Scientific Study Says There are Too Many Scientific Studies

There's a new report out that says in a recent scientific study a serious discussion was held about scientific studies, and the conclusion of the report was that there are too many scientific studies. Somehow I think we all pretty much knew this, but it's nice to see a genuinely clever and insightful scientific study from some learned scientists coming to the exact same conclusion.

Apparently scientists just aren't able to keep up with all of the studies that are being done in their fields of endeavor. The report, "Attention Decay in Science," says that what's going on is that the exponential growth occurring in the total volume of scientific papers is making it harder and harder for researchers to track all the stuff they need to know about in their fields so they can be up to date with their work.

It's all probably the fault of the Internet and all the tons of information that we're subjected to every second of the day. So what's happening is that all the people who are trying to understand this onslaught of information are winding up tossing everything away that they're exposed to at a much faster rate because there isn't time to absorb it properly before a new onslaught of information comes crashing down on top of them.

And guess what? Yes, of course, it's getting worse! The paper notes that scholars are tending to 'forget' stuff a lot easier than they used to because of the "exponential growth" in all the publications that are continually coming out.

The chief economist of the prestigious Bank of England, Andy Haldane, says that we're clearly in the middle of a new revolution of information. Nearly 99 percent of the entire mass of information that has ever been created on earth has been generated in just the past century.

There are benefits, of course, but the costs include shorter attention spans and the tenure of relationships and jobs is declining. In other words, we're in a mell of a hess and it's going to continue getting worse and worse. Welcome to the 21st Century!