Scientists and the motive of curiosity

Some outstanding scientists showed very little interest in publishing their findings and had to be coerced and coaxed into it, as can be demonstrated with prominent examples:

• Charles Darwin kept his manuscript account of his theory of evolution to himself and a few friends for 14 years. He only decided to go to publication when he learnt that Russell Wallace had prepared a paper with the same ideas and was about to publish it. He "hated the idea of writing for priority" but said that he "would be vexed if anyone were to publish my doctrines before me." (Crowther, 1967)
• The English chemist Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) was so obsessed by curiosity that he had a hole made in the wall of his study to have his meals delivered without interrupting his research. He barely published anything, and his invention of electrical condensers and discovery of inductive capacity had to be resurrected by Faraday and Maxwell. (Crowther, 1967)
• Ivan Pavlov was not interested in publication at all; he was pushed into writing a book about his work by one of his students, who had threatened to write the book himself. (Pavlov, 1941)

References

Crowther, J. C. (1967) The Social Relations of Science, revised edition. The Cresset Press, London.

Pavlov, I. P. (1941) Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes volume two: Conditioned Reflexes and Psychiatry translated and edited by W. H. Gantt. Lawrence &Wishart, London

home