With a few stylistic alterations, the passage below wouldn’t be too out of place today: We are at present almost wantonly ignorant and careless in regard to the conditions which favor or hinder scientific work. We do not know whether progress is in the main due to a large number of faithful workers or to the genius of a few.
Fabulous Stuart and, yes, incredibly current/timely!👏
The line
"We do not know whether it is better for the professor and investigator to have a moderate salary, a life position and a pension, or to engage in severe competition for large prizes"
pertains to the current brain drain of new science PhD from the low-pay post-doc route (with fewer tenure track jobs on the far end to justify the sacrifice) to "industry" with its perks and salaries. But what of discovery ("pure") science in the face of market (read investor) pressures?
Fabulous Stuart and, yes, incredibly current/timely!👏
The line
"We do not know whether it is better for the professor and investigator to have a moderate salary, a life position and a pension, or to engage in severe competition for large prizes"
pertains to the current brain drain of new science PhD from the low-pay post-doc route (with fewer tenure track jobs on the far end to justify the sacrifice) to "industry" with its perks and salaries. But what of discovery ("pure") science in the face of market (read investor) pressures?
So many questions and, still, few good answers.