Stimulating revolutionary science with mega-cash prizes

Med Hypotheses. 2008;70(4):709-13. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2008.01.001.

Abstract

We argue that the most ambitious science is intrinsically riskier science, more likely to fail. It is almost always a safer career strategy for the best scientists to seek to extend knowledge more modestly and to build incrementally on existing ideas and methods. Therefore, higher rewards for success are a necessary incentive to encourage top scientists to work on the most important scientific problems, ones where the solution has potentially revolutionary implications. We suggest that mega-cash prizes (measured in tens of millions of dollars) are a suitable reward for those individuals (or institutions) whose work has triggered radically new directions in science.

Publication types

  • Editorial

MeSH terms

  • Awards and Prizes*
  • Biomedical Research / economics*
  • Clinical Medicine / economics*
  • Humans
  • Motivation
  • Research Support as Topic
  • Therapeutics / economics*