Indeed, we are witnessing an extraordinary transformation of craniofacial, oral and dental sciences that is part of a revolution occurring throughout the sciences. The life sciences have shifted to the fast lane of the information superhighway linking scientists in universities, academic health centers, industry, and federally funded laboratories throughout the world. It was not so 50 years ago. But signs of change were in the air. In 1945 Vannevar Bush presented a document to President Harry S Truman, Science - the Endless Frontier, which would become one of the most influential science policy statements in American history.
Basic research leads to new knowledge.
It provides scientific capital. It creates the fund from which the practical applications of knowledge must be drawn. The life sciences have become a political, social and economic force. They have created new industries, forged new alliances and established new cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields of study. Research has become a complex, team-driven enterprise, exploiting and inventing powerful new techniques and instruments that have fundamentally altered the way we do science.