Nanometer-minded persons in science

[somasimple]

Hi All,

Vladimir, I'll second you!

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by Vladimir Matveev

I heard that grant-giving organizations understand the problem but they do not know how to solve it.

Do you? Its kind of a hard problem. There's not enough money, and ideas that have no backing have a much higher likelyhood of failure. Should we put all the money into the wacky ones because they might have a bigger payoff? If we put all the wacky ones in a bucket and say "10% for those ideas" who's to choose? If they're chosen randomly, this is what the people say who *don't* get the money:

"They're biased against new ideas."

Sound familiar?

What would you do?

Originally Posted by Vladimir Matveev

Thanks Buffy for your words: "I hate doing things the conventional way."
I thought I am alone in the Conventional World.

No, but don't think that because someone decides against *one* unconventional idea that there is a "vast conservative-establishment-science conspiracy"...slow progress is not necessarily a bad thing: What if Baron von Frankenstein got a huge government grant for his work? Good idea or bad?

Don't look back, someone might be gaining on you,
Buffy

[Vladimir Matveev]

The key problem, I think, is how to replace nanometer-minded persons by broad-minded ones... A narrow thought is a modern kind of brain deficiency. A good specialization is an impenetrable armour for all dim-wits in science. What about this?

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Vladimir Matveev

The key problem, I think, is how to replace nanometer-minded persons by broad-minded ones... A narrow thought is a modern kind of brain deficiency. A good specialization is an impenetrable armour for all dim-wits in science. What about this?

We need both specialists and generalists... the two compliement one another. Taking one of the two away would leave our society with a large void. Perhaps you could focus on ways to enhance the complimentarity of the two instead of flaming against one or the other.


Cheers.