When Does Congress Know Better Than Science?

       There are a couple of Congressmen and Senators who are pushing to limit grants for scientific research only to those which are specifically in the national interest. They specifically don't want any of those grants to pet projects with funny names. So they want to reign in the National Science Foundation and stop them from giving out taxpayer money to silly non-national interest research.
       The NSF has given a couple of examples of silly named, pet project, research. One was called BackRub. Can you imagine all the fun Congress could have had with that grant application? You'd think that example would be one that Congress would have turned down flat. But as it turns out, that one led to the beginning of Google.
       Another example was an end of year add on to an existing grant that wound up developing Internet Explorer and Netscape Explorer. The point is that unless you have a very accurate crystal ball, you can't possibly know which research will wind up being the "Best" research that Congress is trying to make sure the NSF funds and no other silly stuff. Well, except that these two, in particular, were silly stuff, until they stopped being silly and became giant breakthroughs of national interest.
       Now I know that Senator Rand Paul is able to tell the future of any and every research project, and by their names alone, whether or not they will turn out to be a silly waste of time and money. And Rep Lamar Smith, of Texas, has always known what's a waste of time and money, namely anything that suggests the world isn't flat and Adam and Eve didn't have a herd of dairy dinosaurs.
       But speaking for the rest of mankind, I'd have to say, 'ya never know.' Here's the thing though, if these two mental midgets had had their way, we might never have advanced nearly as far as we have. And given the opportunity, they just might severely limit our future.