In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote an open letter to President Franklin Roosevelt. In it, he described in terms that resonate today the requirements for an economic recovery package: “Speed and quick results are essential ... I put in the forefront ... a large volume of ... expenditures under government auspices ... Preference should be given to those which can be made to mature quickly on a large scale.”

As president-elect Barack Obama’s team designs an economic stimulus programme involving large expenditures, it may seem to others that administration priorities, such as strongly increased federal investment in the sciences, must wait for better times. We believe, with Mr Obama, to the contrary. The stimulus provides a great opportunity to begin rebuilding US science, because increased science funding is an ideal stimulus: it creates good jobs across the economy; there is large pent-up need so that money can be spent immediately; and it represents an investment in the infrastructures of scientific research and higher education that are vital to the future.