Abstract Research Just as Vital to Progress

Concerning the practical returns of big-budget astronomy (“Research Driven by Desire, Not Need,” Science Watch, Nov. 22): Abstract research is just as vital to progress as any other kind. It is a seldom appreciated point that every fact we acquire makes every other fact more valuable, no matter what the subject. The history of thought demonstrates again and again that the more varied knowledge is in general, the deeper is the insight into the specific.

The nautical explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries, for example, had little “practical” value to the people whose taxes funded them. But the return was an expansive intellectual climate that paved the way for the Renaissance, out of which the practical technologies of today were born.

I ask this, then: Could we impoverish our intellectual landscape by limiting spending to strictly practical research without destroying the climate that is most conducive to human ingenuity? Could we curb our desire to understand the far reaches of space without also deadening that part of our spirit that feels for the sick and needy?

WILLIAM GOODWIN

West Los Angeles