How do we support today’s Einsteins?

When Max Planck accidentally discovered quantum theory, he kick-started the most significant scientific revolution of the 20th century; his colleague, Wilhelm Röntgen’s experiments with cathode rays led inadvertently to the discovery of X-rays, which ultimately revolutionised modern medical practice; and US physicists at Bell Labs, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, detected cosmic wave background radiation -- the echo of the Big Bang -- when trying to get rid of the annoying noise being picked up by their microwave receiver.

Would today’s physicists, plagued by the publish-or-perish ethic, have the same freedom to explore their findings?

Buchanan offers a selection of different perspectives in the article. He looks, for example, at suggestions that scientists themselves could take a financial risk in speculative research depending on whether they do or do not think it will pay off, as well as proposals - through, say, 10-year fellowships - that allow scientists to pursue really "hard", long-standing problems without the pressure for rapid results.

A second article in this month’s edition of Physics World explores the emergence of “econophysics”, which originally stemmed from research at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico - one of few centres dedicated to innovative, high-risk and often inter-disciplinary research. In the article, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, head of research at Capital Fund Management, explains how “Econophysics” seeks to construct a much more complete picture of the economy through power-laws and “toy” models inspired by physics. Going beyond our flawed classical understanding of economics, which assumes that the markets act rationally, it is an example of truly innovative, inter-disciplinary physics that could change the way we view our world.

As Buchanan writes, “The price to pay for not moving to re-establish [scientific] independence will lie in a failure to realise the huge and unpredictable discoveries that move science forward most in the long term - discoveries made possible only when individuals leap out of what is comfortable and accepted, and wander out into spaces unknown.”

Provided by Institute of Physics (news : web)