8 Forces Driving More
interests would, at least theoretically, eliminate any strings or ulterior
agendas.
The second leg was the expectation of science. New innovations
are the offspring of fundamental or basic research. Before livestock
farmers could deploy new vaccines, research was needed to establish
how animals contracted disease. Before grain farmers could benefit
from fungal-resistant seed varieties, scientists had to understand how
fungi spread through crop fields. Since taxpayers were picking up the
tab, it was only fitting that basic research should be disseminated pub-
licly in order to enlighten society.
Next was upholding the “scientific method.” From our ancestors
asking themselves why some grasses contained more seeds or some
trees bore more fruit emerged the process of gathering evidence, docu-
menting findings, and submitting the results to be peer-reviewed by
other experts. This stepwise approach, universally accepted worldwide,
is at the core of sound science. As Carl Sagan aptly pointed out, “The
method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more
important than the findings of science.”
The last leg dealt with the results. The objective of science was to
provide unbiased findings using available evidence. When the find-
ings were used in a nonpartisan fashion, they served to improve delib-
erations and enhance policy decisions. The role of science was not to
prescribe policy, but rather to inform society and its representatives
setting public policy so that better decisions could follow.
To carry out research, universities divided broad domains of science
into colleges. Each college was further subdivided into departments.
And each department recruited scientists to work in narrow fields of
study. This approach helped create scientific communities that even-
tually extended worldwide. With each scientist both publishing and
peer-reviewing the work of others, contributions built on past research
were shared openly with the public and became stepping stones to ad-
vance future research.
In this manner, we learned that diseases were caused by infectious
organisms or the toxins they produced. What became known as germ
theory freed societies from the erroneous belief that malaria (“bad air”
in Italian) emanated from swamp fumes. Sometimes accumulating
new evidence took decades, or even longer. The discovery of vitamins