WORLD - Millions of New Discoveries Every Year
Millions of scientific papers are published globally every year. These papers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine present discoveries that range from the mundane to the profound.
Since 1900, the number of published scientific articles has doubled about every 10 to 15 years; since 1980, about 8% to 9% annually. This acceleration reflects the immense and ever-growing scope of research across countless topics, from the farthest reaches of the cosmos to the intricacies of life on Earth and human nature.
Yet, this extraordinary expansion was once thought to be unsustainable. In his influential 1963 book, “Little Science, Big Science… And Beyond,” the founder of scientometrics—or data informetrics related to scientific publications—Derek de Solla Price famously predicted limits to scientific growth.
He warned that the world would soon deplete its resources and talent pool for research. He imagined this would lead to a decline in new discoveries and potential crises in medicine, technology and the economy. At the time, scholars widely accepted his prediction of an impending slowdown in scientific progress.
In fact, science has spectacularly defied Price’s dire forecast. Instead of stagnation, the world now experiences “global mega-science”—a vast, ever-growing network of scientific discovery. This explosion of scientific production made Price’s prediction of collapse perhaps the most stunningly incorrect forecast in the study of science.
-theconversation.com, 14 October 2024
Commentary
We publish this excerpt because it is such a clear, concrete fulfillment of the prophecy found in Daniel 12:4: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
The relentless advancements in science and technology have proven pessimists such as Derek de Solla Price wrong time and again. We are reminded of the popular (though likely apocryphal) statement from the US Patent Office: “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” What patent commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth actually wrote in 1844 was nevertheless unenthusiastic: “The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity, and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.”
With hindsight and our own witnessing of exponential advancements in our lifetimes, it is clear that these naysayers were incorrect, and it stands to reason that explosive growth in science, technology—and, yes, knowledge—will continue to increase until the end of the world. -By J. Froese
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
