The following is the text of a letter that I wrote in 1994 in response to a request by the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation:

Thank you for your letter of August 22, 1994, soliciting comments and suggestions concerning budget priorities for the MPS Directorate. Generally speaking, I believe the NSF has done an excellent job allocating limited resources. My suggestions have more to do with selling the support of science to citizens and developing an interest in science among children.

Let me begin with a contextual overview. My own field of research is gravitation theory, specifically the construction of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations. Long ago, for the decade following graduate school, I worked on elementary particle theory. Although I have performed theoretical research for most of my life, I have a considerable appreciation of experimental physics and even engineering. One of my most rewarding teaching experiences involved the creation, design and teaching of laboratories in analog and digital circuitry, and I even have a patent on a bombing method that I developed while I was employed by Norden Laboratories one summer while I was an undergraduate.

It is probably too much to expect that a state sponsor of science can ever be in the right place at the right time, when it comes to the really great events in the history of science, such as the formulation of the relativity and quantum theories. It is far easier to identify projects that will contribute incrementally to the knowledge base than ones which will revolutionize the way we think about things.

Yet, somehow, we should try to establish conditions that may occasionally foster really great science. Clearly a revival of the educational system is long overdue, but probably that will not be possible until there is a major shift in priorities of the citizenry, the realization of which should be the number one concern of the National Science Foundation.

Surely more could be done using television to expose children (and adults) to all aspects of science. In recent years, archeology and medicine have been covered quite well, but it has been a long time since mathematics, physics and chemistry have been depicted in a way that might engage young minds, or incline adults to support basic science. Too often TV productions about basic science have consisted of frankly boring interviews with scientists, whose dramatic abilities are as undistinguished as their scientific abilities are great.

One effective series was "Connections," which attempted to convey a sense of the interdependence of diverse discoveries and inventions. Would that a Ken Burns would produce a series about science that would grip an audience as effectively as did his series on the Civil War!

In a free society, everything depends upon the whims of its citizens, whose commitment to the Arts and Sciences may be capricious, unless they develop as enduring a pride in artistic and scientific achievements as they seem to have developed regarding sports accomplishments.

I believe attempts to convince citizens to support science by emphasizing short-term practical benefits, or to convince youngsters to study science by emphasizing how much fun it is, are misguided. Can you imagine trying to convince the people of thirteenth century Paris to pay for the construction of the Notre Dame cathedral by emphasizing that it will provide a roof over the congregation, or trying to convince children to become masons, so that they can experience the fun of building such a structure? If a higher purpose, one with intangible benefits, had not been emphasized, it is doubtful that anyone would have seen the project through.

Therefore, let us emphasize not the practical benefits that may be derived from scientific investigation, or how much fun it is, but let us emphasize instead our insatiable appetite to understand better our place in the Universe. Let us have no preconceived notion as to where scientific enquiry will lead us, but rather let us have a mind that is open to the discovery of unanticipated new ways to look at the Universe that we inhabit. Let our intellectual cathedrals (greatest scientific achievements) be testaments to our having been interested in more than just our daily bread.

Frederick J. Ernst
FJE ENTERPRISES