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Originally Posted by Ustwo
All the money in the world means nothing without that scientific breakthrough, which often happens by pure accident.....
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Your notion that scientific breakthrough often happens by pure accident may be correct, but quaint its in assumption that its some guy fiddling around in his basement workshop. That may have been correct in Edison's time.
In more recent times, many (most?) scientific developments and breakthroughs occur in university research settings supported by government funding.
Biotech breakthroughs and the resulting emergence of a new biotech industry in the last 20-30 yeras is a good example. The problem that stiffled private development of those breakthroughs was that, if it was federally funded, the feds owned the patent. That changed in 1980 with the Bayh-Dole Act:
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The Bayh-Dole act allowed universities and their faculty members to stake patent claims on discoveries they made through research funded by such federal agencies as the National Institutes of Health, instead of leaving ownership of the intellectual property with the government.
That change accelerated the use of academic breakthroughs like gene splicing to develop biotech drugs and other products, giving rise to a three- way partnership of government, universities and startup firms that is "the envy of every nation,'' said Biogen Idec Inc. Chief Executive Officer James Mullen...
....Bayh, looking back on the genesis of his landmark statute, said it grew out of concerns during the 1970s that the nation was losing its edge in such core industries as automobile and steel production.
At the same time, he recalled, too little commercial use was being made of the thousands of government-owned patents flowing from the billions spent by federal agencies to fund academic research.
"Nobody would spend thousands or millions to get it into your medicine cabinet,'' said Bayh.
The solution, under the Bayh-Dole act, was to allow universities and their scientists to own the patents and commercialize the inventions themselves.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=business
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That three-way partnership was critical to the growth and success of the biotech industry....even with the downside noted in the article.
The same would apply to many other industries.....nanotechnology, alternative energy, etc. Government funding in university research settings serves as the foundation for growth and development.