On American Public Media's business and finance program, Marketplace earlier today, Lawrence Krauss gave a short commentary on how the results of esoteric and irrelevant-seeming research can show up in the technology we use in our everyday lives. It's been said before, but it is so important (in this climate of deep cuts into the funding for basic research) that it should be said again, several times. Find the audio for the story here. Some of his main points:
Cutting funding for fundamental research is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. But that's what we're doing. This fiscal year, the President's budget continues to cut funding for fundamental research at places like the National Science Foundation, and NASA...
and further...
The technological side effects of asking fundamental questions about Nature aren't the prime reasons to ask those questions in the first place, but they sure are a ...
