[michaelpinto]

Maybe the "reward" isn't that you get immediate results, but you get the satisfaction of laying down a brick in a larger building? Maybe if we could put a face on research it would be less abstract to every day people who aren't in science?

[nemof]

There's something to be said for that, which is why charities and philanthropic organisations exist. the question is whether money is being funnelled efficiently in the right direction and used efficiently. Who's to say that laymen with no grounding in a subject make a good judge of that.