Just discovered the Slow Science movement and its corresponding Slow Science Manifesto (you are nobody without a manifesto these days 🙂 ).

I share some of their points: “Science needs time to think. Science needs time to read, and time to fail. Science does not always know what it might be at right now. …  Society should give scientists the time they need, but more importantly, scientists must take their time.” and in an ideal world, this is how we should do science.

But, unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and society (especially, in this economical crisis) has no patience with scientists and has no sympathy for large budgets for long-term scientific goals with no clear direct (and short-term) positive effect on its daily life. Let’s not forget also the benefits of incremental research either.

And in fact, it’s not only the society that has to be patient, slow science requires a complete change on how research careers are evaluated and researchers promoted (e.g. postdocs cannot do slow science since they have a short-term goal).

Let’s hope this slow science movement goes beyond the manifesto and presents a concrete list of (feasible) actions we can start discussing within and outside our community.