Let our leaders at least read ...

Alexey Gilyarov, Dr. Biol. Sciences, professor of the Department of the General Ecology of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University.

I began to read the speech of Barack Obama before the collection of the US National Academy of Sciences and could not come off. Everything is stated simply and clearly, easy, sometimes with jokes, but in fact very serious and specifically. I was pleasantly surprised by the absence of unnecessary pathos in this speech (it is, but only at a minimum that is inevitable in the speech of a politician), masking the ornate, or the foggy “sending of signals” (as our officials now like to express themselves). Things are named for their proper names. Instead of boasting achieved - the emphasis is on the statement of the shortcomings. Disadvantages - not in the work of scientists, but in financing science and education by federal authorities. It is anxious that the share of the gross domestic product, which goes to support fundamental research in physics, has declined almost twice over the past 25 years. It is said about the serious lag of American schoolchildren in terms of knowledge in the field of mathematics and natural sciences from peers from other countries.

It would seem that in the difficult time of the financial crisis and economic recession, the allocation of additional funds for the development of science is an inadmissible luxury. But President Obama emphasizes that this is precisely the moment when we must realize how important the support of science with which can be associated and search for a way out of the crisis.

I was pleasantly struck by Obama’s speech emphasizing the significance of the fundamental studies that did not at all promise material benefits as soon as possible. He quotes Vaninev Bush, an adviser to the science of President Roosevelt: "Fundamental scientific research is scientific capital."

Well, the remarkable words at the very end of Obama’s speech that science does not just serve as the basis for obtaining any benefits that improve our life (we quickly use them). Science gives us something more - it "makes us reckon with the truth to the extent that we are only able to understand it."

PS In the postscript, it remains only to write that I am very happy for American colleagues. Secretly, I hope that at least some echo (weakened and with a large delay) will reach Russia. I would very much ask the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev carefully read Obama's speech. I would very much ask you to read this speech and President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Sergeyevich Osipov. It is unlikely that he will speak out publicly (this is not in his traditions), but at least read it!