The Importance of Useful Science

It is the intention of useful science to contribute to the accumulation of general knowledge. This is the principal goal of research journals. However, it cannot be their sole objective. A good paper can be misinterpreted, or even judged as unsuitable for publishing due to its lack of utility.

The pursuit of pure knowledge should not be stifled by calls for relevance. In reality, practical questions could inspire new pure research. (For example, Michael Faraday’s electrical experiments were sparked by his curiosity about lightning).

We also know that technological applications come from many different sources. For mpgpress.com/generated-post-2/ example the medical mission to Easter Island focused on the people’s unique resistance to tetanus, but the subsequent transfer of soil samples from that location to Ayerst Pharmaceuticals spurred further investigations into natural antimicrobials.

These examples prove that the distinction between pure research’ and applied research is a misunderstanding. A more productive criterion is to encourage the development of a wide variety of practical applications that could be drawn from research findings and to develop the skills of scientists so that they can recognise potential usefulness in their research. This is a key objective of translational ecology, which seeks to transform the basic/applied science paradigm by explicitly involving key stakeholders in the generation and application of knowledge from science (Enquist and others. 2017).

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