University Briefs

The scientific jury may still be out on cold fusion, but some social scientists have already reached the verdict that the spectacle has been good for science. Just as a political scandal can invigorate politics by showing the public how it works, the cold fusion story has benefited science by exposing its hidden side, according to a panel of scientists, philosophers, and sociologists who met last month at the University of California, San Diego. "We saw science in the making. We learned a lot ab

| 3 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

3:00

In a surprising show of support for Pons and Fleischmann, some of the scientists said their announcement of the results at a press conference was excusable because of the sheer magnitude of the discovery. UCSD chemist Hans Oesterreicher said the stakes were too high to wait for publication in a scientific journal. "When one sits on this, it costs us a zillion dollars every day. It is not morally right to sit on it."

The study found that the median total time to doctorate for all 11 fields examined in the study increased from 8.1 years in 1967 to 10.4 years in 1987. The TTD for students in the physical sciences also increased, from 6.0 in 1967 to 7.4 in 1987.

Concern about the length of time it takes to earn a doctorate is reflected by an NSF projection that by 1996, "a wave of retirements [will] give rise to ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here