The code of life / [Ernest Borek].

  • Ernest Borek
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The code of life / [Ernest Borek]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Since adequate time is given to each speaker who has presumably made a significant contribution to his field, one can become acquainted with the concepts and achievements which have been made in areas other than one's own. For the sad truth is, written communication among scientists has broken down. This has occurred not in spite of but because of the enormous volume of scientific literature which deluges us. At the start of the era of science, exchange of information was informal and simple: those who had the interest, leisure, and the means to engage in scientific pursuits would write to each other describing their findings and conclusions. It was not un usual for the recipient of such information to report it to some scientific body in his country. Since there were no rewards for scientific pursuits anyway, no fear of loss of priority gnawed at the vitals of these blessed amateurs. This happy informality of course vanished as natural philosophy became fragmented into the various branches of science and as the number of practitioners burgeoned. Specialized journals were founded and discoveries began to trickle in from all over the world. Over the years the trickles swelled to rivers, but one could still remain afloat. In my field, biochemistry, one could be well informed twenty years ago by skimming a half a dozen journals a month, and reading with care the few articles which were close to one's special interest. But now, since the scientific professions have experienced a population explosion of their own—someone has calculated that 80 to 90 percent of the scientists who ever lived are alive today— we are drowned in the cataracts of journals pouring on us relentlessly from all over the world. Moreover, since so much is being published, the journals insist on a telegraphic style built around abbreviations and a specialized jargon. The contents of the journals have become arcane codes comprehensible only to a small coterie of experts in a tiny area. (The increasing disap pearance of skill in writing a clear sentence from the arsenal of