Today’s TEDTalk, from Kary Mullis, touches on a powerful topic — how modern science is funded, and how the availability of money can drive scientific inquiry just as powerfully as curiosity or necessity can.

Several other TEDTalks discuss this often-hidden driver of scientific research. Alan Russell offers a searing vision of how current research is funded. After sharing 15 minutes of jaw-dropping stories about regenerative medicine, he outlines in 3 brisk minutes the politics behind why the United States is slow to fund this work.

And Peter Diamandis of the X Prize shares his vision of a bold new kind of research funding, based on a big idea and a big reward.

More: Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer looks at another creatively funded research effort. Antonio Giordano, a cancer researcher at Temple University in Philadelphia, had a vision to help some brilliant Italian cancer researchers work within the US’s comparatively well-funded research system. Where did he go for seed money? The pizza magnate Mario Sbarro. Read the story >>