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Make science disruptive again

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 450–451 (2023)Cite this article

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The rate of scientific innovation appears to be slowing down: despite immense investments, the proportion of individual projects that push science in new directions by breaking with previous understanding has decreased since the 1950s1. Some observers have attributed these diminishing returns to the notion that fewer fundamental discoveries remain to be made2. But a compelling case can be made for another factor: that the culture of science has gradually transitioned toward a more executive and results-oriented approach. In this fast-paced mode, scientists and scientists-in-training — graduate students and postdoctoral fellows — have little time for more exploratory topics, which contributes to a less creative environment for transformative science. This trend may have been fortified by science becoming increasingly entrenched into siloed disciplines3 and by projects being progressively dominated by hypothesis-driven approaches4, fueled by a spirit of strategic design that emphasizes predictability rather than unexpected results.

As a tangible first step toward changing this culture, we suggest that graduate study programs should renew an emphasis on creativity by teaching the tools of innovative thinking5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Itai Yanai

  2. Institute for Computer Science & Department of Biology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Martin J. Lercher

Authors
  1. Itai Yanai
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  2. Martin J. Lercher
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Correspondence to Itai Yanai.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Yanai, I., Lercher, M.J. Make science disruptive again. Nat Biotechnol 41, 450–451 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01736-5

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