Funding for science and technology research in the United States is in trouble. For years, spending by the federal government, particu­larly through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been critical to supporting the basic research that often leads to innovative technologies and the startup of innovative companies. But as our special report "Follow the Money" explains, sharp cutbacks in the 2005 federal budget for non-­defense-­related research is creating an inhospitable climate for the emergence of new technologies.

One of the most troubling aspects of this crisis in federal funding is that it has gained so little attention from the general public and from the financial community, which has long benefited from federally supported R&D. Leading figures in the U.S. research community, such as Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and 2004 president of the Ameri­can Association for the Advancement of Science, have been vocal and energetic in warning about basic research's funding woes. But it seems that few outside the university research community are listening, or care.