The Collaborative International Dictionary
Research \Re*search"\ (r?-s?rch"), n. [Pref. re- + search: cf OF. recerche, F. recherche.]
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Diligent inquiry or examination in seeking facts or principles; laborious or continued search after truth; as, researches of human wisdom; to research a topic in the library; medical research.
The dearest interests of parties have frequently been staked on the results of the researches of antiquaries.
--Macaulay. -
Systematic observation of phenomena for the purpose of learning new facts or testing the application of theories to known facts; -- also called scientific research. This is the research part of the phrase ``research and development'' (R&D).
Note: The distinctive characteristic of scientific research is the maintenance of records and careful control or observation of conditions under which the phenomena are studied so that others will be able to reproduce the observations. When the person conducting the research varies the conditions beforehand in order to test directly the effects of changing conditions on the results of the observation, such investigation is called experimental research or experimentation or experimental science; it is often conducted in a laboratory. If the investigation is conducted with a view to obtaining information directly useful in producing objects with commercial or practical utility, the research is called applied research. Investigation conducted for the primary purpose of discovering new facts about natural phenomena, or to elaborate or test theories about natural phenomena, is called basic research or fundamental research. Research in fields such as astronomy, in which the phenomena to be observed cannot be controlled by the experimenter, is called observational research. Epidemiological research is a type of observational research in which the researcher applies statistical methods to analyse patterns of occurrence of disease and its association with other phenomena within a population, with a view to understanding the origins or mode of transmission of the disease.
Syn: Investigation; examination; inquiry; scrutiny.
Wiktionary
n. research performed without regard to practical applications.
Wikipedia
Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is scientific research aimed to improve scientific theories for improved understanding or prediction of natural or other phenomena. Applied research, in turn, uses scientific theories to develop technology or techniques to intervene and alter natural or other phenomena. Though often driven by curiosity, basic research fuels applied science's innovations. The two aims are often coordinated in research and development.
Although many discoveries have been serendipitous, discovery science specifically seeks discoveries, and, along with theoretical science and experimental science, is now key to basic research and is sometimes expressly planned.
Usage examples of "basic research".
We keep pace in this competition not just by designing new drugs and treatments, but by penetrating progressively more deeply toward an understanding of the nature of life -basic research.
I don't want it backfiring at the wrong time, when some of the basic research now in progress becomes demonstrable.
Von Braun did the talking, and it was largely due to him that Huntsville continued to receive the funds necessary for basic research.
The basic research was done at MIT and CMU to build those brooms, as you call them.
The MEM was being built in a different, more leisurely manner from previous generations of spacecraft, with the basic research&mdash.
You can't sell the Congress on the long-range rewards of basic research, anyhow.
And suppose we tried to explain to them the basic research - -we're doing?
You cant sell the Congress on the long-range rewards of basic research, anyhow.
And suppose we tried to explain to them the basic research - -were doing?
I say the government is actively suppressing basic research in neutrinics and chronoscopy.
Except for the cluster of transmission and jamming antennae and rods, and a stock radar dome, there appeared nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly this was not a place where you could house a lot of people or do a lot of basic research.
One of the overlooked benefits of that monopoly was that it paid the bills for a peerless basic research enterprise.
My grandfather has always been too tight when it came to funding basic research.