Dr. Juan Escrig, Pro-Rector of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and researcher at CEDENNA, recently published in El Mostrador the column “The butterfly effect of knowledge”, a reflection on how major scientific transformations are often born from seemingly small ideas, questions or experiments.
In the text, the researcher discusses how discoveries that seemed modest at the time —such as the experiments of Michael Faraday or the discovery by Alexander Fleming— ended up having profound impacts on science, technology and everyday life.
Based on these examples, the column invites us to reflect on the importance of strengthening scientific ecosystems, education and research, understanding that knowledge has a cumulative impact and that great advances often begin with small “flaps of wings”.
