The Gray Zone

Artist's conception of fusion power plant

Artist's rendering of a fusion power plant

The distinction between basic and applied research isn't always clear. It sometimes depends on your perspective or point of view. According to Dr. Ashok Gadgil of LBNL, one way to look at it is to ask the following question: "How long will it be before some practical application results from the research ?"

If a practical use is only a few years away, then the work can be defined as strictly applied research.
If a practical use is still 20-50 years away, then the work is somewhat applied and somewhat basic in nature.
If a practical use cannot be envisioned in the foreseeable future, then the work can be described as purely basic research.

For example, for some time now, a fair amount of research has been underway on developing fusion reactors to provide a controlled energy source for cities. There is a clear applied goal to this work, yet there are so many technical obstacles to overcome that it may be another 30 to 50 years before we see a functional fusion reactor in use. The development of fusion energy could be regarded as both basic and applied research.

Superconductivity is another research area that falls into this gray zone. Most conductors of electricity are not very efficient; some energy is lost as heat as the electricity passes through the (typically metallic) conductor. Superconductors are materials that lose little or no energy as electricity passes through them. However, the earliest superconductors had to be cooled with expensive liquid helium to temperatures below -269 ƒC to work properly. Newer materials have been developed in recent years that show superconductive properties at much warmer temperatures, requiring only inexpensive liquid nitrogen to be sufficiently cooled.

Clearly, the development of new superconductive materials falls into the realm of basic research. However, if and when superconductive materials are developed that can be used as easily as copper wire, many important practical applications will soon follow, including providing electricity to cities much more efficiently.