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from the whom-do-you-trust...-and-why? dept.
Given that collaboration [in science] is the norm, you may be asking yourself the eternal question: Who cares? How does the image of a lone scientist hero cause any danger to me?
The problem arises when there is a debate about a scientific topic. Following this structure, debate is a necessary and encouraged part of the scientific process. This debate happens before the idea is released to anyone outside of a few scientists and, while it can become heated at times, takes place with great respect between proponents of different viewpoints.
The danger can come when scientific results are released to the public. Our society now provides a platform for anyone to comment, regardless of his or her education, experience or even knowledge of the topic at hand.
While this is an excellent method of disseminating knowledge, it can also provide a platform for any opinion—regardless of the weight of data behind it—to be equal to that released in more traditional scientific ways.
Particularly in today's largely populist climate, people are looking to see the lone scientist hero overthrow the perceived dominance of facts coming from academia.
And herein lies the problem. In this situation, the opinion of a lone commenter may be considered on equal footing with that of tens or hundreds of people who have made the subject their life's work to ensure their interpretations are correct.
Everybody is entitled to their own scientific opinion, but everybody is not entitled to their own scientific facts?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @01:28PM (7 children)
Some of the greatest discoveries known to mankind have been done by solitary scientists (or at least a small group).
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:07PM (2 children)
... but the internet (voip, websites, irc) and cheap international travel only came about 20-50 years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:08PM (1 child)
"Science"... like the one of a parrot that learns to speak "words".
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:49PM
Like the LHC, many space telescopes, etc etc
(Score: 3, Informative) by urza9814 on Wednesday November 22 2017, @06:53PM (2 children)
Yes, and it is said that Seymour Cray once programmed an operating system of his own design into a supercomputer of his own design through using only its toggle switches. But anybody doing that today is going to end up with a science fair project, not a cutting-edge supercomputer. Complexity increases over time until it exceeds what one person is capable of.
There's a limit to how much of the universe can be probed by one guy in his garage, and most of that is already known. One person can discover gas laws by burning candles in jars or discover infrared light by putting thermometers behind prisms...but one person cannot build the LHC and discover the Higgs Boson.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:53PM (1 child)
Complexity increases until it exceeds what a customer is ready to pay for. Which is entirely unrelated to the problem domain.
The latest Apple toy is not a hard requirement for doing a voicecall or sending an email; the latest MS Office is not a hard requirement for editing a text or a table. Every thing is growing in complexity, but that complexity is working against the user, not for him. Neither sounds nor letters have become any complexer since 1970s.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday November 27 2017, @03:04PM
What's that got to do with scientists? Sure, a single person could write the thousandth "new" spreadsheet application or text editor, but that's not advancing any new frontiers, it's just reinventing the wheel.
No, but physics and biology and chemistry have. Theory could *potentially* be advanced by the lone scientist -- ie, making new predictions in string theory probably requires little more than a pen and paper -- but actually collecting the evidence to prove or disprove those theories still requires complex experiments that are generally out of reach of lone individuals.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @09:17PM
In the past that was often true, however most of the easy discoveries have largely been tapped out. There may be a few remaining ones that can be done by a solitary scientist, but for most interesting research you need a team of people from different fields collaborating.
The main problem with being a solitary scientist is that it's unlikely you'll be able to see the problem from enough angles in order to produce a breakthrough. You're also at a disadvantage if there's anything wrong with the calculations or experimental design.