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THE Prime Minister espoused the cause of basic research last week in
her lecture to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee to mark its 50th
anniversary. ‘The greatest economic benefits of scientific research have
always resulted from advances in fundamental knowledge rather than the search
for specific applications,’ Margaret Thatcher said.

Thatcher then went on to give examples of what she meant. ‘Transistors
were not discovered by the entertainments industry seeking new ways of marketing
pop music but by people working on wave mechanics and solid-state physics.’
She gave nuclear energy as another example: it ‘was not discovered by oil
companies with large budgets seeking alternative forms of energy, but by
scientists like Einstein and Rutherford’.

This emphasis on basic research contrasts with the government’s policy
of a few years ago when universities were urged to conduct research that
might deliver short-term benefits. The Prime Minister, who takes a personal
interest in meetings of the government’s Adivisory Committee on Science
and Technology, now says: ‘The majority but not all of basic research is
rightly funded through the public purse by way of universities and scientific
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One consequence of the earlier policy was that funding bodies emphasised
short-term returns when allocating funds. This is no longer acceptable,
says Thatcher. ‘The economic rewards of basic research are quite unpredictable
and therefore there is no point in dwelling on them when deciding which
projects to fund.’

The Prime Minister has continuing doubts about the way in which funds
are allocated. ‘I for one remain concerned that our procedures are still
too bureaucratic. The money should go to research in the field, not to top-heavy
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Thatcher was speaking the day before the House of Lords first debated
the government’s bill to control embryo research. She said on this subject
that ‘the capacity to do research is not in doubt, but some aspects dealt
with in the Warnock report – such as cloning, hybridisation and research
on the human embryo – give rise to very strong feelings on both sides of
the argument’. Hybridisation and cloning, she said, ‘are not difficult to
rule out’. But, ‘the precise limits to research on the human embryo are
more difficult to determine’.

She urged parliament to ‘study the best scientific advice’. However,
‘in the end it will be personal conviction, in the light of all the facts,
that will determine the result of the vote on the limits we set to research
on the human embryo’.