A recent phenomenon in present-day science and technology is the increasing trend towards 'directed' or 'programmed' research, i.e. research whose scope and objectives are predetermined by private or government organizations rather than researchers themselves. Any scientist working for such organizations and investigation in a given field therefore tends to do so in accordance with a plan or programm designed beforehand. At the beginning of the century, however, the situation was quite different. At that time there were no industrial research organizations in tile modern sense: the laboratory unit consisted of a few scientists at the most, assisted by one or two technicians, often working with inadequate equipment in unsuitable rooms. Nevertheless, the scientist was free to choose any subject for investigation he liked, since there was no predetermined programm to which he had to conform. As the century developed, the increasing magnitude and complexity of the problems to be solved and the growing interconnection of different disciplines made it impossible, in many cases, for the individual scientist to deal with the huge mass of new data, techniques and equipment that were required for carrying out research accurately and efficiently. The increasing scale and scope of the experiments needed to test new hypotheses and develop new techniques industrial processes led to the setting up of research groups or teams using highly complicated equipment in elaborately-designed laboratories. Owing to the large sums of money involved, it was then felt essential to direct these human and material resources into specific channels with clearly-defined objectives. In this way it was considered that the quickest and most practical results could be obtained. This, then, was programmed research. One of the effects of this organized and standardized investigation is to cause the scientist to become increasingly involved in applied research (development), especially in the branches of science which seem most likely to have industrial applications. Since private industry and even government departments tend to concentrate on immediate results and show comparatively little interest in long-range investigations, there is a steady shift of scientists from the pure to the applied filed, where there are more jobs available, frequently more highly-paid and with better technical facilities than jobs connected with pure research in a university. Owing to the interdependence between pure and applied science, it is easy to see that this system, if extended too far, carries considerable dangers for the future of science and not only pure sciences, but applied science as well. In the past there were no 'directed' research