
Focusing only on the practical applications of scientific research bodes ill for the future.
“Science, like the Mississippi, begins in a tiny rivulet in the distant forest.”
— Abraham Flexner
In 1933, when America’s most famous immigrant settled in Princeton, N.J., Franklin Roosevelt tried to invite Albert Einstein to the White House. Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study that had brought Einstein to Princeton, intercepted FDR’s letter before the intended recipient saw it.














