Can Science Be Efficient? The 264th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying

In this week’s episode, we discuss changes in global health from Barcelona, as indicated by how much public coughing is taking place now. This segues into a discussion of cancer, mRNA, trade-offs, and complex systems. Then: what DOGE needs to understand about science, which is not inherently efficient. What are indirect costs on federal grants, why are they necessary, and why do they vary? And: how does having indirect costs create perverse incentives by university administrators to privilege scientists over non-scientists, and Big Science over (regular) science. Specifically, science in the West is failing because fast, expensive empirical science is nearly always favored over slow, cheap, and/or theoretical science. Universities get richer, and Big Scientists get promoted, but grad students don’t learn how to be scientists, and we all lose out on having basic scientific questions answered, which will ultimately be our downfall. Also: the Ship of Theseus.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Evolutionary Lens #84, June 2021 (Hey YouTube: Divide by Zero): https://odysee.com/@BretWeinstein:f/EvoLens84:b

Research University Classifications for 2025: https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/carnegie-classification/research-designations-faqs/

NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey: https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/higher-education-research-development/2023

Metamorphosis: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/metamorphosis

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