How outsourcing will transform scientific research
blogs.scientificamerican.com
How outsourcing will transform scientific research
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Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#2Some great quotes here:
"Outsourcing revolutionized the IT industry in the 1990s and 2000s and I believe outsourcing has the potential to revolutionize scientific research in the same way."
"Just think of how many more discoveries can be made when scientists are able to easily tap into the best resources. That’s what gets me excited!"
This is pretty radical stuff!
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#3It makes sense when you look at other industries from car manufacturing to IT. In the west people moved to more and more specialized, cutting edge stuff (Tesla, developing new dbs) while the bread and butter moved to places where it was more economic. Makes sense that the trend would continue in science as well.
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#4[deleted]
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#5I have no idea what they are outsourcing. Could someone explain?
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#6I have no idea what they are outsourcing. Could someone explain?
Hi Jess - Science Exchange allows scientists to outsource individual experiments to specialist labs and facilities. For example gene expression profiling can be outsourced to specialist microarray providers. This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as technology advances and scientists are forced to become more specialized.
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#7Has outsourcing really revolutionized IT?
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#8I have no idea what they are outsourcing. Could someone explain?
Hi Jess - Science Exchange allows scientists to outsource individual experiments to specialist labs and facilities. For example gene expression profiling can be outsourced to specialist microarray providers. This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as technology advances and scientists are forced to become more specialized.
I get the strong impression you have a very specific area or areas of science in mind, but you seem to speak in generalities. One can't outsource, e.g., physics, anthropology, or geology. So what specific fields typically run experiments which can be outsourced? Is it just biology?
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi Jess - Science Exchange allows scientists to outsource individual experiments to specialist labs and facilities. For example gene expression profiling can be outsourced to specialist microarray providers. This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as technology advances and scientists are forced to become more specialized.
I get the strong impression you have a very specific area or areas of science in mind, but you seem to speak in generalities. One can't outsource, e.g., physics, anthropology, or geology. So what specific fields typically run experiments which can be outsourced? Is it just biology?
In some sense some of experimental physics is getting "outsourced" already. For example (my understanding is that) there are many physicists working on experimental data coming out of CERN who are not participating actual design/running of the system. In that sense they are outsourcing the work to specialists.
Re: How outsourcing will transform scientific research
#10It makes sense when you look at other industries from car manufacturing to IT. In the west people moved to more and more specialized, cutting edge stuff (Tesla, developing new dbs) while the bread and butter moved to places where it was more economic. Makes sense that the trend would continue in science as well.
Yes,
But the thing with science is that a scientist has historically been considered as not just someone competent enough to run a given experiment but also as a "seeker after truth". And this does mean something, it means that the scientist someone who you can trust to some degree to run experiments honestly. And that trust has been broken on regular intervals and that trust gets verified by repetition sure. But the basic "integrity" might just be something that is hard to outsource in the fashion of IT outsourcing. But then again, it might also involve a loss that various companies are happy to accept.