“This example illustrates the differences in the effects which may be produced by research in pure or applied science. A research on the lines of applied science would doubtless have led to improvement and development of the older methods—the research in pure science has given us an entirely new and much more powerful method. In fact, research in applied science leads to reforms, research in pure science leads to revolutions, and revolutions, whether political or industrial, are exceedingly profitable things if you are on the winning side.”

—  J. J. Thomson

Cited from Lord Rayleigh, The Life of Sir J. J. Thomson (1943), p. 199.
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J. J. Thomson 8
British physicist 1856–1940

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