THE SLOW SCIENCE MANIFESTO

We are scientists. We don’t blog. We don’t twitter. We take our time.

Don’t get us wrong—we do say yes to the accelerated science of the early 21st century. We say yes to the constant flow of peer-review journal publications and their impact; we say yes to science blogs and media & PR necessities; we say yes to increasing specialization and diversification in all disciplines. We also say yes to research feeding back into health care and future prosperity. All of us are in this game, too.

However, we maintain that this cannot be all. Science needs time to think. Science needs time to read, and time to fail. Science does not always know what it might be at right now. Science develops unsteadily, with jerky moves and unpredictable leaps forward—at the same time, however, it creeps about on a very slow time scale, for which there must be room and to which justice must be done.

Slow science was pretty much the only science conceivable for hundreds of years; today, we argue, it deserves revival and needs protection. Society should give scientists the time they need, but more importantly, scientists must take their time.

We do need time to think. We do need time to digest. We do need time to misunderstand each other, especially when fostering lost dialogue between humanities and natural sciences. We cannot continuously tell you what our science means; what it will be good for; because we simply don’t know yet. Science needs time.

—Bear with us, while we think.

THE SLOW SCIENCE ACADEMY

Following from the thoughts expressed in the manifesto above, we believe that such time to think and to pursue dialogue and face–to-face dispute should be made available to the current generation of high-profile, active scientists. We maintain that science, as well as the society as a whole that is funding our work, will profit greatly on the (very) long run, if a non-real-time / offline, integrative and sustainable culture of thinking is encouraged and kept alive.

Academies had been the exclusive home of science for a very long time—long before game-changing science journals were introduced. Currently, research academies do hardly play a role anymore; where they exist at all, membership is a career goal and incentive for eminent senior scientists and other honories rather than a career-accompanying retreat space.

The ”Slow Science Academy”, founded in Germany in 2010, shall offer such often discredited, yet utterly needed ivory tower. It will gather groups of basic researchers alongside select brains from science-affine areas and offer them space, time, and—ultimately— resources to do their main job: to discuss, to wonder, to think.

For more information or Academy membership nomination, please contact us at the address given below.

Also, support the Academy and express your sympathy on Facebook. You can also download the slow science manifesto and information as a 2-page pdf here and post it round your institutions. Thank you.

SLOW SCIENCE ACADEMY · BERLIN, GERMANY · ACADEMY@SLOW-SCIENCE.ORG