America’s new era of private science
The future of innovation may be research outside universities.
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Scientists at the University of Minnesota have created SpudCell, the first synthetic cell to complete a full life cycle – from birth to division into next-generation cells – after being made from lifeless chemicals.
PHOTO: ADAMALA LAB
The Economist
The years since World War II have been good to American science. The country’s researchers sent man to the moon, invented the modern computer and led the sequencing of the human genome. Its government funded basic research in academia and national labs, which could then pass on findings with commercial promise to firms.
Now there are signs the innovation machine is breaking down. The system’s critics fret that America’s scientific infrastructure encourages groupthink, since a small number of committees distribute a large share of funding for basic research.