søndag 17. oktober 2010

Step up scientists - superstition is taking over!

While enjoying Richard Dawson's fight against the supernatural (including religion) and for fact based science, I got a sting as he pointed out how superstition is allowed free reigns on the Internet. This is really something that we in the scientific community should do something about - I even yesterday tried to find an old article describing Desmond Morris' ape-art experiments, and the closest I got was to some publisher's portal where they demanded $30 for a 6 page article! If ICT is anything to go by, (which seems apparent for ape experiments at least!) with ACM and IEEE as the big guns, scientific facts are for all practical purposes only open for other scientists that have an employer that pays for access. Why do we lock down published works that are free to distribute when there is such opportunity and need for increased transparency? People are looking online for answers, and the proper science is locked away, opening up for nonsense being spread as fact without being challenged!

Bad us. Put your articles freely available online - the world needs it!