Data-Driven Science: A New Paradigm?

Data-driven science may in fact be a legitimate, new, fourth scientific paradigm. Or it could be an extension to and radical transformation of the existing paradigms of theory, experimentation, and computation. Classifying the impact of the vast quantities of data on the scientific process makes for an interesting epistemological exercise, but in practice, I suspect it just doesn't matter. The reality is that science is becoming data-driven at a scale previously unimagined. The ubiquity of access and the volume of data will fundamentally transform the scientific process. More...