Climatic shocks associate with innovation in science and technology.

ABSTRACT: Human history is shaped by landmark discoveries in science and technology. However, across both time and space the rate of innovation is erratic: Periods of relative inertia alternate with bursts of creative science and rapid cascades of technological innovations. While the origins of the rise and fall in rates of discovery and innovation remain poorly understood, they may reflect adaptive responses to exogenously emerging threats and pressures. Here we examined this possibility by fitting annual rates of scientific discovery and technological innovation to climatic variability and its associated economic pressures and resource scarcity. In time-series data from Europe (1500-1900CE), we indeed found that rates of innovation are higher during prolonged periods of cold (versus warm) surface

SUBMITTER: De Dreu CKW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5783359 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature