Timothy Gay, Willa Cather Professor of Physics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, recently argued in favor of science funding as a crucial prerequisite for economic growth:

During the past 25 years, NSF-funded research helped make us a world leader in innovation, by supporting research in the U.S. that led to 74 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics. There’s a benefit to having those breakthroughs happen here at home: A 1 percentage point increase in public research and development investment as a share of GDP corresponds to a 10 percent increase in economic growth, according to a 2012 report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Read more: Local View: Science funding crucial to economic growth