Sixty years ago, the then prime minister Robert Menzies was hailing the achievements of the CSIRO as ''miracles''. In 1953, Menzies used the CSIRO to illustrate the point that some in society who contributed substantially to progress were most often unrecognised.

The context for Menzies' comments was the part the CSIRO had played in assisting the economy through breakthroughs in agriculture. In 1959, Menzies returned to his theme, saying the CSIRO had been a ''dominating'' factor in the development of Australia.

The role of the CSIRO was reinforced last week by Suzanne Cory, the president of the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Cory wrote in The Age of the Menzies vision for the organisation, and more broadly, of the role of scientific research. She quoted him: ''If there's one thing that shines out in the history of this century, it is the enormous capacity of science to expand its boundaries.''

If there's one thing that shines out from this century, it is the capacity of government to render a necessity in progress - not only for this nation but the field of science generally - into a value of diminishing returns.

How else to explain the stance of the federal government?