A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge," Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the man who helped bring Albert Einstein to the United States, describes a great paradox of scientific research. The search for answers to deep questions, motivated solely by curiosity and without concern for applications, often leads not only to the greatest scientific discoveries but also to the most revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In short, no quantum mechanics, no computer chips. This brief book includes Flexner's timeless 1939 essay alongside a new companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the Institute's current director, in which he shows that Flexner's defense of the value of "the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge" may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation and the first step in social and cultural change. He makes the case that society can achieve deeper understanding and practical progress today and tomorrow only by truly valuing and substantially funding the curiosity-driven "pursuit of useless knowledge" in both the sciences and the humanities.

Covers topics in philosophy, psychology, and scientific methods. Vols. 31- include "A Bibliography of philosophy," 1933-

Vols. 28-30 accompanied by separately published parts with title: Indices and necrology.

"Teachers' bulletin", vol. 4- issued as part of v. 23, no. 9-

Martin Gardner, author of numerous books on science, mathematics, and pseudo-science, has assembled thirty-four extraordinary essays by eminent philosophers, scientists, and writers on the fundamental aspects of modern science. As Gardner makes clear in his preface to the formerly titled Sacred Beetle and Other Great Essays in Science, his intent is not to teach the reader science or to report on the latest trends and discoveries. "Rather, the purpose of this book is to spread before the reader, whether his or her interest in science be passionate or mild, a sumptuous feast of great writing - absorbing, thought-disturbing pieces that have something to say about science and say it forcibly and well." Gardner's entertaining biographical commentaries make Great Essays in Science a rich store of good reading and an informal history of the people and ideas that have shaped our culture and transformed our everyday lives. This collection includes works by Isaac Asimov, Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, John Dewey, Albert Einstein, Jean Henri Fabre, Sigmund Freud, Stephen Jay Gould, Aldous Huxley, Julian Huxley, William James, Ernest Nagel, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan, Lewis Thomas, H.G. Wells, and others.

This insightful work presents the collected essays of Thomas Henry Huxley. He was a renowned English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He was popularly known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for supporting Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. In addition, Huxley is famous for coining the term "agnosticism" and elaborated on it to state the nature of claims regarding what is knowable and what is not. This collection of his addresses, lectures, and essays is a must-read for anyone curious about evolution theory and biology. Contents include: Science and Culture Universities: Actual and Ideal Technical Education Elementary Instruction in Physiology Joseph Priestley On the Method of Zadig On the Border Territory Between the Animal and the Vegetable Kingdoms On Certain Errors Respecting the Structure of the Heart Attributed to Aristotle On the Hypothesis That Animals Are Automata, and Its History On Sensation and the Unity of Structure of the Sensiferous Organs Evolution in Biology The Coming of Age of "the Origin of Species" The Connection of the Biological Sciences With Medicine

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