Research focuses on long-run
University stresses academic freedom over immediate results
This is the second in a three-part series
examining the role of the University and
high-technology industry in diversifying
Eugene's economy, what advances are
being made and what problems the
University and Eugene face in making a
high-tech dream become reality
By Sandy Johnstone
Of th* Emerald
Research is the backbone of the
University — but upon close examina
tion, little research that will benefit in
dustry immediately (applied research) is
being conducted here
It is the indirect, or basic, research
conducted at the University that even
tually may help high tech
"Most research advances are made by
allowing very bright people freedom to
follow their noses, not to constrain
themselves to a particular type of re
search that has applied dimensions,'
says Robert Berdahl, dean of the arts and
sciences college
The best research labs allow scientists
that much freedom to avoid conducting
narrowly focused research, he says
Pure science is absolutely essential,”
Berdahl says Any university that tries to
concentrate only on applied science
sometimes constrains scholars and
limits results, he says
"Education doesn't know where it’s
going and it can't," says Frank Stahl, a
University biology professor "You can’t
have applied science unless you're
strong in basic science
Although the molecular biology
department works mainly in basic
science. Stahl says a bit of information
discovered here can be plugged into
technology to increase the usefulness of
a product."
r
If high-tech companies jump on a
scientific advancement, they can reap
some benefit from it. he adds
Industry is paying more attention to
research and technological develop
ments these days, says Peter von Hippel.
head of the chemistry department
“In the past most industries have not
been interested in research unless they
can see the profit or product in a few
years,” he says "Now they are realizing
when basic research stops so will other
discoveries
He says industry must realize that
scientific investigation into a problem,
such as cancer, is essential.
“Something like cancer can only be
understood against a background of
basic science," von Hippel says “This
country is, on the whole, the most suc
cessful basic research country in the
world because they unleashed profes
sors to do their work."
Most research in the math department
does not have immediate application to
industry, says Theodore Palmer, head of
the department
"On the other hand, the kind of exper
tise we have here can be applied to all
sorts of problems In the past we have
consulted in areas not in line with our
own research," he says.
Some research which may lead to
developments in industry is being con
ducted at the University
Stahl points to his work with the virus
Lambda, which is widely used in gene
cloning His research answered a basic
question about the cloning process and
is used widely in the field
“The usefulness of Lambda is depen
dent on years of research about the
virus Armed with the basic knowledge
we can alter it and make it suitable for a
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carrier of genes of other creatures,"
Stahl explains
Gene cloning can inexpensively
produce human insulin for diabetics,
who usually get insulin from pigs and
cows Human insulin is cheaper because
of high food prices for animals and more
effective for diabetics to use because of
a slight difference between animal and
human insulin
Gene-cloning techniques allow scien
tists to isolate the gene that dictates
insulin production Transferring that
gene into another cell produces human
insulin
“It's no where near as hard as one
might think, and if it works as well as one
suspects it will be on the market soon,"
Stahl says
Gene cloning has other potential uses
as well, he adds
“You can change organisms to be
more like what you want — build your
own animal," Stahl says “We don't know
what the limit is."
Stahl says there is a possibility that
people will misuse this type of knowledge
— particularly if they can make a quick
buck
“Some will use it unwisely but we still
do not want to deny the dwarf full stature
or a person that chance of a complete
cure for a tumor
"These things will come from this re
search,” Stahl says "Any new informa
tion about the nature of humankind will
help understand it better.''
Mathematician Palmer stresses the
importance of "bio-tech" and math re
search to different areas of industry
"Many people feel “bio-tech” may be
even more economically important than
electronics and data processing are
now, and that is an area the University is
r
Graphic by Shawn Bird
very strong,” he says.
"Math is different from others because
any type of industry will have problems of
a mathematical nature, where as
Tektronics doesn't care about bio-tech
and a bio-tech company doesn't care
about computers.”
And right now, many computer com
panies may not be interested in the re
search the computer science depart
ment is conducting
“We re not hardware oriented — and a
lot of companies are looking for ways to
build a new idea — but our research is
going to be more important in the long
run,” says Art Farley, computer science
department head
The types of software researchers are
working on include computer vision,
robotics and artificial intelligence
"Software is what we need to make the
systems usable — to put smart programs
on these systems,” says Farley "The
hardware explosion can be important
and significant, but it takes the software
to make it able to really interact with the
naive user
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