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Biology Goes Open Source

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the models-that-work-from-time-to-time dept.

cford writes "According to Forbes some of the drug company giants are finally realizing that their genetic research is worth more if they give it away. 'Novartis, the Basel, Switzerland, drug giant, has helped uncover which of the 20,000 genes identified by the Human Genome Project are likely to be associated with diabetes. But rather than hoard this information, as drug firms have traditionally done, it is making it available for free on the World Wide Web. "It will take the entire world to interpret these data," says Novartis research head Mark Fishman. "We figure we will benefit more by having a lot of companies look at these data than by holding it secret."'"

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Biological Stallman by Lithdren · · Score: 1, Funny

    I've always found the concept of Genetic Patens hilarious. Prior art? ITS MOVING.

    I mean, c'mon!

  2. Re:Speaking of which.. by Pedrito · · Score: 4, Funny

    Any of you 3 Womans on slashdot wanna give away some genetic research?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman

    Clearly you went straight to the naked pictures and skipped the second sentence of the article you link that points out that the plural of "woman" is "women" and not "Womans". Not that the post would have been funny if you could spell.

  3. Re:Speaking of which.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    There are naked pictures?

  4. Re:patenting any genes is absurd by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... it's a fucking gene!

    If somebody finds that gene and patents it we're all in trouble.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.