“Connections” -- NSF Publication by Math. and Physical Sciences Directorate

Earlier this fall, NSF’s Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences launched a publication, “Connections.” Assistant Director William Harris writes, “This publication is our attempt to share with a wider audience a few of the many exciting discoveries being made in the mathematical and physical sciences -- and their connections to emerging, potentially useful new technologies. `Connections’ is, in a sense, a kind of progress report to our investors - the American people -on the returns from their investment in fundamental research.”

This glossy 18-page report (#94-74) contains an opening statement, eight short descriptions of “Innovation Highlights,” and two longer articles on buckyballs and the “Origins of the Information Superhighway.” Selections from the opening statement, “Ready for Prime Time,” follow:

“There is a sense in some quarters that the mathematical and physical sciences have seen their day -- that `physics is over,’ that the big discoveries have all been made, that the real action in research has shifted to the life sciences. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mathematical and physical sciences are intellectually thriving, vigorous, and as full of surprise as ever.

“The mathematical and physical sciences are not only thriving. They remain an area of science with a very wide potential for technological payoff.... The knowledge base and the source of technical talent for such areas -- indeed, the training ground for at least half of all scientists now employed in U.S. industry -- are found in the mathematical and physical sciences.

“In addition, the interplay among physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and the materials sciences is rapidly creating the knowledge necessary to design and engineer at a molecular level, laying the foundation for a new wave of high-tech material revolutions in the 21st century....

“The argument put forward here rests on a basic premise that should be made explicit: Investment in the creation of fundamental new knowledge is one of the best ways to create new technological payoffs.

“In the past, the creation of fundamental new knowledge was a task shared by government, academia, and industry alike. Corporate research laboratories made major contributions -- such as the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs. So did the federal government’s national laboratories This era, however, is rapidly coming to a close... Thus federal investments in the creation of new knowledge at universities play an increasingly critical strategic role in the nation’s technological future.

“Far from being dead, the mathematical and physical sciences underpin the future. They are just now ready for prime time; their era of maximum social and economic payoff is still to come.”

Information on NSF publications is available by calling 703-306-1130.