The rate of groundbreaking scientific discoveries and technological innovation is slowing despite a growing body of knowledge, according to an analysis released Wednesday of millions of research papers and patents.
While previous research has shown downturns in individual disciplines, the study is the first to “emphatically and convincingly document this decline in disruption across all major fields of science and technology,” the lead author told AFP. Michael Park.
Park, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, called discoveries that “break away from existing ideas” and “push the entire scientific field into new territory” as disruptive discoveries.
The researchers gave a “disturbance score” to 45 million scientific articles dating from 1945 to 2010, and 3.9 million US patents from 1976 to 2010.
Since the beginning of those time intervals, research papers and patents are increasingly likely to consolidate or build on prior knowledge, according to results published in the journal Nature.
The ranking was based on how articles were cited in other studies five years after publication, assuming that the more disruptive the research, the less its predecessors would be cited.
The largest decline in disruptive research occurred in the physical sciences such as physics and chemistry.
“The nature of research is changing” as incremental innovations become more common, said study lead author Russell Funk.
Burden of knowledge
One theory of decline is that all of the “low-hanging fruit” of science has already been plucked.
If that were the case, the disturbance in various scientific fields would have slowed down at different rates, Park said. Read also : Sports Person of the Week – Spartan Swim Team represents SWLA on the national stage.
But instead, “the declines are pretty consistent across their speeds and times across all major fields,” Park said, indicating that the low-hanging fruit theory isn’t likely to be to blame.
Instead, the researchers pointed to what has been called “the research burden,” suggesting that there is now so much that scientists must learn to master a particular field that they have little time left to push the limits.
This causes scientists and inventors to “focus on a narrow slice of existing knowledge, leading them to find something more consolidated rather than disruptive,” Park said.
Another reason could be that “there is increasing pressure in academia to publish, publish, publish, because that is the metric by which academics are evaluated,” he added.
The researchers called on universities and funding agencies to focus more on quality, rather than quantity, and consider fully granting gap years to allow scholars to read and think more deeply.
“We are not becoming less innovative as a species,” Park stressed, pointing to recent advances such as the use of mRNA technology in COVID-19 vaccines or the measurement of gravitational waves in 2015.
Jerome Lamy, a historian and expert on the sociology of science at France’s CNRS research agency, who was not involved in the research, said it showed that “ultra-specialization” and pressure to publish had increased over the years.
He blamed a global trend of scholars being “forced to split up their papers” to increase their number of publications, saying this had led to “a blunting of research”.
What is the latest discovery in science 2022?
Closest black hole. By examining data released by the Gaia spacecraft, astrophysicists discovered a black hole that is just over 1,560 light-years from Earth (SN Online: 11/4/22). Nicknamed Gaia BH1, it is about twice as close as the closest known black hole. But that record may not hold.
What is happening in science this week? See the article : Bill to promote the semiconductor industry, high-tech research passes key Senate tests.
Who proposed 7 sources of innovation?
Peter F. Drucker, known as the father of modern management, suggested that systematic and purposeful innovation begins with opportunity analysis and ranks the “Seven Sources of Innovative Opportunity. This may interest you : More than 30,000 openings to Israeli high technology despite the economic downturn.”
Who invented the principles of innovation? The Principles of Innovation Drucker suggested that systematic and purposeful innovation begins with the analysis of opportunities and classifies “Seven sources of innovative opportunities”. He classified them as Sources within the Company or Industry and those that deal with Changes Outside the Company or Industry.
Who is Peter Drucker in innovation?
Peter Drucker was a leading authority on entrepreneurship and innovation. Below, Drucker outlines seven sources or places to look for breakthrough opportunities, along with a summary of five steps to take to seize a breakthrough opportunity.
Has technological innovation slowed?
That technological innovation is not only slowing down, but has been for decades. It’s fair to be skeptical; after all, many of history’s greatest thinkers have been proven wrong when they predicted the future of technology.
Has technological innovation slowed down? Innovative start-ups are growing much more slowly than comparable companies in the past. Surprisingly, one of the main culprits is technology, specifically, proprietary information technology in the hands of large companies that dominate their industries.
Why is technology moving so slow?
The slow pace of innovation is caused by, among others, a lack of monetary funding, conflict of interest between innovators and other factions such as consumers, and the technological push of competing technologies that make it difficult to use new innovations.
Has technological progress sped up?
How fast is technology growing? Technology grows 2 times every 18 months in processing capacity. More than 89% of Big Data has been generated in the last two years. As per the last 50 years, technology is growing at a steady rate.
What are innovative ideas?
An innovative idea transforms the way people think and thus changes the way the entire market operates as a result. It also helps introduce new customers to the market because it profoundly changes the way people live.
What is the meaning of innovative ideas? : a new idea, method or device : novelty. : introducing something new.
What are the 3 innovative ideas?
The 3 types of innovation: product, process and business model | Differential.
