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Aug 3, 2022

How blue-sky research shapes the future

Posted by in categories: physics, space

While driven by the desire to pursue curiosity, fundamental investigations are the crucial first step to innovation.


When scientists announced their discovery of gravitational waves in 2016, it made headlines all over the world. The existence of these invisible ripples in space-time had finally been confirmed.

It was a momentous feat in basic research, the curiosity-driven search for fundamental knowledge about the universe and the elements within it. Basic (or “blue-sky”) research is distinct from applied research, which is targeted toward developing or advancing technologies to solve a specific problem or to create a new product.

But the two are deeply connected.

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