In Vivo Group reposted this
At Bell Labs, Richard Hamming was famous for challenging other researchers with a provocative question: "What are the most important problems in your field?" After listening to their response, he would follow up with, "Why aren't you working on them?" Today, scientists face a stark reality where the freedom to pursue crucial problems often takes a back seat to financial imperatives. The question isn't just about individual choices, but rather why funding doesn't naturally flow toward the most critical issues in each field. Hamming's question remains relevant, but perhaps we should now ask: "How can we create systems that enable scientists to work on the most important problems in their field?" In my latest article for The Connected Ideas Project, we'll explore the modern research funding landscape, crisis in basic research funding, and practices for maximizing limited resources to continue pushing science forward.