An expansive article in today's (March 16, 2013) New York Times examining the drop in federal funding for basic research and the mixed costs and benefits of a rise in private funding that is partially filling the gap, echoes serious concerns raised by noted research director and former ENR Award of Excellence winner Lewis (Ed) Link in anop-ed piecein ENR two weeks ago.
 
TheNYT piecebuilds on the points raised by Dr. Link and then delves deeply into the ramifications of seeing the direction of significant U.S. research capabilities being set by a handful of super rich philanthropists with personal causes, rather than by federal institutions tasked with balancing research and funding resources to best serve the national interest.