Scientific research needs our continued support and cooperation

Today, the Information Age is bringing changes to our society that are only beginning to unfold. Six years ago, "Internet" was still a word known mostly to those in S&T. In the United States the Internet economy grew at a compounded annual rate of more than 174 per cent between 1995 and 1998, as compared with 2.8 percent for the U.S. economy as a whole.

My second example: the Global Positioning System.

GPS technology grew out of pure physics research on coherent aspects of light, starting in the 1930s. By the 1950s, this research had developed extremely accurate atomic clocks, which were used to test Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Then, the advent of space satellites, with the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I in 1957, allowed scientists and engineers to envision a system of navigation that would rely on satellite signals keyed to precise timekeeping. By 1973, the Department of Defense had approved the navigational concept and Rockwell International began building the GPS satellites, each the size of a large automobile and weighing slightly less than a ton. In 1983, the first GPS receivers cost more than $150,000 and weighed more than 100 pounds. Today, a handheld GPS receiver weighing less than a pound can be purchased for less than $100. GPS receivers and transmitters may soon be smaller than credit cards – and cheap enough for use in almost any vehicle, cell phone, or pocket.

My third example: Biomedical Breakthroughs.

Long-term R&D investments have led not only to greater prosperity, but also have allowed us to enjoy better living conditions and greater life expectancy – and this also yields economic benefits. The United States has seen amazing changes in biomedical technologies over the past 100 years. We have come from the family doctor’s signature black bag in the first half of the century to the powerful scanning and imaging equipment of the modern medical center; from surgical saws to lasers, from X-Ray to MRI, and from an average life expectancy of about 49 years to our present expectancy of 75 years.

Just as biomedical technologies have made enormous contributions to Americans’ health and well-being in this century, the health-care industry generates roughly $1 trillion in economic activity, high-wage jobs, and trade. Another measure of economic importance of supporting biomedical R&D is the amount of money it saves: for example, improved treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia has saved the U.S. more than $1 billion in restored lifetime earnings, and lithium treatment for manic-depressive illness has saved about $7 billion per year since its introduction in 1970.

The rapid progress in medicine has not only come from supporting the life sciences – such as biology, biochemistry and genetics – but also from physics, math, chemistry and many other fields of science and engineering. For example, over the past 25 years physicists have developed revolutionary imaging technologies that have allowed us to see deeper and deeper into the materials and processes of life itself. Much of today’s imaging technology relies on new developments in micro-processors and software. Much of tomorrow’s medical technology is likely to come from miniaturization of smart devices that will be made possible by advances in nanotechnology.

Progress against disease demands that the physical, mathematical, behavioral, and engineering sciences continue to advance in tandem with the life sciences. I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough – continued medical breakthroughs depend on strong support for R&D activities across a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines.

Ensuring Our Future S&T Workforce

So with these three examples, let me take the license to simply assert that future progress will demand advances in science and technology.

But we can’t do any kind of science, technology or engineering without well trained people, from technicians to Ph.D. research scientists and engineers. In the U.S., economic and demographic trends are putting pressure on science and math education at all levels.

High-tech jobs are among the fastest growing of any job sector in the U.S. economy, to the point that demand for workers has outstripped supply. Unemployment in science and engineering occupations is about 2 percent – about half the rate for the entire U.S. workforce, which itself is at historic low levels. However, if current trends persist, our nation may not have all of the talent it will need to enable the innovation process that has provided such a strong economy and high quality of life. There is already evidence that worker shortages are limiting economic growth, and this shortage could have devastating consequences for the future.