The main problem of Russian science
Thank you, no needNobel laureate reproaches Russian economy for not needing science
Zhanna Juror, Novye IzvestiaYesterday, the famous physicist, Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Alferov diagnosed a disease that affects Russian science.
According to him, it's not just the lack of proper funding. "Now the most important problem is that our practical results are not in demand in our country by either the economy or society," the academician noted. Other experts with whom NI spoke agree with him.
According to Zhores Alferov, "the most important problem of Russian science now is not even low funding, which, despite its improvement over the past eight years, is still several times lower than in Soviet times." "Now the most important problem is that our practical results are not in demand in our country by either the economy or society," the Nobel laureate is convinced. "Therefore, the only thing that can revive Russia is the revival of the high–tech industry."
"Fundamental research is not in demand now. The fact is that the modern social and economic system does not need scientific work," Boris Kagarlitsky, director of the Institute for Problems of Globalization and Social Movements, told NI. – The market cycle, that is, the time when any investments should begin to make a profit, is 3-5 years. The bulk of the research can benefit only after 10-15 years. And the market doesn't need them." According to the expert, the whole world science has been experiencing a crisis for a long time and is at an impasse. "Russia is not alone in this sense – what is happening here is happening all over the world," explains Mr. Kagarlitsky. – But we tend to have tantrums on the theme "everything is fine for everyone, but in Russia it is bad." Let's take abstract numbers as an example. Let's say that in the United States, funding for basic research was reduced from $ 10 billion to $1 billion, and in Russia – from $1 billion. to zero. So, for the States, this cut is as deadly as zero for Russia. Our "corpse" is decomposing, and in the USA they spend money on embalming it, which is simply pointless."
"Why can't we discover a cure for AIDS? Because such a task is simply not set by scientists," the specialist continues. – They invent a drug that blocks an existing virus, but does not treat a person. In 20 years of living side by side with HIV, humanity could have invented a cure for it many times. To do this, for example, it is necessary to provide very serious funding for 50 large laboratories around the world. And one of them will eventually find a vaccine, but the other 49 will fail, and this contradicts the system of modern capitalism."
According to the scientific director of the Higher School of Economics Evgeny Yasin, the reason for the current state of our science lies also in the inability of scientists to create commercially profitable offers. "The task of the state and the scientific community is to raise the global prestige of Russian scientists as soon as possible and take the problem of financing more seriously," he told NI. – All our discoveries should become innovations – there should be a demand for them. Russian scientists, unfortunately, do not know how to bring their inventions to commercial attractiveness – they did not teach this in the Soviet Union, they did not think in market categories. The scientist didn't really care what the future of his invention was." According to him, the main task of Russia is to use all the best that has been invented by us and other countries, to improve these technologies, creating commercially profitable offers.
And the problem of financing is very important. The salary of an ordinary teacher with a higher education is in the whole country, and not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, 10 thousand rubles per month, candidate of sciences – 13 thousand. An associate professor with a PhD earns 16.2 thousand rubles, and with a doctorate – 20.2 thousand rubles. In Europe, where the main developments are carried out in universities, where both public and private funds are directed, the initial salary of a young scientist is on average more than 2 thousand euros.
However, Boris Kagarlitsky believes that both here and in the West, it's not only about the amount of money that science receives, but also as investments. "This money is not spent the way the pundits would like. And the transfer of research to the grant system is the murder of science. The introduction of rules and deadlines for scientific work destroys any interest and incentive to new discoveries, makes them unprofitable, but motivates the process of improving existing technologies," he explains. However, according to the scientist, Russia has its own peculiarities in this. "In the 1990s, we had cases when scientists had to pay utility bills of their institutes, not to mention the purchase of new reagents and equipment," he recalls. – The work "for the idea" and the humanitarian consciousness of Russian scientists, even mathematicians, is our national peculiarity. It was she who did not allow the creation of a system of false incentives that exists in the West. And I feel sorry for many Russian scientists who have to work abroad – they have a "mental breakdown", simply because they are from Russia."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.07.2009