The Development of Science Challenges Human’s Research Capacity 

Wang Yuanfeng

Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, P.R. China

The scientific knowledge has been increasing unprecedentedly during the past century, especially after the Second World War, due to the drive of following three elements: the interdisciplinary study, the advance of research methods and tools as well as the intertwining of science and technology (1). However, the rapid increase of scientific knowledge does not make scientific problems decrease accordingly, on the contrary, the issues presenting to human being are augmenting. From the point of view of the epistemology, human beings’ abilities of finding out and identifying problems are improved with knowledge growth. In addition, modern science is no longer to be the traditional natural science, although the questions, such as “What is the universe made of” and “What is the biological basis of consciousness” etc.(2), are still the essential problems of scientific research, but subjects of scientific research are mostly created by human being themselves.

The human being’s ability to create problems is far stronger than that of solving problems. This prominent unsymmetry with science’s “endless frontier”(3) results in that it is not capable for human being to solve all the scientific problems. However, although scientists on the globe does not expect to carry out the impossible mission, the growth of the scientific knowledge presents a great challenge to scientific research because human’s research capacity does not keep pace with the development of science.

The factors influencing capacities of scientific research are capital invested in scientific studies, which is generally denoted by R&D investment, the quantity and quality of the scientific researchers, and scientific research infrastructure. Among the three factors, the first is most essential, it influences not only scientific research directly but also the quantity of scientific researchers as well as the scientific research infrastructure.

At present, the global R&D investment is of about $ 100 billion, accounting for about 2 % of world GDP (4,5,6). In the R&D investment, only about one sixth was spent on basic research in developed countries such as the United States and some European countries, and developing countries’ corresponding expenditures were much less. The investment devoted into scientific research was too little as compared with the world expenditures on weapons and narcotics. Moreover, global investments in R&D grew at a rate of less than 1% between 2001 and 2002, compared to 4.6% annually between 1994 and 2001(4). Government R&D funds have been especially important to the academic sector, which is the source of much of the basic research, but as warned by President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) of the United States in the year of 2002: R&D investment from the federal government has fallen to its lowest point as a percentage of the GDP in over 25 years(7,8). PCAST also worried about strong support of R&D by private sector, which accounted for around 64 percent of U.S. R&D investment(4), “this source of funding cycles with business patterns and focuses on short term results emphasizing development of existing technology rather than establishing new frontiers”(7).  Most essentially, western countries, which occupy most proportion of global R&D investment, have lost the will to fund basic science research (9), large number of scientific research proposals can not obtain support. In 2004, National Science Foundation (NSF) of the Unite States funded only 23.6 percent of proposals that has decreased to the lowest point in the past 10 years(10). Scientists in all over the world are not satisfied with the insufficient funds, especially those who are engaged in basic research. Even French scientists took to the streets to protest their government’s policies of the basic research investment (9).

The work of scientists especially those in the field of basic research, is quite demanding, but in the society of market economy, scientists’ incomes just match that of the middle class. As a result, their career becomes less attractive, main developed countries are facing the declining interest in scientific jobs among their young people (5). Additionally, with the restricting of scientific research investment, it will be difficult to supply sufficient researchers for scientific investigation, and the shortage of the researchers in some disciplines gets more serious. Whether the quantity of science and technical staff is enough is still under discussion, but main developed countries are all challenged by a period of growing retirements among their researchers(5). The case is notable in the Unite States: more than 30 percent of its university faculty are 55 years of age or older, and the total of individuals below age 45 has fallen to 36 percent(5). Meanwhile, modern scientific research has challenged the quality of scientific researchers. Mostly, modern scientific problems have the characters of complexity, non-linearity, interdisciplinarity, it highlights the requirement to scientists. Scientists should be qualified with various knowledge accumulation, abundant working experience, spirit of team work and skillful utilization of advanced research methods and facilities to do cutting-edge research. Whether the whole groups of scientific researchers can adapt to science development or not has not been reported, the claims of the development of science to scientists’ qualities should be studied.

Advanced and effective research infrastructure is critical to the development of science. Modern infrastructure make researchers more productive and be able to do more complex and different tasks than they could in the past. The Unite States possesses the most advanced research conditions, but during the past decade, according to the diverse studies and reports(11) of NSF, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), National Institute of Health (NIH), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), there is a growing gap between the academic research infrastructure that is needed and the infrastructure provided. Scientific research infrastructure in the Unite States can not satisfy the requirement of science development. Nowadays, constructing and maintaining infrastructure of scientific research is very costly, however, NSTC reported that over the last ten years, the funding for academic research infrastructure has not caught up with rapidly changing technology, expanding research opportunities, and increasing numbers of users(11,12). The current 22 percent of the budget of NSF used in research infrastructures is too low(11). Many large research infrastructure can not be accomplished by one country because of their complexity and requirements in investment, technology and human resources. At present, a number of large research infrastructure has been constructed through international collaborations and partnerships (11). However, in the view of the scientific problems that human being has to face jointly, the work just starts.

Besides those mentioned above, institutions, cultures, people’s education and interests on science are other factors affecting human's research capacity.

Except the development of science raises new requests for human’s research capacity, human being must upgrade their scientific research capacity to meet the demand of the survival and development of human's society.

References

1. Nelson R, National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993

2. 125 Questions, what don’t we know, Science, Vol. 309, July 2005 http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/125th/

3. Bush V., Science—The Endless Frontier, A Report to the President on a Program for Postwar Scientific Research, July 1945

4. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2004 (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,2004)

   http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/60/33998255.pdf

5.Science & Engineering Indicators – 2010(The National Science Board, 2010)

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind10/

6.Human Development Report 2010　(United Nations Development，2010)

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2010/

7.Assessing the U.S. R&D Investment (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, October 16, 2002 ) http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/pcast2002rpt.html

8.Elisa Eiseman, Kei Koizumi and Donna Fossum, Federal Investment in R&D,　(RAND, September 2002) http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1639.0/MR1639.0.pdf

9.William Brody，The west has lost the will to fund basic research，(The Financial Times，August 18, 2005)

10.National Science Foundation, Introduction and NSF Overview, Regional Grants Conference, (April 4-5, 2005) http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/introoakland.pdf

11. Science and Engineering Infrastructure for the 21st Century, (The National Science Board, 2003)  http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2002/nsb02190/nsb02190.pdf

12. A Review of Reports on Selected Large Federal Science Facilities (Rand, 2003) http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1728/MR1728.ch1.pdf