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Article: Edelman's thought factories; UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- December 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Imagine Darwin making a grant application, "I would like to go
on a four-year voyage on which I am sure that I will discover
something interesting . . .". Or Einstein wanting money to allow
him the time to think about being in a lift falling through space.
And what chance would Fred Sanger, now with two Nobel prizes, but
with years of a meagre publication record, have today? No, "the
poetry", as Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman sees it, has gone out of
government-funded science, and novel ideas are having a hard time.
Edelman sees much of current science as characterised by
technological narrowness; experiments are determined by powerful
techniques, now easily available, rather than ...