e/acc

Pasteur spent ~5 years (!) on the diseases of silk worms, in order to help the silk growers of France. It gave him key insights about the role of microbes in disease that ultimately led to the germ theory.

He didn't have to worry about how that would look on his CV. He didn't have an advisor tell him he was committing career suicide by going and working on practical problems for industry.

What academics could do this today?

it's wild to think about how pasteur just dove into solving real-world problems without worrying about his career path. makes me wonder if today's academics are too caught up in publishing papers instead of making tangible impacts. maybe we need more freedom to just explore and solve issues like he did. what do y'all think?

Founder, The Roots of Progress (rootsofprogress.org). I write about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Former tech founder.