what field of science is making the most discoveries?

[Peron]

I would guess Astronomy. Anyone else?

[swansont]

Based on the funding, and graduation rates, biology/life sciences probably makes the most discoveries through the sheer size of the field. In the US, biological and biomedical sciences degrees outweigh physical sciences by a large margin, at all levels. I imagine that's true worldwide.

 

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37

[Mr Skeptic]

I too would say biology. We have millions of species with thousands of genes each, and all are interconnected to each other both at the genetic level and through the environment. And various chemicals affect the biochemical pathways. There's simply a lot to study, and we don't know all that much about it yet.

[ajb]

Could one try to define this by looking at the number of published papers in peer review journals?

 

I suspect, as has already been suggested, that biological+medical sciences would win. Though I am not sure how you could get hard numbers on this.

[mississippichem]

I think it depends on how you define discovery. Chemist around the world chug out thousands of novel [previously undiscovered or synthesized] compounds each year. It is so common place that many undergraduates in large university departments already have two or three novel compounds under their belt prior to starting a PhD. I've got two as a last semester senior.

 

But then again, these "discoveries" aren't all that triumphant when the big picture of the way humans do science is considered. Me synthesizing a new methyl derivative of some anti-cancer drug doesn't affect the way ajb thinks about lie groups. Where as some discoveries and ideas like relativity, the first sequenced protein, or the advent of spectroscopy have super far reaching effects that alter the way everyone thinks about science.

 

There are discoveries, and there are "textbook-changing" discoveries.

Edited February 28, 2011 by mississippichem

[CharonY]

In addition, one could argue how to define a particular field. Biomedical + Biology contains a lot of topics and is arguably much broader than the field of astronomy. I.e. consisting of more (and often closed) communities.

This is also reflected by the people working in the fields. Microbiology is still dominated by biologists, whereas biotechnical applications of bacteria is in the domain of biotechnologists and bioengineers. In the area of molecular biology we got biochemists, analytical chemists (and equivalents), biophysicists.

Biomedical is quite a different beast altogether, with a very different composition.

[Horza2002]

Ok according to Web ok Knowledge (WOK), the top 10 subject areas in 2010 are shown below with the number of papers/articles published:

 

1. Biochemistry and molecular biology = 54,558
   
2. Pharmacology and pharmacy = 37,634
   
3. Neuroscience and neurology = 36,689
   
4. Chemistry = 33,166
   
5. Genetics = 31,355
   
6. Physics = 32,136
   
7. Oncology = 29,118
   
8. Cardiology = 27,894
   
9. Engineering = 28,579
   
10. Material science = 23,755
    

 

In total, there were 445,806 papers published in 2010 according to WOK. As CharonY has said though, what are you classing as a subject area. But remember, this is just a list of paper published in each subject, not nessarily them claiming a new discovery.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Horza2002