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Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation Donald E. Stokes
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Donald Stokes (Pascal's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation, 1997) stresses work that is motivated by both considerations for use and fundamental understanding. In recent years the concept of "translational medicine" has been advanced in an attempt to catalyze the medical applications of basic biomedical research. His favorite example of “use-inspired basic research” is Louis Pasteur's repeated success in working on genuine problems such as the spoilage of milk and failures of wine fermentation, to produce basic science breakthroughs about bacterial processes and vaccines. Quadrant is the most provocative in suggesting a new model that seems broadly applicable across the different sciences. Which is a good thing because new (or better) technology enables new scientific questions to be asked. Stokes DE: Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press; 1997. The quadrant of this typology that is concerned with fundamental understanding AND considerations of use is termed Pasteur's quadrant, or alternately “use-inspired basic research.” I reproduced a diagram from the book that illustrates the typology: Use-inspired basic research can advance both fundamental knowledge as well as technology. Stokes DE: Pasteur's quadrant: basic science and technological innovation. Pasteur's quadrant: Basic science and technological innovation. An alternative model in which science and practice develop seamlessly is represented in the remarkable career of Louis Pasteur. Stokes has written a book entitled Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Louis Pasteur and modern science.