Freedom in Science

[bomohwkl]

Pioneering Research: A Risk Worth Taking

According to premier researcher Don Braben, these are the vital intellectual processes that underlie all human achievement, the kinds of risk-taking activities that have made our civilization what it is today. Yet, warns Braben, the same pioneer spirit that fueled our meteoric industrial and scientific growth is now being undermined by a growing climate of corporate caution and conformity.

In this groundbreaking manifesto on the importance of scientific freedom, Braben asserts that the greatest long-term risks facing humanity will not come from weapons of mass destruction, prolonged global war, devastating disease or famine, or even from extinction by a huge wayward meteor. Rather they will come from the debilitating attrition caused by the rising tides of bureaucracy and control that are steadily strangling human ingenuity and undermining our future.

Addressing this serious and growing problem, Pioneering Research: A Risk Worth Taking explains the urgent need to maintain both the originality and freedom of expression that is so vital to our economic growth and scientific development. Citing global trends and attitudes that currently threaten these conditions, Braben details some bold new initiatives that may offer a possible solution.

A compelling read for today’s scientists, policy makers, and concerned laypeople, Braben’s book will change our understanding of the politics of scientific achievement and expose the threat to our future from bureaucracy, paper trails, political correctness, lowest common denominator solutions, and accountability–the invisible chains that bind the imagination and damage our society irreparably.

A good book about an overview of what had happened and what is happenning in the world of research.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471488526/qid=1128087865/
sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-6482960-4537666?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[Bastian: editted the link as it was ruining the page format in firefox browsers]

[Vesko]

A very informative article and a talk transcript is 'Higher Education "market" warning', http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3564531.stm, March 24, 2004.

Listen to the lecture (the audio contains questions and answers after the end of the lecture that are not in the transcript):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/event ... i25mar.ram (you need RealPlayer to hear it, you can get it free at http://www.real.com).

Specifically concerning fundamental research:

The second unfortunate consequence of the marketisation of higher education in America, this retreat from the concept of public mission is a potential loss of universities as centres of basic learning. By basic learning I mean basic research, fundamental inquiry, learning that does not translate itself easily into applied economic value. As the curricula of American universities and as the research agendas migrate closer and closer and closer to the private sector there is less and less room and less and less incentive and less and less money available to pursue the more basic inquiry and the more basic research that may be unrelated to any direct application.

This is potentially dangerous to the American economy overall because as you are aware and I'm certain the same phenomenon exists here in Britain, companies, large companies, are going global, they are less and less connected to any particular country or nation. Capital is now global, where capital goes increasingly depends upon where capital can get the highest return on that investment around the world. And where capital can get the highest return on investment depends in part on where it can get the most productive people, where the infrastructure for developing ideas, solving problems, innovating, is the best. If your universities, if your system of higher education migrates toward applied knowledge, away from the production of basic knowledge, it may therefore hurt your overall economy in terms of its capacity to generate the people and the talent you need for broad based problem solving and innovation regardless of its specific applications.

Be sure to read or listen to the rest of the article -- truly worthwhile!