"Under the Banyan Tree Nothing Grows"

James Le Fanu uses that image, a South Indian proverb, to describe the way Big Science devours billions of dollars a year while the productions of this vast government industry seem startlingly and increasingly barren of significance. We've left behind the era of great discoveries of the century past -- permanently, so it seems -- and now find ourselves awash in outpourings of published research that add up, says Le Fanu, to "surprisingly little." Don't believe him? Just follow the...