Personally, I think scientists should publish their work before they finish it...just like I think programmers should release their code before they test it. A web filled with have cocked ideas is...
[nah i think I will just press the enter button before ending the post...I will be less greedy that way]
This isn't a new thing. Throughout history, scientists have shielded their results. Some have done worse things like releasing misleading information to throw off their competitors. This same type of stuff filled the dialogues of ancient history. Alchemists in the middle ages used cryptography to hide their secrets. Leonardo da Vinci wrote backwards, etc.
Of course, being too secret means you never get public acknowledgement. The people who get stuff before the public get the credit, shift the paradigms and all that fun being famous stuff.
The sciences wax and wane between secrecy and publicity seeking. Regardless, the science of the next generation will be built on the stuff that goes public.
As for the debate. I believe it is important that scientists are able to control how they release information. You don't want to have to put everything before the public, because most of it is dead ends.
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As I recall, Levi Strauss was actually the first to patent jeans....
Personally, I think scientists should publish their work before they finish it...just like I think programmers should release their code before they test it. A web filled with have cocked ideas is ...
[nah i think I will just press the enter button before ending the post...I will be less greedy that way]
This isn't a new thing. Throughout history, scientists have shielded their results. Some have done worse things like releasing misleading information to throw off their competitors. This same type of stuff filled the dialogues of ancient history. Alchemists in the middle ages used cryptography to hide their secrets. Leonardo da Vinci wrote backwards, etc.
Of course, being too secret means you never get public acknowledgement. The people who get stuff before the public get the credit, shift the paradigms and all that fun being famous stuff.
The sciences wax and wane between secrecy and publicity seeking. Regardless, the science of the next generation will be built on the stuff that goes public.
As for the debate. I believe it is important that scientists are able to control how they release information. You don't want to have to put everything before the public, because most of it is dead ends.