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TFA mentions why academia is not the same as Bell Labs. Most researchers spend more time writing grant proposals than doing research. And the culture of publish
by bityard 1y ago
TFA mentions why academia is not the same as Bell Labs. Most researchers spend more time writing grant proposals than doing research. And the culture of publish-or-die leads to a lot of stress to just get something out the door, which leads to a lot of bad science on top of it. Especially in the softer sciences where good experiments are hard to do right.
It is debatable whether NASA has made any great leaps of discovery or engineering over the last 3 decades or so. The Apollo missions were spectacularly successful (even accounting for setbacks) and we have a great deal of insight as to why they worked so well.
I have my own thoughts about why it doesn't work today (in the West, at least) but I'll keep them to myself because they are not organized and are likely to start a political debate or three in any case.
- 7thaccount 1y agoI agree with your first part, but saying NASA hasn't done good work recently doesn't make sense to me with the Hubbel, Curiosity rovers, and JWST
- bityard 1y agoI said it was debatable, but you may be right. I still think if we hadn't already put a human on the moon by today and had a 10-year deadline to do it, it would basically not happen because it would get killed by bikeshedding, or red-vs-blue politics, or it would get highjacked by aerospace contractors and the funds milked dry with nothing to show for it.
- pstuart 1y agoIf you find a place to share these thoughts maybe link them here? I'm very curious about the issue. It is sadly political, because funding science and open ended research is now political, because that's the way modern politics has played out. I could point some obvious fingers here but no need to upset the easily offended.
- nemomarx 1y agoYou can't really do any project nowadays that's longer than a presidential term. It'll get torn up by the next govt in some fashion, and maybe eventually brought back by them to get their name on it.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y agoThey burned $1B on spacesuit development that is never going to be used.