Blue-sky research

Raman s studies of the Mediterranean Sea s colour led to the phrase blue-sky research, because his work at the time had no obvious contemporary application. 

Elsa Reichmanis We don t use formal innovation processes such as those described in the preceding presentations. We do continually examine our portfolio of activities and determine what relates to the business from the advanced development, applied research perspective and from the very long-term research perspective. We need to have a mix of both, and we have a broad continuum of activity. In reality the spectrum of fundamental research to productization requires different modes of working at different stages—there is an evolution from what could perhaps be more individual blue-sky research to a team-based, problem-solving approach. To be successful, we need flexibility. 

Basic Research Attempts to discover compounds, materials, processes or other items that may be largely or entirely new and/or unique. Basic research may start with a theoretical concept that has yet to be proven. The goal is to create discoveries that can be moved along to applied research. Basic research is sometimes referred to as blue sky research. 

Gene therapy comes third in the list, reflecting the blue skies research related to the unravelling of the human genome. Cardiovascular drags come fourth because heart disease is the major cause of death in the developed world. Anti-asthma drags appear in sixth place, asthma being on the increase. 

Given the fact that many, if not most, of the components of the chemical curriculum have remained relatively constant over the last decade or more, it would be expected that blue skies research would only be taking place in areas which are not yet established in the chemical curriculum. An excellent example is Chapter 1, in which the implications of philosophy of chemistry for chemical education are only now being explored. What the consequences of that exploration will be, and when they will have an impact on the teaching and learning of chemistry, caimot be foreseen at the moment. 

There is too low a proportion of genuine, visionary, Type 5 (or blue skies ) research. 

We can pick out a number of areas of R D activity in the following paragraphs but if we were to start with those which were to spring to the mind of the academic, rather than the industrial, chemist then these would be basic, fundamental (background) or exploratory research and the synthesis of new compounds. This is also labelled blue skies research. 

In the future, the synthesis of liqtrid crystals will expand from two directiorts. Firstly, "blue-sky research will allow the speculative synthesis of novel liqtrid crystals, some of which will catalyse the development of new technological applicatiotts. Secondly, new, advanced applications will be developed that require liqtrid ciystals with far more exacting physical properties to make them commercially viable accordingly, new liquid crystals will be reqttired. Both of these expansion areas of liqttid ciystal synthesis have one thing in common the stractrrres of novel liquid crystals will become far more complex and hence more difficrrlt to synthesise. 

The Department of Blue Sky Research carried out some quick experiments to determine die reaction kinetics. Th reported that the initial rate (the rate at 150 °C and at a concentration of 4.0 mol L.P. 8/1) was 2.11 mol/l-h. The Engineering Department then assumed that the reaction was first order in LP. 8 and they calculated a rate constant from the measured initial rate. Then they used this rate constant to calculate the time required to reach 95% conversion. 

President John F. Kennedy supported Eisenhower s Blue Sky policy, facilitating incapacitating agent research... 

When you do meet, show how your proposal fits in with his/her objectives. Don t paint blue skies or exaggerate. Better to under promise and over deliver. Do your research and be ready with the facts from the Internet, studies, journals, colleagues, similar companies. Be ready to answer the hard questions What s the bottom line of this project When will you have it ready Who will work on it How many people will it take How does this fit within our overall plan Be prepared and you have the best opportunity to get the green light. 

Early research on this metal was done by Carl Plattner (1800-1858) in 1846. Plattner had originally been studying the mineral pollucite, but was puzzled by the fact that he could only account for about 90% of its elements (among them potassium and sodium). Finally, in 1860, the famous chemists Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered the mysterious metal that made up pollucite s unidentified 10%. When they isolated it, they held it to a Bunsen burner flame, where it gave off a bright blue light. The chemists named this element cesium after the Latin word coesius, which means sky blue. ... 

Since in those days there were no university laboratory facihties, Strutt established his own at the family home, Terling Place. There he started research in electrodynamics, color vision, radiation scattering, acoustics, and other experimental phenomena that could be explained in terms of wave motion. In 1870 he pubhshed his classic paper On the Theory of Resonance that estabhshed Strutt s reputation as a serious scientist capable of handling both experimental and mathematical problems. In 1871 he followed up with his well-known theory of light scattering by small particles (now called Rayleigh scattering) and explained how this phenomenon is responsible for the blue color of the sky. 

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