No free lunch: Industrial funding and research

We need more and more science. Scientists have always demanded this, it seems the economy really does need it, and politicians have woken up to the truth of it. The universe is infinite, even our modest little planet is pretty impressive, so there's a lot of science to be done, and we need to know ever more if we are to succeed as a nation in the 21st Century. Only countries that keep ahead in the knowledge race can hope to compete, and that means shovelling more and more money into research.