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Critics also argue with some truth that U.S. business, in its competitive haste to get new products to market, spends too little on basic or pure research to find new breakthroughs, too much on applied research to convert new discoveries into goods and services. Vice President Richard Nixon last week recommended that business join with states and the Federal Government to supply funds for a number of basic research institutes at universities, which would engage in the indispensable exploration of the unknown by "the basic research man . . . who will make the breakthroughs upon which all the rest of our science and technology depends."
Some of the U.S. firms that have been doing research longest realize the importance of basic research, give their scientists considerable free rein to explore new fields. The Martin Co.'s Research Institute for Advanced Studies, on an old estate in Baltimore, allows some 100 scientists to roam about freely on the frontiers of advanced mathematics, solid-state physics and gravity.
Looking Ahead. With more emphasis on basic research, the new products that lie just ahead promise marvels eclipsing even what the U.S. has accomplished since World War II. Within a year or two, electronic ovens may be available for every home. They will cook a steak in two minutes, a baked potato in four seconds, greaselessly so that the oven never needs cleaning. An ultrasonic breakthrough in the use of sound waves for cleaning promises dishwashing in minutes without water. Shoes and clothes may be whisked spotless ultrasonically as the wearer enters the house.
Thermoelectrics—the use of electricity in metal to produce heat and cold with no moving parts—will make possible a combined refrigerator and cooking element. The union of thermoelectrics and electroluminescence promises wall panels that automatically heat or cool, change colors and brightness to suit the mood and weather of the day. Windows will automatically close at the first drop of rain, reopen when the sun comes out. Throw-away plastic dishes will be made in every kitchen at the touch of a button.
Fuel Cells & Rocket Belts. The next major U.S. inventive breakthrough comparable to the transistor may well be the fuel cell—a cheap, efficient, reliable way of converting fuel to electricity with no moving parts. Some 50 U.S. companies are working on the problem; when it is solved, it will provide a compact, noiseless power source for propulsion, lighting, heating, may even bring back the electric auto. The ancient dream of man, individual flight, perhaps with a scuba-like rocket belt, is under serious development. The U.S. Army has awarded Bell Aero-systems a $60,000 research contract for a rocket belt, and Bell believes it can build one in less than two years.
In the first year of the decade of the '60s, the U.S. economy has paused for breath, seems to be going nowhere in particular. Some economists are once again talking about a mature economy, worry that there are no new breakthroughs in sight to give the nation a great forward push such as the auto and electronics did. But the past shows that such worries about the future are groundless. The pace of research is such that man's next great discovery may come next month, next week—or tomorrow.