Big Science

English

Etymology

From the large commitments of money and resources, and the large media impact.

Noun

Big Science (uncountable)

1. Scientific research that is high-profile, large in scope, and so expensive that it requires government funding.
   • 2012, Jon Agar, Science in the 20th Century and Beyond, →ISBN, page 330:

     A basic model of the phenomenon of Big Science as a style of organization is captured by the five 'M's: money, manpower, machines, media and military.

   • 2013, Stephen and Steven Cotgrove & Box, Science Industry and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Science, →ISBN:

     The growth of Big Science has been accompanied by changes in the sources of scientific patronage.

   • 2014, Naomi Oreskes, John Krige, Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, →ISBN, page 393:

     In the 1960s, Big Science was identified as a new phenomenon, associated with changes in the organization of scientific research in the aftermath of World War II.1 As the Big Science mode of research blossomed and expanded in the second half of the twentieth century, it became a widespread mode of scientific research in the natural sciences.

   • 2015, R. Sassower, Compromising the Ideals of Science, →ISBN:

     Already in 1961 Weinberg asks the scientific community to consider not only the reasons behind the expansion of science into Big Science, but also the price it was willing to pay for it. He asked three broad questions: "first, Is Big Science ruining science?; second, Is Big Science ruining us financially?; and third, Should we divert a larger part of our effort toward scientific issues which bear more directly on human well-being than do such Big-Science spectaculars as manned space travel and high-energy physics?"

Alternative forms

• big science

Antonyms

• little science

Hypernyms

• megascience