In 2022, 8.8 million scientists in 193 countries were conducting research to invent new technologies. The results of their research were published in more 2.6 million articles in some 30,000 peer reviewed journals worldwide. These people are the ones who have the responsibility to provide the discoveries to protect our planet, maintain and improve the health of our populations, and provide new ways to make life more easy, comfortable and efficient. This massive amount of research has obviously failed to meet the needs of our civilization, and it is imperative to understand this failure and to correct it now. This book recounts the actual research experiences of the author in Academic, Industrial, and Research Institute laboratories both in the U.S. and in Europe. The strengths and weaknesses of these laboratories were identified and analyzed, which led to a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental problem and potential solutions.
The overall conclusion from this analysis is that despite many notable inventions which have significantly advanced the status of our society, researchers in all categories are playing it safe to promote their professional status and personal fortunes. Starting out their careers with the idealistic objectives of doing research to advance our civilization, they quickly learn the system and turn their research toward more easily soluble objectives. They get many publications, patents, and professional promotions which in many cases results in their becoming "great men and women of science". There is a simple solution to this failure. Everyone conducting independent research needs to devise plans of research to address far more consequential science. Researchers must also take far more risks in the implementation of their research if they are to be successful in addressing the needs of our society. Time is of the essence. We need to fundamentally change course.