Storming the ivory tower

摘要

Understanding the origins of life, the causes of cancer, the structure of the brain, quantum gravity. . . just the sort of everyday challenges that keep scientists working late into the night. But does the way science is organised affect the rate of progress? Does it inhibit change and stifle innovation? Are we even asking the right questions and setting the right research agendas? At a time when business has learned how to flatten its hierarchies to respond to new ideas and manage change better, have the universities become more bureaucratic and hierarchical? What would democracy look like in the lab? Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin has more questions than answers...