Scientometrics is the science of measuring science. It’s the invention of mathematician Derek de Solla Price. Sixty-five years ago, he was asked to store a complete set of “The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society” in his house. The stacks for each year’s volumes, he noticed, got bigger and bigger. On inspection, he noticed that the height of the stacks fit an exponential curve. By 1960, Price had concluded that all scientific knowledge had been growing steadily at a rate of 4.7 percent annually since the 17th century. That meant that scientific data was doubling every 15 years.
Samuel Arbesman, author of “The Half-life of the Fact” says it also means that within a few decades the facts most of us are certain are truth are not true any more.
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