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This is absolutely fascinating. I want to stop everything I'm doing and contribute to science.

I've had this impulse my entire life, yet the economics of doing a PhD are so dystopian that the urge passes after a few minutes of rational thinking. So, what is HN's answer to the decline of institutional science? Projects like this will take decades, so crowdfunding is out.

A dozen Janelia Farms with long term funding from VCs would be great right about now.

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>what is HN's answer to the decline of institutional science?

I'm not sure institutional science has declined - if anything things have gone the other way where it's hard to do science outside of an institution. Not entirely sure what the answer is. In hot areas companies will sometimes hire people to do interesting work without a PhD and even sponsor commercial work for a PhD. When I was graduating long ago, material science was hot and all the material science undergrads were offered well paid research jobs in industry providing they passed and stuff. Supply and demand I guess.

I like how you think. You should put contact info in your profile.

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