Salvar la ciencia

Science is facing a multi-faceted crisis: in terms of quality, of public value, of political legitimacy. To a significant degree, these problems find their origin in the widely held belief that unfettered scientific curiosity provides the best starting point or departure for solving both scientific and social problems. In this article I show how this belief has contributed to a scientific enterprise whose exponentially growing productivity is increasingly decoupled from meeting the standards of high quality or the needs of society. I contrast the ideals of unfettered scientific inquiry with real stories of how science, innovation, and problem solving came together in the institutional arrangements of the “military-industrial complex” after World War II. Through an array of contemporary and historical examples stronger links, I show how stronger links between the context of knowledge creation, and the context of problem solving, provides the pathway along which science can recover both its integrity and its commitment to society.