Tag: scientific progress

^{Type
post

Author
Paul Nelson

Date
January 25, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Albert Einstein, Barry Marshall, Challenger disaster, consensus science, conservative behavior, consolidating science, Cornel University, courage, decline of science, Delta function, disruption, disruptive science, federal science funding, follow the science, Gregor Mendel, groundbreaking science, herd effect, history of science, incremental science, Intelligent Design, John Horgan, Michael Park, Paul Nelson, peptic ulcers, Peter Thiel, Richard Feynman, risk, risky behavior, Robert Crowther, scientific consensus, scientific creativity, scientific dogma, scientific progress, scientific specialization, scientific trailblazers, self-citation, The End of Science, The Paradox of Consensus, Thomas Gold, Watson and Crick}

Nature Paper: Groundbreaking Science on the Decline

_{Paul Nelson

January 25, 2023

Science}

On today’s ID the Future philosopher of science Paul Nelson discusses a new paper in Nature making waves in the scientific community, “Papers and Patents are Becoming Less Disruptive over Time.” According to Michael Park and his fellow researchers, the rate of groundbreaking scientific discoveries is declining while the percentage of consolidating (or incremental) science is coming to dominate. Is the spirit of groundbreaking scientific discovery withering, and if so, why? Nelson notes a 1997 book by John Horgan, The End of Science. Nelson credits Horgan for seeing the trend a generation ahead of the Park paper, but Nelson breaks with Horgan on the diagnosis. Horgan posits that groundbreaking science is declining because we have already made most of the Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Newton Keas

Date
July 13, 2022

Categorized
Academic Freedom

Tagged
Bob Marks, Caroline Crocker, critical dialogue, Expelled, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, gatekeeping, generosity, Gollum Effect, Guillermo Gonzalez, honesty, humility, intellectual virtues, Johannes Kepler, moral virtues, peer review, philosophy of science, Richard Sternberg, scientific progress, Smithsonian Institution, theoretical virtues, Times Higher Education, Tycho Brahe, virtue, Wikipedia}

The Gollum Effect in Science, from Tycho Brahe to Today

_{Michael Newton Keas

July 13, 2022

Academic Freedom}

On this ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with historian and philosopher of science Michael Keas to discuss a recent article at Times Higher Education, “My Precious! How Academia’s Gollums Guard Their Research Fields.” The article looks at how scientific progress is being impeded by a culture in which scientists jealously guard their research instead of sharing it. Keas says the problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years but isn’t a new one. He illustrates with the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Brahe, a sixteenth-century Danish astronomer, sat on his astronomical research for years, rather than sharing it with Johannes Kepler, his assistant. Kepler only got hold of it when Brahe died unexpectedly shortly Read More ›