Continued experiments — another way of saying trial and error — are vital to discoveries of which we have not yet dreamt. The accidental discovery of Plexiglas in a German laboratory in 1935 produced today’s ubiquitous glass substitute, for example.

Yet, too often the failures, or experimental dead ends, are hailed as justification for doing nothing. The emphasis is on avoiding the cost of the scientific journey rather than on the potential rewards at the end of the journey.

The May 9 headline in The State newspaper set just such a tone. Obama’s cuts deal blow to S.C. hydrogen economy, screamed the lead headline on the newspaper’s front page.

Indeed, the federal government is cutting back grants for research on hydrogen as a potential fuel for automobiles. There remain many long-term obstacles to widespread use of the fuel in cars, such as the current inability to shrink the size and weight of the vessel needed to contain the volatile fuel.

But the facts belie the notion that these research funding cutbacks are a “blow” to research into alternative fuels at institutions such as the University of South Carolina, the Savannah River National Laboratory, and Clemson University. In fact, much of the research at these institutions focuses on stationary power applications, or portable power generation for applications other than transportation. And many have nothing to do with hydrogen.

The startup company Trulite is setting up its first manufacturing line on Midlands Technical College’s Technology Accelerator campus in Northeast Richland County. Its portable units, powered by fuel cells, can replace batteries on jobs as diverse as construction sites or battlefields.

Far from cutting back, the Obama administration is increasing funding across a broad front of research. The University of South Carolina recently learned, for example, that its College of Engineering and Computing will lead a $12.5 million, five-year research program to conduct research on the frontiers of energy science. USC’s new Materials for Energy Systems research center will seek to “build a scientific basis for bridging the gap between making nanostructured materials and understanding how they function in a variety of energy applications,” according to the Department of Energy announcement.

Put simply by research leader Kenneth Reifsnider: “The research is about how to use energy, how to store it and how to carry it.”

Far from suffering a “blow,” energy research at S.C. institutions has a bright future. The best outcome in their laboratories would be the opportunity for experiments to fail, again and again, until they hit upon that one big idea that is a game-changer in the world energy economy.