My hat is off to Briscoe and Evans (1993) for writing their insightful article titled “The Application of Marine Sciences in the Coming Decades.” Their work does not suggest that marine scientists doing curiosity-driven basic research should drop everything and start churning out applications. It does address our need to increase the likelihood that basic marine science research done in the future does indeed have applications. The article I refer to should be required reading for everyone involved in the marine sciences, if only to build awareness and keep another important dialogue alive. Although the Briscoe and Evans article has great merit in its own right, I think that its authors’ efforts and its discussion should be extended to encompass science in general, not just the marine sciences.

Korgen, B.J. 1995. It’s OK to work on applications. Oceanography 8(2):65–66, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1995.23.

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