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Is the Era of Groundbreaking Science Over?

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-until-zefram-cochrane dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In decades and centuries past, scientific genius was easy to quantify. Those scientists who were able to throw off the yoke of established knowledge and break new ground on their own are revered and respected. But as humanity, as a species, has gotten better at science, and the basics of most fields have been refined over and over, it's become much harder for any one scientist to make a mark on the field. There's still plenty we don't know, but so much of it is highly specialized that many breakthroughs are understood by only a handful. Even now, the latest generation is more likely to be familiar with the great popularizers of science, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Carl Sagan, than of the researchers at the forefront of any particular field. "...most scientific fields aren't in the type of crisis that would enable paradigm shifts, according to Thomas Kuhn's classic view of scientific revolutions. Simonton argues that instead of finding big new ideas, scientists currently work on the details in increasingly specialized and precise ways." Will we ever again see a scientist get recognition like Einstein did?"

16 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is the Era of Groundbreaking Science Over?
    No.

  2. ... until the next one. by DavidClarkeHR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, this article is right. And will remain right, until the next big breakthrough.

    At which point, it'll probably be irrelevant, so ...

    --
    - Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
  3. Didn't we just have this article? by swampfriend · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was just a question the other day asking if we were past the age of invention. I believe one of the tags on it was "retarded."

  4. No by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is groundbreaking science over? No, not remotely. Is the era where groundbreaking science is publicized and sort of vaguely understood by a lot of non-scientists over? Probably not, but that's at least closer to the truth.

    --
    "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
  5. Hindsight by Slippery_Hank · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The greatest scientists of our generation will not be truly known until many years from now, when we can look back on the contributions with a greater understanding of the truth.

  6. Re:The era of Groundbreaking Physics was over by mbkennel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No it wasn't.

    No scientist knew if atoms were real or not, and they knew it, and they had no mechanistic explanation for the regularities in the recently understood periodic table, and they knew it. They had no mechanistic quantitative explanation for chemical reactions or reaction rates, and knew it.

    Right now, physicists know that they have no good, experimentally confirmed, ideas for explaining

    a) dark matter
    b) dark energy
    c) the variety of arbitrary parameters in the standard model

    They have an large selection of theoretical proposals for the above.

    Today they do have good knowledge about virtually all materials and energetic processes typically occurring and observable on Earth,
    That's a difference from the 19th century.

  7. Re:No by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is groundbreaking science over? No, not remotely. Is the era where groundbreaking science is publicized and sort of vaguely understood by a lot of non-scientists over? Probably not, but that's at least closer to the truth.

    Sorry to self reply, but another thought: the only reason people ask this stupid question or make the implied statement is that there's just do damn much groundbreaking science done today. Yes, it's harder to stand out than it was a couple hundred years ago. No, it's not because progress is slower - it's just ubiquitous. Science is more amazing than ever and in a hundred years it will be more amazing yet.

    Shit, I think I'm arguing for the existence of something analogous to Kurzweil's moronic singularity.

    --
    "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
  8. This ain't the first time ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the late 1990's someone proclaimed that there was nothing more to invent, and he was proven to be very very wrong ...

    Now someone is trying the same thing, again, while tweaking the wording a little bit, by adding "groundbreaking" in the proclamation

    It gonna be as wrong as that guy in the late 1990's.

    Science progresses on.

    Groundbreaking or not, that's not the issue.

    For new breakthrough in science always "stand" on the shoulders of all the previous scientific findings

    Furthermore, how do you define "groundbreaking" ?

    Does one actually have to "break some ground" to be groundbreaking ?

    How about some new ideas being applied to older subjects, which yield new findings ?

    Would that be counted as "groundbreaking" ??

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:This ain't the first time ... by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the argument that the author is trying to make is that the scope of new work is more tightly focussed than before. There have been relatively few new 'fundamental' discoveries in physics, compared to refinements and increasing precision. While we are always inventing new ways to use physical laws, the laws themselves haven't changed substantially since quantum mechanics became well understood (proposed nearly 100 years ago).

      Once upon a time, people didn't understand how many physical systems worked; the motion of galaxies and the intricacies of light interferometry were classic examples - a single scientist could make a new discovery, Now, we have good reliable models for their behaviour. The sorts of physics experiments that discover novel phenomena about how the mechanisms of the universe functions require teams and teams of physicists.

      There are relatively few outright mysteries that remain - the Higgs Boson and the effects shaping the inflation of the universe (eg. dark mater) are classic examples of our time. I suspect that eventually, we will have a coherent explanation for all observable physical phenomena - it's not over yet by a long shot, but one day we'll figure it out.

      --
      Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
      altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
    2. Re:This ain't the first time ... by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed -- if you invent stepping discs, or the transfer booth, or even an economical and practical flying car, you *will* get recognition.

      Yes, you'll be sued into poverty and then watch as some rich bastard takes your beautiful invention and ruins it. Nobody I know who has a creative / inventive nature is doing anything in this country because they know the only recognition they'll get will be from the large companies that own this country and control its laws. They will take everything and leave you with nothing.

      Anyone with a good idea is well advised to flee to somewhere the United States' and its notions about intellectual property aren't going to interfere. China is right now (literally) knocking down mountains and building cities at a breakneck pace. Their economy is driven because they copy, then improve, in an iterative process without regard for intellectual property considerations. As a result, many of the world's goods and services now flow out of China. Yes, we may have invented those things, but they took them and made them better. Why can't we do the same? Oh right... Corporations.

      There's plenty of talent right here to make that next big thing. And it's gone to ground because of the flying hunter-killers with lawyer bombs on patrol, looking for them. Legal theft. Small wonder innovation's ground to a halt in this country...

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    3. Re:This ain't the first time ... by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      we will have a coherent explanation for all observable physical phenomena

      Contrary to popular belief we have no explaination for gravity, spacetime, or the other fundamental forces (eg: try and define "time" without the definition becoming circular). What we have are models that predict how these "miracles" behave and interact in most situations.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:This ain't the first time ... by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It always amuses me that Mendel's pea plant experiments would not get past peer review these days.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    5. Re:This ain't the first time ... by mysidia · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Contrary to popular belief we have no explaination for gravity, spacetime, or the other fundamental forces

      False. We have no falsifiable, measurable, or experimentally verifiable explanation for gravity, spacetime, or other fundamental forces.

      Explanations abound, but there is almost inherently no way that science can test any coherent explanation that came up.

      As far as good scientists are concerned... if you can't measure something, and you can't test it -- then it is irrelevent.

      It may be true or false -- you don't know -- it falls into the realm of 'belief' or 'religion' instead of science, if it is not testable.

  9. Its going on right now - just look! by joe_frisch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There IS ground breaking science. Dark matter, dark energy, experimental measurements of cosmological inflation: our picture of the large scale structure of the universe has changed dramatically. Higgs bosons, neutrino mass: our picture of the microscopic structure of the universe has changed. We've found hundreds of extra-solar planets. We've built giant particle accelerators and telescopes, huge computers and data networks, peta-watt and X-ray lasers. We've sequenced the DNA of many creatures, including some that are extinct - and which we may bring back.We have pictures from the surface of a moon of Saturn, and an car driving around Mars.

  10. Is this a serious question or a troll? by Proudrooster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Answer any of the following and you too can win a Nobel prize...

    1. What is a magnetic field?
    2. What is a electric field?
    3. What is gravity?
    4. Do tachyons exist?
    5. Does the Higgs Boson exist?
    6. Does matter decay?
    7. Is a magnetic field really a field or is it just another property of space-time?
    8. In how any dimensions does the Universe or multiverse exist? (The basic question of string theory)
    9. Can magnetic and electric fields be quantized or are they continuous?
    10. Can time and space be quantized or is it continuous?
    11. Why can't we all just get along?
    12. Is the universe a giant predetermined simulation playing out or do we have free will.

    We are a species that just recently wandered in off the Sahara. We know a lot about a little. Our knowledge is like Swiss cheese, full of holes, gaps, and inconsistencies. There are things we observe but can't explain and things we can explain but can't observe. Go watch this video from Fenyman...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsgBtOVzHKI

  11. Groundbreaking science by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why, just the other day I had ten guys with shovels on one group, and ten guys without shovels in another for a control group, and I ran an experiment on groundbreaking. Amazingly, the guys with shovels consistently did better. I expect to publish in Nature shortly, as soon as they it through peer review. I controlled for sleep, nutrition, and recent sexual activity. Because it is, after all, dirty work.

    Groundbreaking science lives on. Can you dig it?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.