Proposal funding breakage notwithstanding, are you saying that there is a working procedure for figuring out what "profitable" research should be? (It's not eve

Proposal funding breakage notwithstanding, are you saying that there is a working procedure for figuring out what "profitable" research should be? (It's not even clear to me what you mean by that, should it be profitable to the government, to a few individuals, or to the nation as a whole?) Personally, I think you've got it completely backwards. I'm confident that we can leave the commercializable science to those wanting to make a buck. Public funding for basic science is the only workable way. Sure, nonprofits help in certain areas, but those are also usually "earmarked" for specific fields or tasks. I don't think society's avenues of exploration should be decided by a few rich people.