Should The Federal Government Point The Way For Science

Throughout the twentieth century, science and technology have become some of the most important concepts idealized by society. Funding for science and technology is the main driving force behind creating new inventions and producing new ideas. Throughout most of this century, the federal government has provided for the scientific world. By way of federal funding, the military was able to develop new weapons to better protect us in times of war. Nowadays, science and technology have expanded to other areas. Areas involved with medicine, computer technologies, and physics are among the few that have popped up in full force recently. In order to keep these scientific programs alive funding is necessary. Much of this research is performed in public institutions such as universities. Universities rely on federal grants to support their research. Without the help of institutions the scientific world would surely suffer. However, the federal government should not have control when allocating the funds. Decisions for funding should be decided by the experts in the field of science and technology. It is very important that the federal government fund science and scientific projects, but decisions need to be thought out and planned by people who have some experience in the field. This is why the federal government should not point the way for science, but rather give funding to the necessary areas and allow the experts to allocate the money.

Where would the scientific world be today without science and technology? Federal funding has been the main reason for its flourish. However, it has not been federal government decisions about allocating the funds that have helped to spur its growth. In today's high tech world science and technology have gotten expensive. More and more government funding has been necessary. While funding has been available towards scientific enhancement it is the issue of a allocating the funds that is important. The federal government is not very involved in the scientific community and would not have as much of an understanding about what areas to give the greatest amount of funding. Funding is best decided by those who are directly involved in science. Those experts who have had experience in science could make the most intelligent decisions. They could distribute the funds fairly and make decisions about which areas of science are most needed and most important. Many public institutions, such as universities and national laboratories, take in funding by the federal government. The funding that they receive helps to support the growth of science. The state or federal government may run the public institutions, but the students in the universities and scientists in the laboratories do the actual research. Funding is important to keep science alive, but what is more important is having the most qualified people allocating the funds for the benefit of science.

Science and technology, in the early part of this century, have benefited from the involvement of the government in determining where funds should be allocated. Back in the early to middle 1940's, when the United States was in the middle of World War II, advanced weapons were needed to stay ahead of the enemies. The federal government, best took care of allocation of funds toward defense. The government was in a better position to decide what needed to be built and could accurately predict what kind of arsenal was needed to protect the mainland. During times of war scientists could have no way of knowing what military defenses are needed. Scientists are not directly involved in the war and therefore could take an educated guess, at best, at what would be the best choice of weapons. Wartime is no time for allocating funds towards minute research programs. Scientists need to be informed and allocated with as much funding as possible for defense. The decisions that are made regarding the funds have the best chance of being beneficial by war experts and people within national defense. However, issues such as another World War are regarded as being ludicrous. Ever since the end of the Cold War, military funding