Solving Genuinely Hard Problems in Science

Harvard FAS

What can we do, as a society, to help make progress on solving the hardest problems in science?Some scientific problems have resisted progress despite decades of effort from the scientific community. This course explores first, why some problems are so hard, and second, whether the structure of the scientific enterprise can be modified to accelerate solutions to profound scientific challenges. By studying both examples of solved problems, such as Einstein’s theories of relativity, and those…