A chara, – PJ Rudden (April 15th) writes of the direct benefits to engineering and exports of a shift in funding from basic to applied science. The exacting specifications of state-of-the-art experiments in basic science, such as those at Cern (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), of which Ireland is not a member, place partner engineering firms at the cutting-edge of global technology, thus making it easy to recycle the technology for export. As a society, we should not forget that basic science has an integral engineering component and this indirectly drives exports. The large hadron collider at Cern may be the greatest engineering feat since the pyramids and it is regrettable that indigenous Irish firms cannot bid for projects. – Is mise,
EOIN Ó COLGAIN, PhD,
Port Jefferson,
New York.