Many times in movies we see a people doing scientific research secretly and have achieved some amazing technologies.
Is there any evidence of any such scientific work done very secretly anytime (might get caught red handed).
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Sign up to join this communityMany times in movies we see a people doing scientific research secretly and have achieved some amazing technologies.
Is there any evidence of any such scientific work done very secretly anytime (might get caught red handed).
The other answers contain some examples of secret research and it’s well worth keeping in mind that secret research exists – notably for military projects, but often also in privately funded research, where premature publication would harm patentability and marketing.
On the other hand, you need to realise that most publicly funded research is, by its very nature, open. Public funding almost always1) entails that results be published (in peer-reviewed journals). This is one of the fundamental rules of “good scientific practice”, as universally understood [1, 2].
[1] One reference among many can be found in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, the NIH being the largest medical research body in the world[3]:
It is NIH policy that the results and accomplishments of the activities that it funds should be made available to the public.
[2] The same is true in other countries, for instance in Germany, as shown by the legal guidelines of the DFG, the biggest German public science funding organisation. The same guidelines are in place in most (all?) public funding organisations.
[3] From their website:
NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world …
1) and the exceptions are usually military research
DARPA has a lot of very secret research. The F-117, and stealth technology, was developed in secrecy for recent history. Generally, a lot of military technology is developed in secrecy due to the nature of the "arms races" we may be involved in.
There are a couple of examples of research beeing kept from the public eye. Think for example new weapon systems. Another example: engineers will research and develop stuff secretly until a patent is filed (or they might choose to never publish the method for building for example a new Li-ion battery).