[LINK] The black hole image came thanks to student Katie Bouman, half a tonne of hard drives and a big coincidence - Science News - ABC News

[Roger Clarke]

Just one query.

On 12/4/19 11:24 am, David wrote:
... [lots of interesting stuff ...]
> ... General Relativity and immunotherapies for cancer come from the same intellectual tradition - we don't get one without the other.

Are you proposing that General Relativity Theory is a necessary 
precursor to immunotherapies for cancer, or just a fellow traveller?

If the former, I'll do a Pauline and say 'please explain'.

If the latter, I'd argue that we apply some scepticism to research 
proposals, in the immunotherapy area as in all other areas, and make 
people jump through hoops, initially give them only small amounts of 
funding, and only give them more as positive outcomes are demonstrated.

Okay, that's an over-simplification, not least because the human fear of 
death puts rose-coloured glasses on people when it comes to medical 
research proposals;  and research funding is subject to bandwagon 
effects, etc.

But my point is that we expect payback on public investment.

It's one thing to fund theoretical physicists sitting in offices, using 
whiteboards, and using their share of cheap data-processing facilities.

It's quite another to build dedicated facilities at vast expense, and 
burn large amounts of energy and people's salaries, supporting 
alice-in-wonderland high-science.


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University