The Science of Science and Innovation

Catalog description

"“I fully agree with you about the significance and educational value of history and philosophy of science. So many people today - even professional scientists - seem to me like somebody who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest.”" "– Albert Einstein The increasing burden of knowledge in biomedical science has led training and coursework to focus on the many trees within a specific area of research. While understandable, this narrowed scope means that scientists themselves are often unaware of historical, economic, and social forces that structure the enterprise in which they work. This course aims to illuminate these dynamics. Tapping into the many emerging metasciences—the science of science, economics of science, philosophy of science, etc—we will embark on a slow zoom in from a 1000 foot view, moving gradually from the perspective of governments, to funders, to practitioners, to trainees.