Scientific advances are not made by individuals alone, despite what awards like the Nobel Prize might indicate, writes Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, at the Guardian.
Instead, science is a team sport. Farrar notes that when researchers give talks at conferences, they include a slide with the names of dozens of people who contributed to the work. He adds that even when a single person appears to make a discovery on his or her own, it typically builds on what others before did.
The contributions of multiple people often get lost in the awarding of prizes like the Nobel, he adds. The winners of the Nobel Prize are being announced this week.
Farrar also notes that this means that collaboration is a key part of science and that international research teams need to be supported, including through inviting immigration policies. "We are looking forward to celebrating the new Nobel laureates," he adds. "But let's also celebrate the collaborators and environment that made their work possible."