CURIOSITY BRINGS ADDED VALUE
We must support fundamental research, write
Where will the next important research breakthrough come from? How will it revolutionize the way we live or work? It is impossible to predict. We can only be sure of where the journey begins: with a curious researcher testing and analyzing new, untried ideas and theories.
Fundamental research — research that has no immediate goal — underlies every great invention and economic change. It’s risky and unpredictable but essential.
When the federal fundamental science review panel issued its report and recommendations in 2017, our beliefs were confirmed regarding the steep decline in Canadian research competitiveness compared to other countries.
As we look for ways to turn innovations into marketable products and services, we enjoy the support of government through programs and organizations such as Canada’s Innovation and Skills plan and Alberta Innovates.
But we must not lose sight of the importance of funding fundamental research, the starting point for any important breakthrough.
Innovation is driven by curious people asking challenging questions. Finding the answers usually takes years of dedicated scientific inquiry. Often, they find solutions to questions they didn’t even know to ask.
At the University of Calgary, engineering professor Ian Gates wondered if there were better ways to upgrade bitumen. His team’s experiments led to a seemingly unusable product: small bitumen pellets. Gates put his results on the shelf and moved on.
Then, with Alberta’s oilsands companies struggling to build pipelines, Gates realized his discovery could open up a marketable method of cheaply and safely transporting Alberta’s oil reserves by rail. The bitumen balls vastly reduce the chance of a spill. Gates patented the discovery, partnered with Innovate Calgary to commercialize it, and will pilot the project this fall.
Similar unexpected discoveries in the social sciences and the humanities can provide huge social benefits.
In 2014, the Alberta government used the Early Development Instrument to determine how prepared children were for kindergarten. The study revealed Alberta children were below the Canadian average.
At the same time, Robbin Gibb, Claudia Gonzalez and Noella Piquette, and an interdisciplinary team in the fields of neuroscience, kinesiology, and education at the University of Lethbridge, discovered a link between key cognitive abilities and hand preference. Simply stated, children who prefer using one hand over the other have better cognitive control of behaviour.
They also have better language reception and production skills. These fundamental research discoveries led to a program now offered in preschools and daycares in southern Alberta, which aims to improve children’s executive function through physical activity. The goal? All children being better prepared for schooling.
When a discovery is announced, the reaction can often be: what is it good for? Not all fundamental research immediately contributes to economic prosperity or physical well-being. The process of discovery is often incremental, building on what has come before.
In the 1950s, Japanese physicist Leo Esaki first observed negative differential resistance (NDR), which led to the Esaki tunnelling diode, the world’s first quan- tum electron device.
The commercial potential of the Esaki diode was never fully realized because no one could control the unpredictability of NDR — until now. Earlier this year, physicist Robert Wolkow and his team of researchers at the University of Alberta figured out how to control and replicate the effect within atoms.
They also developed techniques to create atomic-sized electrical circuits. Brought together, these discoveries — based on decades of fundamental research — have the potential to revolutionize conventional electronics.
Curiosity and research matter. When researchers collaborate with entrepreneurs and industry, the journey of discovery transforms into something more.
Technical innovations, data for future studies, solutions to challenging problems, new jobs — these are just a few of the social and economic benefits. This is why we need to invest broadly in fundamental research. This isn’t research for the sake of research; it’s human exploration for the benefit of all.