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Since the peak of federal science funding was passed in the United States in about 1966, there has been evident a growing gap between research opportuni ties and financial resources in science. In academic science available support measured in dollars of constant purchasing power per eligible active investigator has declined by more than a factor of two. * Such a development was inevitable eventually, and had been predicted by many, but it burst upon the scientific world as a surprise after centuries of nearly uninterrupted growth of science and technology. Of course, during most of this time the scientific community was so small that its claim on economic resources was scarcely noticeable, so that science could advance almost independently of the state of the economy. Even in the Depression of the 1930s the national scientific enterprise continued to grow in both funding and employment, in each year of the decade except 1932-34. The average annual real growth was between 7 percent and 9 percent between 1930 and 1940.2 Thus, an actual decline in support and manpower is a relatively new phenomenon, even though particular institutions, such as government lab oratories, have suffered severe temporary cutbacks.
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