New essay from @patrickc and myself, arguing that science has suffered from greatly diminishing returns over the past century:https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/diminishing-returns-science/575665/ …
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If this is true, how much of this is because of the total erosion of the Haldane Principle resulting from the massive increase in political (ie non expert) intervention in the way scientific funding is allocated? The Haldane Principle is essential for effective research progress
Interesting question. Do you know of any good measures of changes in political intervention (positive or negative)?
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Probably started in the UK with Waldegrave and the Foresight programme, which conveniently forgot that today's science is tomorrow's technology. Fast forward to the Tory government and they bypass peer review for investment in eg G5, graphene etc etc.
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...plus the framework for the REF. Scientific impact cannot be defined on a five year cycle yet it forces researches to focus on fast incremental returns and prolific publications instead of long term major breakthroughs with generational impacts.
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