When President Obama dreams out loud, as he did in a speech last week, of a future when solar panels are as "cheap as paint" and buildings produce their own energy, researchers like the physicist Yang Yang are dreaming right along with him. Mr. Yang's laboratory is among hundreds at colleges around the country that stand to benefit from a new…

This article presents compelling reasons why President George W. Bush decided to double federal funds for agencies supporting physical-science research. The biggest beneficiaries of Mr. Bush's plan for 2008 would be the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Those agencies, together with the National…