Scientific research should improve our overall quality of life. The government should prov
ide financial and political support to any research that is likely to result in immediate
and significant benefits for the people. However, people's ideas 1) vary when it comes to
whether the government should support scientific research with no practical use. Still 2)
a large portion of people believe that the government should distribute adequate funds to
any scientific research that aims to improve the 3) well-being of people, even if it is of
no practical use in the short run.
Scientific research whose social benefits are immediate, predictable, and 4) profound
should continue to be a high priority. For example, biotech
nology research has been proven to help cure and prevent diseases; information technology
enables education to be more 5) accessible; and communication technology facilitates globa
l peace by improving mutual understanding among people and their participation in the demo
cratic process.
However, this is not to say that research whose benefits are less immediate
or clear should be given a lower priority. It is difficult to predict which research will
6) ultimately lead to the greatest contributions to society. Reluctance to finance less p
ractical scientific research could 7) have a harmful effect on the efforts to explore new
knowledge. This is particularly true of the computer sciences. For instance, before the fi
rst computer was invented, public opinions 8) went against it, as most people saw nothing
practical in computer research. However, computers transformed the way human society evolv
ed and proved to be of great avail in the long run, especially in terms of scientific deve
lopment in fields such as the military, medicine, 9) aviation, and education.
Therefore, never should we think that scientific research whose benefits
are unknown 10) is not worth pursuing since the purpose of any
research should be to discover truths, whatever it might be.