Abstract
This review is the author's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, delivered in the Lecture Theatre of the Royal Institution and televised by the BBC on 10 April 1988. Previous Dimbleby Lectures, commemorating this great broadcaster and communicator, are listed in an appendix. The author pays tribute to Michael Faraday and shows how Faraday's pursuit of pure knowledge rather than applied research led him to the discovery of electromagnetic induction. This example of the great value of pure science has not been appreciated by recent British governments, and several instances are given of the decline of science in the United Kingdom. The importance of the whole scientific enterprise is stressed, and the two arms of the science–technology endeavour are analysed. The funding of scientific research is discussed, and the need for better education for science, as well as support for more public understanding of science, is emphasised. The author concludes that a country which does not appreciate the ultimate value of knowledge will become impoverished.
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