There is a certain irony in seeing such a question posted online, typed in via a computer (or, for all I know, maybe some even more cutting-edge piece of handheld technology). Because, if wise men and women, the best part of a century ago, hadn't developed the principles of quantum mechanics, there could be no such things. At least not in anything like their current form: we'd still be on valves and transistors, or even cogs and pulleys... themselves the off-shoots of yet earlier scientific research. As for those hospitals you mention, had it not been for scientific research into human biology, they wouldn't have any treatments to offer their patients (in which case, it really wouldn't matter if their budgets were to be taken away altogether!). Gene therapy, for instance, clearly would not have been able to get off the ground if its developers had not possessed any conception of a 'gene' or understood the structure of DNA. But that is something that we owe to state-funded scientific research. It is...

Who invented the wheel? Who first figured out how to harness the power of fire? Who devised the idea of written language? The identities of such individuals have been entirely lost to history, and yet our society continues to benefit from the enduring legacy of their achievements. Indeed, were it not for the contributions of innumerable anonymous men and women such as these, there would be no such thing as human society at all. Indeed, it goes deeper than that. People sometimes talk of how, when a butterfly flaps its wings, it generates tiny currents in the air around it, which lead to others, and those in turn to others; until finally, six months later, a mighty hurricane rages on the other side of the world -- a hurricane which, but for that humble butterfly, would never have arisen. But, of course, this is not peculiar to butterflies. We all do it, every one of us, all the time. Whether through some great flash of genius, or some more idle and ostensibly inconsequential action, or even just an...