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“Big Science”
After providing a deep technical discussion of an important paper last time, I thought a complete change of pace might be welcome. I’m going to talk about “big science” and why it is good science. The standard thought about science today is that small-scale researcher-driven (i.e., curiosity-driven) science is “good science” and “big science” is bad science. I am going to spend some time explaining why I think this is wrong on several accounts.
First, let’s define big science with some examples. The archetype of big science is the Manhattan project, which if you aren’t aware is the effort by the United States (and Great Britain) to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. This effort transformed into an effort to maintain scientific supremecy during the Cold War and included the development of the hydrogen bomb. Many premier institutions were built upon these efforts along with innumerable…
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Mohsen Behnam 