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Book synopsis

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.

Book details

Book category Books in English Humanities Philosophy Ethics & moral philosophy

• Full title: Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
• Author: Abraham Flexner, Robert Dijkgraaf
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 104
• EAN: 9780691174761
• ISBN: 0691174768
• ID: 14433348
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Weight: 184 g
• Dimensions: 189 × 129 × 14 mm
• Date of publishing: 21. February 2017

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