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One big effect of the task-force approach has been to eliminate the rigid boundaries that once separated one science from another. Oilmen are experimenting with radiation; atomic scientists are exploring the properties of oil. The electrical industry has unearthed new chemicals, e.g., silicones, used in products ranging from synthetic rubber to children's "silly putty." Mathematicians have helped neurologists chart the workings of the brain. Working side by side, specialists in all fields have developed new families of alloys and plastics, found new uses for old, abundant materials.
Industry executives, who once minimized outlays for science because they were hard to justify to stockholders, play up research budgets as a powerful magnet for new capital. Reason: securities analysts and bankers have come to regard a company's research program as one of the most significant yardsticks of its future growth and ability to keep up with−or outdistance−competition.
Chemical companies such as Dow and Monsanto, among industry's heaviest spenders for research, trace 30% to 40% of 1956 sales volume directly to products developed through research in the past ten years; agrichemicals alone−fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, etc.−have become a $400 million-a-year industry in less than a decade. Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) estimates that every $1 invested in research will return $5. International Business Machines Corp. (research budget: $19 million) says that every product it sells today was developed from research. The U.S. as a whole, according to National Science Foundation's Director Raymond Ewell, has earned back $2,000 to $5,000 for every $100 spent for research and development in the past 25 years.
Most industry-sponsored research falls into three categories: 1) basic−the search for new knowledge with no immediate thought of commercial application but within the general framework of the company's interests, 2) applied−the hunt for specific information for practical purposes, and 3) development−converting theory into salable products or improved production processes.
Basic research is the least predictable and usually the cheapest. Applied research is costly, and it gets still more costly as it turns into developmental research. To test new ideas, modern industrial laboratories have all the production facilities of factories. In the big laboratories, some $25,000 to $50,000 is invested in equipment for every scientist employed. Because of this progressive cost, most companies cannot enter the research field unless they have some hope of commercial results.