Science, Technology and Innovation
Policy Sci DOI 10.1007/s11077-011-9137-3
Science, technology and innovation in a 21st century context
John H. Marburger III
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011
This editorial essay was prepared by John H. ‘‘Jack’’ Marburger for a workshop on the ‘‘science of science and innovation policy’’ held in 2009 that was the basis for this special issue. It is published posthumously. Linking the words ‘‘science,’’ ‘‘technology,’’ and ‘‘innovation,’’ may suggest that we know more about how these activities are related than we really do. This very common linkage implicitly conveys a linear progression from scientific research to technology creation to innovative products. More nuanced pictures of these complex activities break them down into components that interact with each other in a multi-dimensional socio-technologicaleconomic network. A few examples will help to make this clear. Science has always functioned on two levels that we may describe as curiosity-driven and need-driven, and they interact in sometimes surprising ways. Galileo’s telescope, the paradigmatic instrument of discovery in pure science, emerged from an entirely pragmatic tradition of lens-making for eye-glasses. And we should keep in mind that the industrial revolution gave more to science than it received, at least until the last half of the nineteenth century when the sciences of chemistry and electricity began to produce serious economic payoffs. The flowering of science during the era, we call the enlightenment owed much to its links with crafts and industry, but as it gained momentum science created its own need for practical improvements. After all, the frontiers of science are defined by the capabilities of instrumentation, that is, of technology. The needs of pure science are a huge but poorly understood stimulus for technologies that have the capacity to be disruptive precisely because these needs do not arise from the marketplace. The innovators who built the World Wide Web on the
Science, technology and innovation in a 21st century context
John H. Marburger III
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011
This editorial essay was prepared by John H. ‘‘Jack’’ Marburger for a workshop on the ‘‘science of science and innovation policy’’ held in 2009 that was the basis for this special issue. It is published posthumously. Linking the words ‘‘science,’’ ‘‘technology,’’ and ‘‘innovation,’’ may suggest that we know more about how these activities are related than we really do. This very common linkage implicitly conveys a linear progression from scientific research to technology creation to innovative products. More nuanced pictures of these complex activities break them down into components that interact with each other in a multi-dimensional socio-technologicaleconomic network. A few examples will help to make this clear. Science has always functioned on two levels that we may describe as curiosity-driven and need-driven, and they interact in sometimes surprising ways. Galileo’s telescope, the paradigmatic instrument of discovery in pure science, emerged from an entirely pragmatic tradition of lens-making for eye-glasses. And we should keep in mind that the industrial revolution gave more to science than it received, at least until the last half of the nineteenth century when the sciences of chemistry and electricity began to produce serious economic payoffs. The flowering of science during the era, we call the enlightenment owed much to its links with crafts and industry, but as it gained momentum science created its own need for practical improvements. After all, the frontiers of science are defined by the capabilities of instrumentation, that is, of technology. The needs of pure science are a huge but poorly understood stimulus for technologies that have the capacity to be disruptive precisely because these needs do not arise from the marketplace. The innovators who built the World Wide Web on the
References: Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Kao, J. (2007). Innovation nation: How America is losing its innovation edge, why it matters, and what we can do to get it back. New York: Free Press. Taleb, N. N. (2007). The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable. New York: Random House. 123