Edinburgh graduate's Nobel Prize for physics shows value of research for research's sake

Known as “godfather of AI”, Hinton’s attempts to fathom how the human brain worked led him and two graduate students to build a ‘neural network’ that could analyse photos and identify common objects, a key moment in the development of artificial intelligence.

Hinton said his early work that led to advancements in AI had been pure research, meaning that, at the time, there was no apparent practical use for it. Such work can be hard to fund, and he left the UK for the US and then Canada.

However, pushing back the boundaries of human knowledge – something that Edinburgh has been doing since 1583 – is always valuable. With 19 Nobel laureates who were alumni, faculty members or researchers, this storied university is a credit to Scotland. We must cherish it – and resist those who insist research must always have a ‘practical’ use.