Strong Inference
Strong Inference
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DOI：
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发表时间：
2007
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Platt
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作者：
J. Platt
如今，科学家们倾向于保留一种礼貌的虚构，即所有科学都是平等的。除了我们当时碰巧反驳的被误导的对手的工作外，我们说话时就好像每个科学家的领域和研究方法都和其他科学家一样好，甚至可能更好一点。这让我们在互相推荐政府拨款时保持热情。但我认为任何仔细研究这个问题的人都会同意，如果可以用数字来进行这样的估计，某些科学领域的发展速度比其他领域快得多，也许快一个数量级。这些发现一跃成为头条新闻，它们是分子生物学和高能物理学等复杂而困难的学科的真正进步。正如阿尔文·温伯格 (Alvin Weinberg) 所说 (1)，“《美国国家科学院院刊》几乎每个月都会报道分子生物学领域取得的惊人成功。”为什么某些领域进步如此之快，而另一些领域则不然？我认为我们通常想到的解释——例如课题的易处理性、参与该课题的人员的素质或教育程度、或者研究合同的规模——很重要，但还不够。我开始相信首要因素
Scientists these days tend to keep up a polite fiction that all science is equal. Except for the work of the misguided opponent whose arguments we happen to be refuting at the time, we speak as though every scientist's field and methods of study are as good as every other scientist's, and perhaps a little better. This keeps us all cordial when it comes to recommending each other for government grants. But I think anyone who looks at the matter closely will agree that some fields of science are moving forward very much faster than others, perhaps by an order of magnitude, if numbers could be put on such estimates. The discoveries leap from the headlinesand they are real advances in complex and difficult subjects, like molecular biology and high-energy physics. As Alvin Weinberg says (1), "Hardly a month goes by without a stunning success in molecular biology being reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Why should there be such rapid advances in some fields and not in others? I think the usual explanations that we tend to think of-such as the tractability of the subject, or the quality or education of the men drawn into it, or the size of research contracts-are important but inadequate. I have begun to believe that the primary factor