Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Intellectual Property

In thinking about this new project of mine, the topic of IP concerns has come up (which is why I'm not really discussing here, much to my chagrin. Never fear---I will come up with more fun science for you all!)

And I ended up thinking back to last year...it was the first time I was in a "closed" meeting. The meeting was at the Broad Institute (so you know - it's said Brode, not Broad - I looked like an idiot the first time I said it, so...yes). Anyway, it was a meeting of a consortion for infectious diseases, and it talked about novel drug discovery for malaria. I don't know - it just strikes me as kind of interesting how much science can be hampered by IP...yes, it does protect people and their inventions, but other times it's just a great big pain in the behind. I want science to progress. I want science to discover important things. And how does that happen if people don't talk to each other? How do we fix this system? I have no idea.

...and now back to your regularly scheduled Tuesday.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

This is a hot topic in my field too. This link can help you get involved toward change: http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/2010/01/12/acrl-and-ala-submit-comments-on-public-access-to-federally-funded-research-encourage-members-to-do-likewise-by-jan-21/