CS 312 Yevgeniy Bangiyev

The article, “At Bell Labs, Hard Times Take Toll on Pure Research” written in 2003, is about the decline of Bell Labs – the symbol of U.S. technological power. “Research money crunch in the U.S.”, written just a few months ago, is on the same subject.

Article Summary

At a meeting last November in New York, researchers and scientists expressed their uneasiness about the decline of technological research in the United States. They fear that the U.S. may soon be surpassed by other countries in terms of technological development.

The article points out that the nation’s great laboratories, such as Bell Labs, were always a source of new technological achievements. New technologies developed by the laboratories were readily made available to those wishing to acquire the licenses and many had an important impact on the country.

For decades, the U.S. government has been heavily funding these laboratories. The government’s strong support resulted in great accomplishments like the internet. However, the current federal investment in technological research and development is not what it used to be, causing the labs to significantly cut back on their research. Private companies are very dependent on this government sponsored research and only a few powerful corporations, like Microsoft, can afford to fund their own large research centers.

With the reduction of government funding, much of the research vital for the future is being relocated to developing nations, which many experts say will negatively affect the U.S. economy and security. This year’s federal budget on scientific research is at the same level it has been for the past few years and the article notes that a significant part of the budget is intended for research related to the nation’s defense.

Researchers also complain that prospective long-term research is being over-looked in favor of short-term research that could make it to the market as fast as possible. In recent years, the number of research proposals has increased while the funding did not, which means that more of potentially valuable research was rejected. The progress of the current technological research in the U.S. is further hurt by the rise of defense related research, because such research is classified and not available to others.

The article concludes that with the current economic situation and defense/security needs of the nation, it is difficult for the U.S. government to decide how much to spend on technological research and development.

Reardon, Marguerite. “Research money crunch in the U.S.” CNET News.com 8 November 2005. 27 January 2006

<http://news.com.com/Research+money+crunch+in+the+U.S./2100-1008_3-5938451.html?tag=st.num>.