Prometheus Bound [Paperback]

A searching critique of the structural changes currently taking place in the scientific community, showing that managerial considerations now threaten to crowd out the creative element in science.This book is a cool but searching critique of science today. It analyses, for the first time, the profound changes that are taking place in the whole scientific enterprise, throughout the world. The author shows, in simple words, how the competition for bounded resources is forcing science to become much more tightly organised.This book is a cool but searching critique of science today. It analyses, for the first time, the profound changes that are taking place in the whole scientific enterprise, throughout the world. The author shows, in simple words, how the competition for bounded resources is forcing science to become much more tightly organised.This book is a trenchant analysis of the profound changes that are taking place in the whole scientific enterprise throughout the world. The author does not assume the reader has any technical knowledge of the natural sciences, their history, or politics, and addresses his book to everybody who is concerned about the future of science and its place in society.Foreword; 1. What is happening to science?; 2. Scientific and technological progress; 3. Sophistication and collectivization; 4. Transition to a new regime; 5. Allocation of resources; 6. Institutional responses to change; 7. Scientific careers; 8. Science without frontiers; 9. Steering through the buzzword blizzard; Further reading. Ziman succeeds very well in his purpose of describing the structures of academic science and the motivations of scientists driven by the intense competition of research at the frontiers. He gives an excellent analysis of the many dangers that threaten the future success of the enterprise and are the causes of much anguish in the laboratories....for all who wish to understand the concerns of those working at the frontiers of science to set PromlÃ*