Need to be SMARTer over science

Many advances, including in the medical field, are not the result of directed research, but as a matter of more fundamental research that was not directed.

For example, X-Rays and CT scans and radiotherapy for cancer, came from fundamental physics looking at atomic structure.

PET scans that resulted from fundamental work on antimatter.

These were not the result of some effort coordinated by government to achieve a specific breakthrough, they are a result of work driven by the quest for knowledge and understanding, that had fortuitous benefits.

Consider that a third of the world's economy is based on the work of what some would consider obscure physicists (mainly German) in the first quarter of the 20th Century, nearly a century ago. It was these visionaries who laid the foundation for our modern lifestyle and changed the world for the better.

I am talking of quantum physics and solid state electronics that resulted due to fundamental insights. When no one else, including their government, could see the true value of science, they never relented. We are greatly indebted to their vision and persistence.

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In many cases, government does not understand the value of inventions and scientific discoveries unless they are taxable. Consider 19^th Century physicist Michael Faraday, when asked by then Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone what value electricity had, replied "Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it."

In 1916 Albert Einstein rushed back to his wife who was also a physicist and said, "I have seen a beautiful light", talking about what is known as population inversion in electron energy levels.

This resulted in the first laser in 1960, which at the time critics referred to as "a solution looking for a problem".

Now of course, lasers are in Blurays, DVDs, CDs, and even for communications (lasers are needed for fibre-optics, which is the so-called fibre that is touted with the NBN).

Einstein's famous Theory for General and Special Relativity laid the basis for the accurate GPS systems we use every day.