A detailed and systematic examination of the contribution of public sc
ience to industrial technology would be useful evidence in arguing the
case for governmental support of science. This paper provides such an
examination, by tracing the rapidly growing citation linkage between
U.S. patents and scientific research papers. Seventy-three percent of
the papers cited by U.S. industry patents are public science, authored
at academic, governmental, and other public institutions; only 27% ar
e authored by industrial scientists. A strong national component of th
is citation linkage was found, with each country's inventors preferent
ially citing papers authored in their own country, by a factor of betw
een two and four. Particularly rapid growth was found for the dependen
ce of patented technology on U.S. papers. References from U.S. patents
to U.S.-authored research papers have tripled over a six-year period,
from 17,000 during 1987-1988 to 50,000 during 1993-1994, a period in
which the U.S. patent system grew by only 30%. The cited U.S. papers a
re from the mainstream of modern science; quite basic, in influential
journals, authored at top-flight research universities and laboratorie
s, relatively recent, and heavily supported by NIH, NSF, and other pub
lic agencies. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.