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Title:
THE VALUE OF “PURE” SCIENCE
The Higgs boson and the Coronavirus
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Abstract:
Institutions such as the Simons Foundation conduct “pure” research. That is, they pursue knowledge for its own worth, not for immediate economic gain. Particle-physics laboratories such as Fermilab (near Geneva, Illinois) or CERN (near Geneva, Switzerland) study the basic laws of physics in a similar spirit. An “important” particle called the Higgs boson was discovered at CERN ten years ago. This particle lives for an extraordinarily tiny fraction of a second. It could not possibly be more “useless”. In spite of this and many other examples, I shall argue that “pure” research in different areas is the second most useful human investment (or the third, now that we are actively destroying planet Earth).
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