The article is nice and National Geographic is a fine publication but it is not a scientific journal. Please, when you discuss science, link to the scientific paper itself, so people can comment on the information unfiltered and undistorted by the popular media. The paper is here:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001780
PLoS ONE is Open Access so read the paper itself
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Actually, PLoS ONE is peer-reviewed in a traditional way. Many manuscripts have undergone 2-3 rounds of revisions. Most manuscripts are sent out to external reviewers (whenever no member of the editorial board is an expert in the narrow field of the manuscript). The distinction is that the reviewers are not supposed to make decisions in regard of "newsworthiness" of the paper, just the correctness of science and presentation of it. Thus, papers that are earth-shaking and revolutionary are evaluated the same way as papers that just add another piece of the puzzle. Also, 30-40% of the manuscripts are rejected (much harsher than most small society journals) which is another indication that a true peer-review is going on at PLoS ONE.
But you are right about the post-publication peer-review as well. This is something that the scientific community will have to learn to do. Publication of the paper is not the end of the process (pop open the champaign and move on to the next project), but the beginning of it, as the authors respond to commentary of their peers (and lay public). So, while there are more than 300 comments here at Slashdot, why are there still no comments on the paper itself? Don't you all want to engage the authors, ask them additional questions, demand clarifications? They will not come here, but you can go there and use the feedback tools that the TOPAZ platform of PLoS ONE provides: discussions, annotations, trackbacks and ratings. There, the authors will be happy to answer your (politely worded) questions and comments.
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The article is nice and National Geographic is a fine publication but it is not a scientific journal. Please, when you discuss science, link to the scientific paper itself, so people can comment on the information unfiltered and undistorted by the popular media. The paper is here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001780
The press release is fine, but the article itself is free for you to read: http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001295 It is not mired in deifficult scienc-y language and every educated person can read it understand the details of the study better than from just the media coverage.
Actually, PLoS ONE is peer-reviewed in a traditional way. Many manuscripts have undergone 2-3 rounds of revisions. Most manuscripts are sent out to external reviewers (whenever no member of the editorial board is an expert in the narrow field of the manuscript). The distinction is that the reviewers are not supposed to make decisions in regard of "newsworthiness" of the paper, just the correctness of science and presentation of it. Thus, papers that are earth-shaking and revolutionary are evaluated the same way as papers that just add another piece of the puzzle. Also, 30-40% of the manuscripts are rejected (much harsher than most small society journals) which is another indication that a true peer-review is going on at PLoS ONE. But you are right about the post-publication peer-review as well. This is something that the scientific community will have to learn to do. Publication of the paper is not the end of the process (pop open the champaign and move on to the next project), but the beginning of it, as the authors respond to commentary of their peers (and lay public). So, while there are more than 300 comments here at Slashdot, why are there still no comments on the paper itself? Don't you all want to engage the authors, ask them additional questions, demand clarifications? They will not come here, but you can go there and use the feedback tools that the TOPAZ platform of PLoS ONE provides: discussions, annotations, trackbacks and ratings. There, the authors will be happy to answer your (politely worded) questions and comments.