Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute, gives examples of how discovery science has had a transformative impact:
- Lasers, merely a research curiosity at first, are now indispensable, used for cutting, welding, printing, CDs, bar codes, scanners, treating acne, treating kidney stones, eye surgery, dentistry, fingerprint analysis, holograms, and laser light shows.
- Studying the reproductive behavior of screwworms led to the eradication of them as a livestock pest and has saved $20 billion in the industry and reduced the price of beef by 5 percent.
- Green fluorescent protein (GFP) now used ubiquitously in lab research, was the result of studying why jellyfish glow.