No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We're Switching Off

Summary

Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What do they do? And more importantly, why should anyone (outside of universities) care? (Unfortunately, you won’t see answers to these questions in the general press – it’s not clickbait enough. Nor will you read about it in the science journals– it’s not technical enough. You won’t hear a succinct description from any of the universities under fire, either – they’ve long lost the ability to connect the value of their work to the day-to-day life of the general public.) In this post I’m going to describe how science works, how science and engineering have worked together to build innovative startups and companies in the U.S.—and why you should care. (In a previous post I described how the U.S. built a science and technology ecosystem and why investment in science is directly correlated with a country’s national power. I suggest you read it first.) How Science Works I was older than I care to admit when I finally understood the difference between a scientist, an engineer, an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist; and the role that each played in the creation of advancements that made our economy thrive, our defense strong and America great. Scientists Scientists (sometimes called researchers) are the people who ask lots of questions about why and how things work. They don’t know the answers. Scientists are driven by curiosity, willing to make educated guesses (the fancy word is hypotheses) and run experiments to test their guesses. Most of the time their hypotheses are wrong. But every time they’re right they move the human race forward. We get new medicines, cures for diseases, new consumer goods, better and cheaper foods, etc. Scientists tend to specialize in one area – biology, medical research, physics, agriculture, computer science, materials, math, etc. — although a few mov...