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| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 24
| Issue : 6 | Page : 649-650 |
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| Time is tight |
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Gerhard Konrad Seeberger
Council Member, Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI), Past-President, European Regional Organisation-FDI, Via De Gioannis 25B , 09125 Cagliari, Italy
Click here for correspondence address and email
| Date of Web Publication | 20-Feb-2014 |
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How to cite this article:
Seeberger GK. Time is tight. Indian J Dent Res 2013;24:649-50 |
Time is tight and watching this frenetically changing world I feel myself in a space-ship; distant objects glide while those close by make me aware of a rush through the years. Information technology transforms the internet into a furnace of myriads of information and data one can recall easily in real time. However, what is the rationale of having multitudes of information available and is this useful to increase knowledge and science? Information is non-organized data, opinion and message; the more one receives of it the more one tends to get confused rather than to strengthen the refined result of science: knowledge.
The ideal prerequisites to create science are basic knowledge, muse - in terms of unlimited time - a patron and last but not the least, ethics. Today, it is difficult to find the latter - especially a patron without a conflict of interest - and universities are not immune against unfair competition in a business driven world. It is still very difficult to find a scientific article dealing with implant dentistry, which is not influenced by industry. So is it really science what is written and wanted or do we deal with biased results from studies performed to increase sales? Konrad Paul Liessmann, [1] professor and chair of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, Austria, has described the phenomenon in one of his books; its title: Theory of illiteracy: The errors of the Knowledge Society. He reminds of the development of welfare in Europe. While our parents, encouraged by our grandparents, reached a better standard of life working in the industry, we were taught that greater knowledge would allow us to have better lives than theirs. Thus, we went through high-school programs for having access to highest standards of education, to university. However, did this eliminate war, poverty and illness and is communication among peoples better? Has knowledge itself become more scientific and is it higher ranked?
Recapitulating the process of development, since times were predominantly influenced by agriculture and feudalism, education made our parents earn their daily bread easier in more efficient schemes of production compared to those times of handcraft, agro- and zoo-culture. The logic was that a higher standard of education meant having a better life and being more competitive. [2] This culminated in more and more research ranking those universities, which produced the highest number of scientific papers in a defined amount of time, in the highest positions in the ranking lists of science. Remembering the basics for science - in particular knowledge - it is obvious that time should not condition the knowledge finding process. As a matter of fact, while industries, which were supposed to become universities after the second world conflict, remained what they had been before, places of production of goods or information, universities, which should have become places of higher levels of knowledge, became places of production of science driven by tight time frames and third party finances and interests. This means two major conditions for scientific work are lacking and universities risk becoming industries of junk science.
Commercial interest places another slap into the face of scientific ethics. Being short of time to do research one can buy science as an author in China, as an investigation lasting 5 months and carried out by Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, has found out. [3] Illiteracy of our days is due to the capitalization of mind. Time is tight, but instead of facing challenges as an educated sportsman it seems the situation is doped and ethical fair-play has vanished with the yesterdays. This picture, as sad as it is, hides a huge opportunity for young researchers to be different and emerge. [4] India is a place where knowledge is a hidden treasure since centuries and therefore my advice for those who think they could find satisfaction in research: "Go for the real thing!"
 References | |  |
| 1. | Liessmann KP. Theorie der Unbildung: Die Irrtümer der Wissensgesellschaft. Wien: Zsolnay Verlag; 2008. 
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| 2. | Hafen E, Brauchbar M, Gluderer S, Tutton GR. Report zum think tank on swiss innovation. Life Science Business Network; 2013.
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| 3. | Meldolesi A. La ricerca a Pechino: Un boom (poco etico) da gran bazar. Corriere della Sera; Nov. 30 th 2013.
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| 4. | Glick M, Monteiro da Silva O, Seeberger GK, Xu T, Pucca G, Williams DM, et al. FDI Vision 2020: Shaping the future of oral health. Int Dent J 2012;62:278-91.
[PUBMED] |
| Authors | | |
Correspondence Address:
Gerhard Konrad Seeberger
Council Member, Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI), Past-President, European Regional Organisation-FDI, Via De Gioannis 25B , 09125 Cagliari
Italy
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0970-9290.127601
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