Abstract
FOUR American men of science, representing the different departments of physics, social relations, mathematics and Mostatistics, have been considering the problems and difficulies arising from overspecialization in science ("The Education of a Scientific Generalist", by Henrik Bode, Frederick Mosteller, John Tukey and Charles Winsor ; Science, 109 June 3, 1949). These difficulties, they state, are most pressing in the borderline fields like physical chemistry, biophysoics, biochemistry and the application of chemistry, physics and mathematics to medicine, and have led to a position where there is too much narrow specialization in which "one man can no longer cover a broad enough field". Yet, at all levels, decisions have to be made which involve consideration of more than a single field of science and indicate the need for a simpler, more unified approach to scientific problems. "We need men who can practise science—not a particular science—in a word, we need scientific generalists."
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Educting Men of Science. Nature 164, 571 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164571a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164571a0