Mandating Scientific Discovery Never Works

Someone needs to tell this loud and clear to the government and NRC: Mandating Scientific Discovery Never Works: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/06/lamar_smith_nsf_funding_you_can_t_mandate_scientific_discovery.html " You would think that in the 21st century the clear benefits of peer-reviewed, curiosity-driven scientific research in the developed world would be so clear that we wouldn’t need to proactively work to protect the integrity of the scientific process from control by partisan politicians. As the landmark 2007 National Academy of Sciences Report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm described, for example, perhaps 50 percent of the current GDP in industrialized countries is a product of fundamental research performed a generation ago.
Yet, recent developments in both Canada and the United States chillingly suggest that legislators still don’t get it. You can foster scientific discovery by providing an environment for the best and brightest to most effectively exploit their talents to address those questions that seem most compelling to those most knowledgeable in their fields. But you can’t legislate it."