Your last point is addressed at the end of the article: > Rather than invest in their own science, big companies may now more easily buy innovative start-ups a

Your last point is addressed at the end of the article: > Rather than invest in their own science, big companies may now more easily buy innovative start-ups and develop their most promising discoveries into profitable technology. > And yet this ecosystem is vulnerable, reliant on a dwindling pot of public money that underwrites most university-based research. > “The buy-up strategy would be fine if we had confidence that the university system and start-ups were picking up the slack,” Professor Arora told me. “But we still don’t understand how this division of innovative labor would work.” > It might work. But it looks risky to put all our trust in that approach. It’s time for a different paradigm — more on that in a future column — to finance the innovation that will power America’s future.