The message of this book is both simple and arresting: Success has spoiled science, in fact, has spoiled it rotten. The author, a Spanish astrophysicist and cosmologist, with Ph.D's in physics and philosophy, currently doing research at an astrophysics institute in Tenerife, is well qualified to judge. He takes a birdseye view of all science, comparing ancient with modern, to the marked disadvantage of the latter. We tend to find more congenial today the Pollyanna view that all is well with science, provided the government will kick in the next installment of megabucks for our latest research megaproject. But that is the mark of our current scientific decadence, the most visible result of which is ever-diminishing returns. Science, let us say in Newton's day, used to be a calling. Its transition to a profession was the beginning of the end. We all know it in our bones.
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