Re: modern science = underfunded projects

drocillo wrote:

<snip>

A thought has occured to me that this is the way the western science is
going. Every scientific employee will be faced with the task to
complete the underfunded project. Those who are unable to give account
of the successful completion of the project, will fade into oblivion as
the management will hire and promote the people who have proved they
can finish the principically underfunded projects.

This also means that younger scientists on large will not be able to
obtain professional skills because doing underfunded projects does not
put them to work with the real equipment and they do not solve the real
problems. The fraction of computer modellers in science will increase
(though even now it is too much).

Is that necessarily a bad thing? I've been involved with a number of R & D project while I worked in industry in which the funds that were allocated to them weren't effectively spent, nor did many of those who managed those projects take enough time to think about how to best utilize what resourced they had on hand.

At one company I worked for, we had a shed filled will all manner of hardware that was built, only to be abandoned and gather dust because there was too much money available and too little brain power used. Sometimes one ends up with cast-off gear because one goes down a blind alley, but at least by doing so, one learns what doesn't work. There's no excuse, however, to spend money and built an apparatus because it seemed to be a good idea without having any real idea whether it made sense.


The number of the scientists who possess the true skills will be very
small, and their value will go up. The salary for the people who were
exposed to the real-funded projects will go up to stratospheric
heights. So... people on this newsgroup talked a lot that the labour of
scientists is not respected and is not paid well... here is the good
news...

On the other hand, one may be forced to become creative. Remember Ernest Rutherford's words: "We haven't the money, so we've got to think."


Is this a true trend, or I am just imagining unexisting things ?


<snip>
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