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The term retrospectroscope is most often credited to Dr. Julius Comroe, founder of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. A brilliant physiologist and pulmonologist, he also did detailed analyses of the long, fraught pathways leading to medical and non-medical discoveries.

Some of this work was published in his 1977 book, Retrospectroscope. The title is a clever blend of "retrospect," meaning a review of past events, and "-scope," a suffix for an instrument used for viewing. Dr. Comroe's concept of the "retrospectroscope" highlights how medical breakthroughs often emerge from basic research that initially seemed unrelated to future applications. Some examples: The early use of ether and chloroform for surgical anesthesia emerged from basic chemistry research into the properties of gases, physiological studies of breathing, and even recreational experimentation with "laughing gas" at parties; safe blood transfusion required the convergence of multiple discoveries, including blood typing (initially pursued for forensic purposes), basic research on chemical coagulation, methods for safe blood banking, and understanding how the immune system works — all developed without any intention of transfusing blood from one person into another. Basic biological research on the elaborate echolocation system in bats has led to the invention of devices that help blind people better navigate their environment, as well as major improvements in sonar technology and the development of self-driving vehicles.

Biologists studying how cockroaches can compress their bodies to enter crevices much smaller than their standing height inspired the development of compressible robots, which are palm-sized and used to navigate through rubble from earthquakes, explosions, or collapsed buildings where traditional robots cannot reach.

Velcro, a product that seems to be everywhere, was invented by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral in 1941 after returning from a hunting trip with his dog. When trying to brush burr seeds off the dog’s fur, he took note of the high force required to do the job. His curiosity led him to view the burrs under a microscope, and he saw that they had tiny hooks that grabbed onto loops in the dog’s fur. After a decade of trial and error, he found nylon to be the best material for his ingenious two-part fastening system, which was patented in 1955. Importantly, this invention required prior, unrelated knowledge of the physics and biology of seed dispersal, textile manufacturing, nylon chemistry, etc. Mr. de Mestral did not go hunting to find a way to keep a toddler’s shoes on, but his curiosity led to a remarkable product. Your smartphone’s GPS system would not exist without Einstein's theory of relativity (pure theoretical physics), satellite technology (from the space race), radio wave propagation studies, and advanced mathematics — none of which were developed with the goal of helping you find restaurants.

Dr. Comroe’s retrospectroscope is itself of critical importance now more than ever. As Congress takes an ax to basic science research, Japan, China and other countries are doubling down and recruiting many of our best and brightest in the process. An unbiased peek into the retrospectroscope will quickly reveal that, as a society, we are failing to see how important basic scientific research is to the quality of our daily lives. Because polio vaccines work so well, we no longer see people in iron lungs.

Anti-science sentiment stems partly from this “invisibility” and partly because science is inherently uncertain, giving the appearance of "changing stories" to people expecting immediate and definitive answers. The retrospectroscope shows us that scientific progress is messier and more indirect than it appears in hindsight.

Accordingly, the decision to decide what basic science research projects are worthy of funding must be left to scientists, not politicians. My hope is that someday we will all agree that curiosity-driven research, even when it seems "useless," often becomes the foundation for solving problems that we cannot yet envision.