Abstract
Although we have a far greater understanding of nature than our forebears, they could claim to have a much more universal view. Our rapidly growing knowledge in natural science has led to a narrowing of the individual view: as we dig deeper we lose breadth. The trend is towards sophistication and specialization. Nowadays it is impossible for any one person to keep up with various fields and with various methods. For an experimentalist this means that he must concentrate either on the one or the other, and he thus becomes a field or a method specialist. Another factor promoting this trend towards specialization is the increasing cost of modern equipment. Parallel to this development research itself has changed from an individual type of creative engagement to a collective type of team work.
Man is a tool-using animal, without tools he is nothing
Thomas Carlyle
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Gonser, U. (1986). Concerning Methods. In: Gonser, U. (eds) Microscopic Methods in Metals. Topics in Current Physics, vol 40. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46571-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46571-0_1
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