The increase in knowledge is forcing people to specialize. As a result, the distance between fields of specialization has become so vast that specialists in different areas are rarely able to influence each other.

“Knowledge is power”, as the proverb goes. With the knowledge a person becomes sound technically as well as mentally. The person with the general education cannot specialize in his field. One should have deep knowledge of his field to conduct research and to specialize in that particular field. But there are many persons who did not have graduate degrees but they still became successful in their fields. For example, Shakespeare is well known for his literature but he did not have any formal degree of literature. Similarly, Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of the Reliance India Limited, was not even a graduate. This issue raises the related questions like what is the role of specialists and generalists? And whether we need more specialists or generalists?

In earlier times, there were very few specialists and the doctors, architects and scientists were considered as specialists. People used to go to the doctors for the ailment of their diseases. There were no specialised doctors for every part of the body. Nowadays, there are different specialists for every organ of our body. The heart specialist will not even touch the kidney of a patient. Earlier, the study was limited to the graduate level only as the research areas were not widely exposed at that time and a core curriculum was shared.

However, today the scenario has completely changed and people are more interested in pursuing their studies to a higher level. The proliferation in the knowledge has necessitated the need to disseminate the study of research to the different areas. The people want to pace themselves with the increasing development in the field of science. Post-graduation is becoming more popular nowadays. The people want to conduct research so as to specialize in their own field. But they have become so grooved in their own field that they forget completely about the other fields.

The scientists around the globe have made new inventions by correlating the results of their researches of different fields. For example, the study of bioinformatics includes two completely different subjects: biology and information technology. The vast area of research in the field of biology made it difficult for the scientists to work, but the information technology helped in the invention of a new field: bioinformatics which saved a lot of time as well as the efficiency of the work. Similarly, the computational mathematics and quantum chemistry are the two new fields discovered by the scientists by correlating the different fields.

Hence, it is the onus of all the specialists to work together for the development and prosperity of humanity. Although, the distance between the fields of specialization is very vast, but this gap can be bridged by working in a harmonious way. The ultimate motive should be to disseminate the study of research to the different fields.