"Almost every discovery has a long and precarious history.
Someone finds a bit here, another a bit there. A third step
succeeds later and thus onward till a genius pieces the bits
together and makes the decisive contribution."—from the essay
“The...
Gillian Tett of the Financial Times reviews The Usefulness of Useless
Knowledge (Princeton University Press), founding Director Abraham Flexner's influential 1939 essay
newly republished with a companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and
Leon...
Joseph E. Davis of the Hedgehog Review reflects on
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (Princeton University
Press, March 2017) by founding IAS Director Abraham Flexner with a companion essay by
current IAS Director Robbert
Dijkgraaf. Davis writes,...
Jean Worsley of the National Science Teachers Association
reviews The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (Princeton
University Press, March 2017) by founding IAS Director Abraham Flexner with a companion essay by
current IAS Director Robbert
Dijkgraaf...
By radically reducing the amount of scientific research U.S.
scientists can do, the president’s budget willfully ignores 400
years of thinking about innovation and knowledge—and seven decades
of the United States’ advantage in the world. “It’s like...
When we think of infrastructure, we tend to think of the
physical facilities and systems required for a country and its
economy to function and thrive—roads, bridges, tunnels, airports,
and railways as President Donald Trump specified in his...
A remarkable discovery was made in a laboratory at Trinity
College Dublin about a year ago, one that may change all our lives
in the future. Or maybe not. It was the unexpected detection of a
new kind of...
On April 30, 1939, under the gathering storm clouds of war, the
New York World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Its theme
was The World of Tomorrow. ... Some of the displayed
innovations were truly visionary. ... Albert Einstein, honorary...
A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has
meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or
practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of
immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus...
