Mitsubishi

In fact the most violent and abusive attacks on our claim to have

discovered C60 came from combustion researchers!!!

History has shown time-and-again that the paradigm-shifting, fundamental breakthroughs in Science invariably

result from an intrinsically creative and intellectual attitude

not a strategic one

just as is the case in the Arts

©

GREAT SCIENCE IS UNPREDICTABLE

Sorry - Not my fault - just the way it is

In 1991, Jack Howard of MIT's Chemical Engineering Department invented and patented the 1st generation

combustion synthesis method for fullerene production, a significant advance over the carbon arc method. He licensed

the technology from MIT and founded Nano-C in 2001.