[00:03.61]2001 Passage1

[00:11.16]Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem

[00:14.87]of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge.

[00:19.40]By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units,

[00:23.03]one man could continue to handle the information

[00:26.26]and use it as the basis for further research.

[00:29.68]But specialisation was only one of a series of

[00:32.91]related developments in science

[00:35.33]affecting the process of communication.

[00:38.85]Another was the growing professionalisation

[00:41.99]of scientific activity.

[00:44.91]No clear-cut distinction can be drawn

[00:47.29]between professionals and amateurs in science:

[00:50.93]exceptions can be found to any rule.

[00:54.91]Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation

[00:59.35]that the person concerned is not fully integrated into

[01:03.37]the scientific community and,

[01:05.21]in particular, may not fully share its values.

[01:10.35]The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century,

[01:13.90]with its consequent requirement of a longer,

[01:16.92]more complex training, implied greater problems for

[01:20.67]amateur participation in science.

[01:24.50]The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of

[01:28.73]science based especially on a mathematical

[01:31.55]or laboratory training,

[01:33.78]and can be illustrated in terms of the development

[01:36.79]of geology in the United Kingdom.

[01:40.62]A comparison of British geological publications

[01:43.90]over the last century and a half reveals not simply

[01:47.74]an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research,

[01:51.17]but also a changing definition of

[01:53.50]what constitutes an acceptable research paper.

[01:57.33]Thus, in the nineteenth century,

[01:59.54]local geological studies represented worth while

[02:02.68]research in their own right;

[02:05.12]but, in the twentieth century,

[02:07.13]local studies have increasingly become acceptable to

[02:10.17]professionals only if they incorporate,

[02:13.37]and reflect on, the wider geological picture.

[02:18.02]Amateurs, on the other hand,

[02:19.94]have continued to pursue local studies in the old way.

[02:23.87]The overall result has been to make entrance to

[02:27.20]professional geological journals harder for amateurs,

[02:31.12]a result that has been reinforced

[02:33.54]by the widespread introduction of refereeing,

[02:36.98]first by national journals in the nineteenth century

[02:40.65]and then by several local geological journals

[02:43.67]in the twentieth century.

[02:46.29]As a logical consequence of this development,

[02:49.41]separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards

[02:53.55]either professional or amateur readership.

[02:57.78]A rather similar process of differentiation

[03:01.00]has led to professional geologists coming together

[03:04.15]nationally within one or two specific societies,

[03:08.48]whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain

[03:11.51]in local societies or to come together nationally

[03:15.05]in a different way.

[03:17.37]Although the process of professionalisation

[03:20.29]and specialisation was already well under way

[03:23.82]in British geology during the nineteenth century,

[03:27.45]its full consequences were thus delayed

[03:30.17]until the twentieth century.

[03:33.10]In science generally, however, the nineteenth century

[03:36.83]must be reckoned as the crucial period

[03:39.76]for this change in the structure of science.