"If you don't invest in basic research at some stage you start losing the basis of applied research."

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Most of my scientific work has been basic research. There were no immediate uses for my discoveries, but today the radioisotopes are the workhorses of nuclear medicine, an isotope of plutonium is a major energy source in the space program, and the element americium is critical to the smoke detectors in every house in the country.

— Glenn T. Seaborg