Via Jean-Claude, the Open Science world welcomes another researcher, Sivappa Rasapalli of Totally Retrosynthetic. This is great news, since one of the primary obstacles to wider acceptance of Open Science ideas is the lack of working examples (real research, not just blabber on a blog like mine). In addition to the blog, Shiva also has a wikispace for his research proposals, and (when he is in a position to do so) plans to publish his research results openly as well. In his own words:

Basically, I want to
1. Avoid unnecessary duplication (thus protecting the ideas)
2. Reap the expertise of chemists out there thus improve the ideas further
3. Collaborate with researchers willing to try the ideas and give the credit
4. Help the folks with the research ideas, but no opportunity to execute them .

So feel free to pitch in and voice your opinions on the ideas.

So get on over there, O my tens of readers, and lean those giant brains of yours against Shiva's research questions. As Jean-Claude is fond of pointing out, what better way to get credit for your idea than to collaborate in real time with an Open Science advocate using documents "registered with third-party time stamps and efficiently indexed by the most popular search engine in the world"?

And besides, collaboration is fun. Discovery is the addiction that drives research -- it's the crackpipe hit, the rush, the thrill, that keeps us going through the down times and the plodding; but one of the best ways to alleviate the boredom and despondency that sets in between fixes is to collaborate. Not only does it bring fresh perspectives and ideas, it reminds us that we're not in this alone.

(If you read my last post, that might seem at odds with the views I expressed there. What can I say? I have my bad days. But even on the worst of 'em, it's the possibilities of Open Science that keep me from throwing up my hands and leaving research altogether.)