[Logophile]

This means that only the federal government and sometimes major universities are going to generate novel concepts that are pure science with no short-term place in the market.

Yes, I have heard that argument frquently over the years. However, the federal funding agencies do not fund truly novel concepts. The people at NSF, for instance, will tell you that they do not fund new or "risky" research; they want to see published results first.

[Fairview]

I know they have a lot of fun with different branches of science at NIST, fun with physics at Batavia, fun with math at the University of Chicago, and fun with biomedical work at a lot of major university hospitals.