When scientists get information overload

Science is moving at a dizzying pace: around 2.5 million scientific journal articles are published a year around the world, and still the volume keeps climbing. But rather than propel science at an increasing clip, the flood has created information overload — and threatens to hold back progress.

The big picture: We have written about how artificial intelligence and faster computing are allowing scientists to go after much bigger problems. But part of the problem is also the more mundane task of simply keeping up with their field in an age of too much data.

Scientists spend a lot of time reading each others’ work. In order to do useful research, they need to know what else is going on: the day’s trends, techniques, and outstanding questions.

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