Fifty-six years ago today, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into low-earth orbit, making it the first man-made Earth satellite. America, meanwhile, was launched into a state of ...

The 2026 Golden Goose Awards, an honor spotlighting obscure, often trivial sounding basic research that ultimately yields ...

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) have announced the 2025 Golden Goose Awards, a recognition that spotlights obscure, ...

Our Faculty is committed to sustained basic research. Without it, we cannot deliver scientific breakthroughs or innovations. Basic research provides the foundation for all scholarly research. It ...

A collage of images including people in a lab, Chinese currency, and a person wearing full personal protective gear and holding up a test tube. China is accelerating spending in basic research to push ...

In our fast-paced modern world there is an expectation that scientific breakthroughs occur quickly and efficiently. We are bombarded with headlines hyping new findings: Scientists “find cure for ...

Earth science is a quest for fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution, and future of the natural world. Opportunities in this science have been opened up by major improvements in techniques ...

A new call to abolish the concept of “applied research” comes from a surprising source: the founding dean of Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Before ...

As the federal administration has moved to slash public funding for research and education at all levels, and as the government now enters into what could be a prolonged shutdown, many researchers are ...

Scientists have always needed someone to help foot the bill for their work. In the 19th century, for example, Charles Darwin made an expensive voyage to the southernmost tip of the Americas, visiting ...

Patents manage technology. They are a contract between an applicant and the government whereby, in return for a written disclosure of the technological invention, the United States Patent and ...