First Principles - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 76

This simple model of scientific advances in science being made applicable
through a dynamic, yet stepwise flow from science to technology is widely ac-
cepted in research and development in many scientific disciplines. The process
has come to be called technology transfer , as it describes the movement from ba-
sic science to technology. The first step in this process is basic research, which
charts the course for practical application, eliminates dead ends, and enables the
applied scientist and engineer to reach a goal quickly and economically. Then,
applied research involves the elaboration and application of the known. Here,
scientists convert the possible into the actual. The final stage in the techno-
logical sequence, development, is the stage where scientists systematically adapt
research findings into useful materials, devices, systems, methods, processes, and
so on. 13
The characterization of evolution from basic to applied science, including de-
sign, has been criticized for being too simple an account of the flow from science
to technology. The oversimplification may be due to the effort of the scientific
community in the post-World War II era to communicate these concepts to
the public. However, in particular, the one-way flow from scientific discovery to
technological innovation does not seem to fit with twenty-first-century science.
The supposition that science exists entirely outside technology is rather absurd
in today's way of thinking. In fact, throughout history there is seen a reverse
flow, a flow from technology to the advancement of science. Examples date as
far back as Johannes Kepler, who helped lead to the invention of the calculus of
variations through studying the structure of wine casks in order to optimize their
design. Therefore, history illustrates that science has progressively become more
technology derived. 14
Critics consider that “the terms basic and applied are, in another sense, not
opposites. Work directed toward applied goals can be highly fundamental in
character in that it has an important impact on the conceptual structure or
outlook of a field. Moreover, the fact that research of such a nature that it can be
applied does not mean that it is not also basic.” 15
We argue, rather, that design based on sound science is actually a synthe-
sis of the goals of understanding and use. Good design, then, is the marriage
of theory and practice. Although he was not a designer per se, Pasteur exem-
plifies this combination of theory and utility. The one-dimensional model of
Figure 2.2 consists of a line with “basic research” on one end and “applied re-
search” on the other (as though the two were polar opposites). We could try to
force-fit Pasteur's world view into this model by placing his design paradigms at
the center of the flow in Figure 2.12. However, Pasteur's equal and strong com-
mitments to understanding the theory (microbiological processes) and to practice
(controlling the effects of these processes) would cover the entire line segment.
Arguably, Pasteur must instead be represented by two points: one at the basic
research end of the spectrum and another at the applied research end of the