[tigerlily]

My former academic supervisor’s former academic supervisor died in 2009. He was big name in his field.

When I offered my condolences, my professor said “It’s ok. When a mighty tree falls, it can be sad, but it means the light can reach all the little saplings down below”.

[pvaldes]

True, but there is a collateral that often is dismissed, entire topics can die when the only people interested on them quits.

Is not uncommon to find obscure species that are forgotten for the last 60 or 100 years. The only good definition of the species lies in a book written in dutch in 1923. With internet finding sources is much easier, but can accumulate errors and, as browsers and social media are replacing specialists for free, there is not incentives to pay specialists anymore.

This could mean that those people will never return and that all that remains is politics and ideology. Politics are more willing to pay people in their own ideology or blocking "people incorrect" from having funds, So the next generations will focus more and more around politics wishes and you'll soon have one different "scientific truth" for each party. Is a vicious circle.