Governments should place few if any restrictions on scientific research and development

Scientific and technological advancements have significantly changed the world and made our daily lives very convenient. For instance, due to the invention of automobiles and airplanes, people can travel to any country with few physical barriers. Hence, our society has been globalized and interdependent on other countries to a greater extent than in the past. The prompt states that governments should place few regulations on scientific research and development. I mostly agree with this prompt - especially in terms of financial and economic viewpoints - for two reasons, but there should be some restrictions necessary to adjust the ideal with reality.
First of all, making many failures, which requires an abundant governmental budget, is necessary in order to make significant progress in the field of science or technology. Take Thomas Edison for example. He attempted hundreds of times to determine the best ingredient for filaments in the light bulb, which turned out to be a failure. However, even though he lacked the money to proceed with further research about the light bulb, he was able to request governmental subsidies for the research. At last, Edison was able to find an optimal material for filaments. Were it not for the generous government financial support to Edison, people would have to live without light bulbs, which might cause a great inconvenience. This example illustrates that minimal restrictions on scientific research are necessary to make progress, where making a lot of failures is indispensable. When the government set various and stringent regulations on scientific studies and research, researchers and scientists might become reluctant to try their experiments due to the fear of financial restrictions. Who will attempt to give it a try when failure is less likely to be tolerated?
Furthermore, minimizing restrictions on scientific research and development can eventually lead to significant growth of national strength. To elaborate, if the government increases its investments and gives more freedom to scientific research, scientists are more likely to make accomplishments, which lead to technological advancement. If this progress accumulates over a long period of time, the government may anticipate a significant increase in its national strength among other nations. Take the United States as an example. This nation was able to become a hegemony in the world due to solid scientific development and research. The United States has been able to make magnificent progress in scientific research and development due to a significant amount of government subsidies in various fields of science, including physics and computer science. Due to the freedom that the US government granted to its researchers, it was able to attain the highest number of patents in inventions and the most sophisticated developed weapons and devices to defend against enemies. This example presents that minimal regulations can promote an environment in which scientists are free to research with the little burden of taking risk of failing, which eventually enables a nation to become strong.
However, having minimal restrictions on scientific research and development is not always desirable. For instance, when minimal regulations interfere with the administration of the government, additional restrictions should be introduced. Specifically, suppose that a government invests so much in science and technology that it is unable to operate the nation properly. Then, the government should cut some budgets on those fields and use those budgets to stabilize and maintain its society. Moreover, if the research violates human ethics or may have a negative influence on society, then the government should proscribe the conduct of that research. For these two hypothetical cases, governments should implement restrictions on scientific and technological research.
In conclusion, governments should place minimal restrictions on the field of science and technology to encourage researchers to make failures and progress and to increase national strength, which can be accomplished via the solid base of scientific research data. However, if the research has ethical transgression, may harm the overall welfare of society, or interfere with the maintenance of the national system, it is inevitable for the government to introduce regulations in those fields.