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Derek J. de Solla Price
(22 Jan 1922 - 3 Sep 1983)
English-American physicist and science historian , known as the “father of scientometrics.” He made the first thorough study of the Antikythera geared mechanism recovered from an Ancient Greek shipwreck and dated it to about 87 BC.
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Science Quotes by Derek J. de Solla Price (2 quotes)
It is clear that we cannot go up another two orders of magnitude as we have climbed the last five. If we did, we should have two scientists for every man, woman, child, and dog in the population, and we should spend on them twice as much money as we had. Scientific doomsday is therefore less than a century distant.
— Derek J. de Solla Price
Little Science, Big Science (1963), 19.
Using any reasonable definition of a scientist, we can say that 80 to 90 percent of all the scientists that have ever lived are alive now. Alternatively, any young scientist, starting now and looking back at the end of his career upon a normal life span, will find that 80 to 90 percent of all scientific work achieved by the end of the period will have taken place before his very eyes, and that only 10 to 20 percent will antedate his experience.
— Derek J. de Solla Price
Little Science, Big Science (1963), 1-2.
See also:
- 22 Jan - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Price's birth.
- Science Since Babylon, by Derek J. de Solla Price. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Derek J. de Solla Price.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
