Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the National Science Foundation.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to submit to the Congress the Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the National Science Foundation, covering fiscal year 1974.

One of the clear lessons of the past few years is that our society, as well as that of the rest of the world, is intimately tied to technology and the science that produces it. Certainly our own approaches to problems in energy, environment, food production, and the well-being of the national economy will include substantial contributions from science and technology. As a Nation we are fortunate to have an extraordinarily strong science and technology base to draw on in dealing with these and other important national problems.

The National Science Foundation has a key role in ensuring that the Nation maintains leadership in all fields of basic science from which our technological advances of the future will be derived.

The National Science Foundation programs in basic research range over fundamental studies of the structure and behavior of matter, the process of living things, the dynamics of the Earth and universe, energy. and materials and many other areas described in this report. In addition, as this report shows, the Foundation is continuing, through its programs in science education, to assist in the development of the scientific manpower needed to meet tomorrow's technological challenges.

The research results contained in this report remind us of the changes that we have seen in our lives as a result of our investments in science. It is, I believe, a preview of many beneficial developments that will occur in coming years. I commend this report to you.

GERALD R. FORD

The White House,

February 28,1975.