"When you get right down to it, basic research is like Renaissance art: it's bankrolled by states and princes.
An unrecognized da Vinci or Michelangelo had to win the patronage of a Medici or Borgia. A researcher has to win a grant from NIH or Hughes or Gates. Applied research can find backers on the open market, but advancing the great work of fundamental science depends, in a way, on the kindness of strangers"