Today, we live in a world where we want more and more predictive power. When you think about the current capabilities of business and data analytics and forecasting, it seems a little odd that we are not able to know what scientific field we should invest money in and in what area of the field we should push the pedal to move it to the next level.
Now, with the growing technology, we can take a harder look at science and how it has evolved over the years. “We’re in the Big Data era,” said Albert-László Barabási, Professor of Network Science and Distinguished Professor of Physics at Northeastern University. Every machine’s every move has been recorded in the form of scholarly papers, scientific discoveries, and career accolades for the groundbreaking scientists. “Isn’t it time all that data was put to good use?’
For a long time, there has been a difficulty because of the lack of digital data. Now, that is changing. We are in the Big Data revolution—we have these huge databases of authors, articles, discovery patterns, affiliations, and citations. This is what the community is trying to leverage, to create an emerging field known as the science of science.
He collaborated with Alessandro Vespignani on a paper they published to review and analyse literature published in the past five to ten years on the science of science. Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor, said the field of the science of science has the potential to help predict the success of researchers, teams, and entire disciplines. He also explains how scientists, organisations, and greater society can benefit from the science of science.
Vespignani says, “When you look at the production and consumption of science, it can be formalised as a kind of economy. For example, Boston is a major science producer. What are the patterns and the networks that characterise the flow of scientific ideas, innovation, and knowledge there? Then there comes in investments, the support of universities, the support of governments. You can imagine how interesting it would be for federal agencies to understand where to invest properly or how to detect—in advance—the promising areas.”
Anisha Naidu
Comments