Abstract

One of the ironies of history is that the three major knowledge or ‘epistemological’ revolutions in the West occurred in spite of not because of the University. Thus the Renaissance was the product of Artists & Humanists working outside its walls not Scholars within its towers. The Scientific Revolution, or more precisely innovation of the instrumental experimental scientific method, occurred outside not inside its cloistered halls and the Industrial Revolution was ignited by dissenters who could not attend University. Today the University struggles with yet another epistemic revolution, specifically genomics and bioinformatics. Can it learn from the past and become an agent of change rather than an environmental impediment in this revolution?