...small labs don't have the resources to do ground-breaking research any more, and they probably never will again.
That seems to me to be overstating things quite a lot. In addition to the new branches and disciplines you mention, small labs without monster budgets will also benefit from their own improvements in technology. Just because budgets remain relatively small doesn't mean that technological capability needs to remain stagnant; as an obvious example, processor speed seems to be a lot cheaper now than it was fifteen years ago.
But even more than the new scientific avenues that cheaper technology opens up for small labs, how can anyone say that all that's going to be discovered (without an enormous budget) has been?? It seeems to me to be very unlikely that more discoveries, even significant discoveries, are not just around the corner for small labs. It may not be as drastic as faster-than-light with household products, but surely there are implications even of what we already know that have yet to be fleshed out. We don't know what is going to be discovered, but that doesn't mean nothing can be--and besides, people have been saying that everything's been discovered already since ancient Greece, and probably even before then.
This "Iowa College" is just a single branch of Des Moines Area Community College--emphasis on the community college part. What's more, the branch is in West Des Moines so the students taking classes there can take classes at the main branch (West Des Moines, as you might expect, borders Des Moines) or any of the other four branches with no real hassle. Apparently this branch is going to cater to those just taking tech classes for work or to get a degree that will get them the above-mentioned job pulling cable so they can stop working at the Hy-Vee. Really, with the public libraries and main branch library so close to the students, it seems kind of silly to build a separate library just for this campus--so they decided to become "paperless" and capitalize on the ensuing publicity.
At least, that's my bet. So don't be alarmed that books are going to be disappearing from colleges and universities, and don't mistake this for the beginning of a revolution in education. It's just a clever marketing spin on the fact that building a separate West Des Moines branch library would be redundant and a waste of funding.
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Goodness, if McFly69 can't get laid, it really must be a lost cause for the rest of us.
That seems to me to be overstating things quite a lot. In addition to the new branches and disciplines you mention, small labs without monster budgets will also benefit from their own improvements in technology. Just because budgets remain relatively small doesn't mean that technological capability needs to remain stagnant; as an obvious example, processor speed seems to be a lot cheaper now than it was fifteen years ago.
But even more than the new scientific avenues that cheaper technology opens up for small labs, how can anyone say that all that's going to be discovered (without an enormous budget) has been?? It seeems to me to be very unlikely that more discoveries, even significant discoveries, are not just around the corner for small labs. It may not be as drastic as faster-than-light with household products, but surely there are implications even of what we already know that have yet to be fleshed out. We don't know what is going to be discovered, but that doesn't mean nothing can be--and besides, people have been saying that everything's been discovered already since ancient Greece, and probably even before then.
This "Iowa College" is just a single branch of Des Moines Area Community College--emphasis on the community college part. What's more, the branch is in West Des Moines so the students taking classes there can take classes at the main branch (West Des Moines, as you might expect, borders Des Moines) or any of the other four branches with no real hassle. Apparently this branch is going to cater to those just taking tech classes for work or to get a degree that will get them the above-mentioned job pulling cable so they can stop working at the Hy-Vee. Really, with the public libraries and main branch library so close to the students, it seems kind of silly to build a separate library just for this campus--so they decided to become "paperless" and capitalize on the ensuing publicity.
At least, that's my bet. So don't be alarmed that books are going to be disappearing from colleges and universities, and don't mistake this for the beginning of a revolution in education. It's just a clever marketing spin on the fact that building a separate West Des Moines branch library would be redundant and a waste of funding.