big science

noun

often capitalized B&S
: large-scale scientific research consisting of projects funded usually by a national government or group of governments

Examples of big science in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Most of the other faces from the Enterprise bridge have made surprisingly few game appearances, but a couple of big science fiction games showed an interest in the cast from this series. Anna Washenko, Ars Technica, 4 Dec. 2023 The expeditions also represented the world’s first big science project---forefather to today’s Large Hadron Collider and Human Genome Project, in which an international community of hundreds or thousands collaborates on a single fundamental scientific problem at the frontier of human knowledge. Guest Blogger, Discover Magazine, 4 June 2012 That’s a big if in an era when pushing through big science projects is politicized and fraught. David Ewing Duncan, Scientific American, 7 Dec. 2022 Here is a guy who has concentrated on leveraging big science to solve big problems. Steven Levy, WIRED, 18 Nov. 2022 In this age of big science, with fundamental physics generally tested in sprawling laboratories such as CERN and LIGO, maverick individuals who make a big difference through their spot-on hunches are an increasingly rare breed. Paul Halpern, Scientific American, 18 Aug. 2021 Though small, an Alka-Rocket is powered by big science. Scientific American, 19 Oct. 2017 Lander is known for his enthusiasm for big science projects and his healthy ego. Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | AAAS, 15 Jan. 2021 The idea that sequencing the whole human genome might provide biology with some big science of its own first began to take root in the 1980s. The Economist, 12 Mar. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'big science.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of big science was in 1914

Dictionary Entries Near big science

Cite this Entry

“Big science.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/big%20science. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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