The influential startup incubator is launching a research lab to work on problems too big for startups. Why? Because fundamental research in the U.S. is in a bad state.
We’re doing this because funding and the environment for fundamental research keep getting worse. The government cuts science funding every year, academia is badly broken in many ways, and corporate research is not open enough, or too directed toward what that company needs.
— Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator
Source: MIT Technology Review