Sample Response with a Score of 6Engineers are fond of pointing out that scientific applications are essentially
what makes science worthwhile; they scoff at theoreticians who spend their days
“contemplating” and “pontificating” without producing real-world results. And
while it can’t be denied that applied research is vital to continued societal progress,
I disagree with the statement that most of the money devoted to basic scientific
research should instead be diverted to applied scientific research. Funds should
be used in a balanced manner to support both types of research, because both are
highly important.
If most of the money now used for basic science research was diverted away,
this might cause the progress of basic science research to dwindle, which could
thwart scientific advancement. Funding should continue to be devoted to basic
scientific research, because it has value in its own right. On a fundamental level,
basic scientific research enables us to expand our base of scientific knowledge. This
type of research is responsible for the discovery of compounds and principles; it
is responsible for teaching us about the properties of various elements; and it is
crucial for identifying cause/effect relationships between factors in the physical
world. Imagine where modern medicine would be without the fortuitous accident
that enabled the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. Had Fleming
not conducted basic research to confirm the action of penicillin and identify its
properties, many of us would not be here today.
Basic scientific research is also a necessary precursor to applied scientific
research; without it, there would be no knowledge to apply. When a compound
or concept is discovered, it can often take years of learning before the scientific
community is ready to put that principle into action. Electricity was discovered
many years before Samuel Morse and colleagues used it in the 1830s to create the
first electric telegraph—yet without the basic research conducted on electricity as
far back as Benjamin Franklin’s day, Morse would not have had the building blocks
necessary to apply in constructing his machine.
Basic scientific research is also a necessary component of progress using the
scientific method. Great leaps in science tend to progress in paradigm shifts.
Scientists will begin to examine an area and develop new knowledge in it until
eventually, a large-scale “shift” happens in the predominant beliefs about that
subject, and the scientific community as a whole comes over to a new way of
thinking. An example of this is the shift in popular thinking regarding the idea
that the earth revolves around the sun. It took many years from the time that
Copernicus first conceptualized the sun-centered model before this perspective
was accepted by society as a whole, and the shift would never have happened
without the help of key inventions, such as the telescope. Discoveries that are
made now, about basic and fundamental ideas, may lead to scientific applications
down the road that would not be accepted by the scientific community at the time
the original ideas are formed. Science progresses in increments, and basic science
research provides the building blocks necessary for applications that can only
manifest later, when popular opinion is ready to adopt the new ideas.
At the same time as money should be devoted to basic science research, funds
should also be used to support applied scientific research. Applied scientific504 PART 5 ■ GRE PRACTICE TESTS05-GRE-Test-2018_463-582.indd 504 12/05/17 12:14 pm