Yes I saw that, but to me that is THE key driver of all this useless research.
And though she mentioned it, it just didn’t come across strong enough.
Starting with the headline...
“No one in physics dares say so, but the race to invent new particles is pointless”
She should have replaced pointless with “for money”.
Also in the first sentence...
“In private, many physicists admit they do not believe the particles they are paid to search for exist – they do it because their colleagues are doing it”
Again, the key reason they’re doing is not because the colleagues are doing is for the money.
I just thought she could have been more forceful in highlighting that as the principal reason up front.
But I may be a bit too critical. I applaud her for writing such a gutsy and honest article. I’m sure her “colleagues” don’t appreciate it.
Science is as much as any other endeavor subject to “peer pressure”. If your colleagues are all off chasing bizarrely named particles that probably don’t even exist, and you’re doing something useful (I’m not a particle physicist, so I’m not sure how to give a really good example), it limits your ability to talk in the faculty lounge. Fewer people are interested in your papers. It takes longer to publish. But if you jump on the bandwagon chasing the latest ‘crapton’ ... Well now. You’re one of the cool kids! And, of course, the Benjamins will follow.
In many respects, scientific research is broken. Big Foundations and Big Government had a lot to do with breaking it.