Solving big problems means taking big risks. Most businesses would rather do less risky things that bring in the revenue sooner than risk spending large sums o

Solving big problems means taking big risks. Most businesses would rather do less risky things that bring in the revenue sooner than risk spending large sums of money on projects that could only bring in money years down the road. Exceptions exist (Microsoft Research comes to mind) but for the most part, businesses focus on their short-term profits, and leave research to universities and governments. This is only a problem if the government is failing to fund research adequately. The point of government grants is to pay for riskier research. There are limits to what governments will fund, and unfortunately there are "research topics du jour," but I do not really expect companies to go wild with shareholder money. The free market is not going to cure cancer, and that is fine because the free market is not the only way to pay for research.