Quick questions on Limitations of scientific technology: HSC Investigating Science Module 6

Resolution. The smallest detail an instrument can detect. A light microscope cannot resolve objects smaller than about 200 nm because of the wavelength of visible light. Atoms (about 0.1 nm) and viruses (10 to 100 nm) require electron microscopy.

The Human Genome Project (1990 to 2003) was a coordinated international effort to sequence the entire human genome. It cost approximately 3 billion USD and took 13 years.

When instruments are expensive, research direction concentrates around available capabilities.

The history of science is full of moments when a technological breakthrough opened entire new fields:

The smallest detail an instrument can detect. A light microscope cannot resolve objects smaller than about 200 nm because of the wavelength of visible light. Atoms (about 0.1 nm) and viruses (10 to 100 nm) require electron microscopy.

The lowest signal an instrument can detect. Detecting a single molecule of a hormone in blood requires extremely sensitive mass spectrometry or radioimmunoassay.

How fast measurements can be made. Sanger DNA sequencing (1977) reads 800 base pairs per day. Next-generation sequencing reads billions per day.

Many instruments cost millions to billions of AUD. The Australian Synchrotron cost about 220 million AUD to build. The James Webb Space Telescope cost 10 billion USD.

Even when instruments exist, access can be limited. Synchrotron beam time is allocated by peer-reviewed proposal, with success rates of about 30 per cent.

Sanger sequencing reads about 800 base pairs per reaction. Sequencing the 3 billion base-pair human genome required millions of reactions in parallel.

Next-generation sequencing (Illumina, Pacific Biosciences, Oxford Nanopore) parallelised the sequencing process across millions of microbeads or pores. Australia's Genomics initiative now sequences entire patient genomes routinely as part of clinical care.

Ground-based optical telescopes could resolve features about 1 arc-second across, limited by atmospheric turbulence. Infrared astronomy was nearly impossible from the ground because water vapour absorbs infrared.

Cost is one of the strongest constraints on which science gets done.

Technological breakthroughs that enable new science often take decades.

Most scientific revolutions depend on multiple converging technological improvements. :::