title: Mental inertia in the biological sciences.
abstract: Often, new discoveries are not made at the moment when all of the necessary techniques and background knowledge become available. Instead, they are delayed as a result of mental inertia unrecognized by the scientist and/or the scientific community. In this paper, I introduce and classify various types of mental inertia that are common in science, using examples from the field of biology.
authors.affiliation: Cure Lab, Inc., 43 Rybury Hillway, Needham, MA 02492, USA. ashneider@curelab.com
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shneider
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D012107:Research Design