Ted Talk on Open-source Cancer Research
Jay Bradner is an MD at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His lab attempts to synthesize and screen potential cancer drugs, but most importantly about Bradner and his lab is his commitment to open science.
Most famously, one of the molecular inhibitors synthesized in is lab found a new use far from cancer treatment; it is now the precursor to what sensationalist news media refers o as the male birth control pill. ANother lab had been struggling to synthesize the molecule, found that Bradner’s group had successfully done so, and now stands on the brink of equalizing contraceptive responsibility between men and women forever. Overstating… yes. But here’s the crux as presented in the Ted Talk: open competition breeds collaboration and results. Secretive competition breeds redundancy and stagnation.
Take a look, listen, or play in the background as you do something else, but do at least hit play on this Ted Talk.
oliveberry 
I love “open competition breeds collaboration and results, secretive competition breeds redundancy and stagnation.” This makes total sense. So many more people could be helped if researchers collaborated more, because they would find good results more quickly! Wealth and fame for discovery are unfortunately valued more than actually helping people with results a lot of the time 😦
Please remind me to listen to this when I have more time!