clipped from: www.guardian.co.uk Indeed, in biology the advances in technology have been so fast that we can now answer questions that a decade ago it would not have made sense to ask, because we did not have the tools to approach them. And even if that were not so, most science is paid for on a short-term basis - three to five years, rather than 10 or 20. This makes long-running experiments difficult to plan or to create.
Of all the limits on expanding our knowledge, unexamined, misplaced assumptions are the most insidious. Often, we don't even know that we have them: they are essentially invisible. Discovering them and investigating them takes curiosity, imagination, and the willingness to risk looking ridiculous. And that, perhaps, is one of the hardest tasks in science.