Not an anecdote. State Committee on Budgeting.
Member of the Committee 1:
And why did they spend so much money on developing the laser direction? It is a nuclear university. Let them work with their nuclear technology! Why start with a clean list?
Member of the Commission No. 2, polite and insecure:
Well, as far as I remember, they have something on the lasers. Maybe two or three decades have been working in this direction.
Where are the results?
Member of the Commission No. 3, darkly:
Working longer. They actually invented the laser. Although there are three Nobel Prizes - Basov, Prochorov and Towns...