It is difficult to point out a specific topic that is completely ignored, but many less discussed topics may be related to specific development issues or to more technical areas of knowledge, such as research in specific areas of science. Some examples might be:
1. Research in specific areas of science: Many scientific discoveries and advances in specific areas may not be as widely discussed by society at large unless they directly relate to issues of health, security, technology or the environment.
2. Development issues in developing countries: Specific development issues, such as lack of access to basic services in rural communities or regional inequality, may not receive the same attention as global political or economic issues unless they become headline news or resemble global issues.
3. Innovation in technology: Rapid technological developments can lead to a number of innovations that, while important, are not always widely discussed unless they relate to people’s daily lives or cybersecurity.
4. Public health issues: While public health is a relevant topic, less common diseases or specific public health problems in some regions often do not receive the same attention as the COVID-19 pandemic or the flu, unless they become health crises.
5. Specific issues in culture and art: While culture and art are important, many specific issues, such as preserving local traditions or promoting independent artists, may not receive as much attention unless they become major issues or are related to issues of national identity or human rights.
It is important to note that even if these issues are less debated, this does not mean that they are less important. It is essential that debate on these issues is promoted to ensure the development of more effective solutions and public policies.
Good points. Luiz Cesar Barçante I'll add: essential questions of scientific methodology are avoided these days. This concerns e.g. the medical professions, direction of technology development, new social problems, mental health. The entire history of ideas is also being ignored, the automation of knowledge is progressing without the necessary reflection on content and form. A great danger is the rationalization of the irrational through bureaucratization (keyword: iron cage, Max Weber)
Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has been usefully pointing out gaps and flaws in the scientific literature on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder
I think this may never change. I think so because there are billions of people in the world who are interested in different things. Certain things like physical health are universal and will always gain more traction than research on orbits and atmospheric elements.
Well, when think about it, whatever we'd discuss here, would by definition something that's no longer the least discussed... ;)
But important things that are being ignored?
- From my field? Clearly the correlation between amount of spotlight that a virus gets and how big threat it posses is not especially strong. Like Omicron variant. Or how for over a quarter century we've been supposedly just one step away from spectacular avian influenza pandemic. There is also issue that models predicting impact of global warming often ignore impact on by degree of magnitude bigger low temperature mortality (yeah, winter loving respiratory viruses) while modeling impact of climate change.
- Huge chunk of social sciences is built on implicit assumption that social phenomena have no genetic component. There are studies demonstrating some noticeable impact... just they tend to be consistently ignored, especially their awkward implications.
Christopher C Kelly Nice niche topic, but I think that this issue of colliders being somewhat over promised to public is already discussed as there are even memes about it: "just one more collider bro. I promise bro just one more collider and we'll find all the particles bro. it's just a bigger collider bro. please just one more. one more collider and we'll figure out dark matter bro. bro cmon just give me 22 billion dollars and we'll solve physics I promise bro. bro bro please we just need to build one more collider t Future Circular Collider 100 km" https://ifunny.co/picture/just-one-more-collider-bro-i-promise-bro-just-one-UmCr9bnxA
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