Kickstarting science: crowdfunding as a cure for scientific research compromised by the pursuit of grant money

Sandia Labs

We all like to think of science as a pure discipline, something that holds the pursuit of knowledge above all else. But things are very different in practice. Like everything else, scientific research requires money. And unlike with other professions, there are not many people willing to pay directly for the services of a scientist. Most scientific research, therefore, are funded by government and industry.

Money is a scarce resource, so the unfortunate truth is that researchers are forced to spend time and effort competing for grant money — time and effort they could have spent on their work (by some estimates, researchers spend as much as three months a year writing grant proposals, most of which they don’t get). Not only do they have to compete with other researchers for a cut of the science budget, they also have to compete with all other budgets of the funding organization. Whether it is in government or industry, it is well known that when the budget ax falls during tough times, it usually falls on the science budget first. Science is a long term enterprise: for most people, it appears as a money sink with no near term benefit. And we live in a world that is increasingly near term oriented.

Light field videography

Multi Camera Array, Stanford University

Imagine a camera that can take photographs in such a way that when they are displayed, they appear as if you are looking through a window at the actual scene rather than at a flat image. You not only perceive depth, but the perspective actually shifts as you move your head to and fro, and side to side. If an object inside the image blocks your view, you can even look around it, as far as the border of the image allows. This is light field photography and it exists today. In fact, the Lytro, a small commercially available light field camera allows you to refocus a photograph after you've taken it, and even shift perspective within a narrow viewing angle.