Paradoxically, even though we produce more scientific output than ever before – each year, researchers around the world publish millions of academic papers – the pace of scientific discovery is slowing down. There are several factors behind this general slow-down of scientific advancement, but the most important factor is the simple maturation of any field. … Continue reading "Is Science Slowing Down?"

Although scientists are publishing more science papers than ever, the pace of discovery seems to be slowing. Why is this happening? The main reason is that all of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, scientifically speaking, and it takes more expensive equipment and larger teams to make further progress into the unknown. All that’s left are the hard questions, but they’re still worth answering.