Piece on the diminishing returns of scientific research: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/diminishing-returns-science/575665/ One of the reasons scientific advances are becoming more incremental is that they're becoming more complex... better support tools can likely make a big difference.

One of the reasons is that the bureaucracies controlling science don't want to lose control, so they only fund projects that reinforce the existing status quo. So you spend a fortune on the near useless LHC and starve all the LENR people because they might invalidate the current model, which has all the complexity of Aristotle's epicycles. Time to break up the science funding monopolies.