Daily Archives: June 14, 2012

A Moment of Science, Please

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A Moment of Science

I remember watching a TV special (probably National geographic) on Louis Leakey’s expeditions to Olduvai Gorge and the discovery of fossils of early humans. If biology didn’t require dissecting frogs, I might have gone in that direction. As it turns out, dissecting circuits and vacuum systems are more my thing. But that’s one instance I remember science grabbing me and pulling me in that direction.

The moment of science that hooked me into physics has to be constructing a version of the monkey-and-hunter experiment in my neighbor’s basement. (The target drops as soon as you fire the gun, so where do you aim?). I thought that was so cool. That was when I knew I was going to study physics.

The Mystery of Success

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How Did the arXiv Succeed?

A lot of pieces talking about the failure of open access policies to catch on more widely tend to point to the success of the arXiv in physics and math as if it’s the rule and the failure of the life-science versions are the exception. But, given that physics does not lack for high-stakes job competition, or publication pressure, I think this is the wrong way around. It’s not surprising that biologists don’t embrace preprint-sharing; rather, it’s a mystery how the arXiv managed to succeed so brilliantly.

I’m wondering if it’s structural, in terms of grants and overlap of projects. It may be easier to gear up a lab to scoop someone in other areas of science, but in the high-energy physics world, where you are scheduling experiment time on an accelerator as part of a large collaboration, I think “scooping” really isn’t posing a large problem.