[imranq]

This is a little exaggerated. Most papers have to be somewhat readable to be accepted into journals and notable conferences. The fact that the layman cannot understand an advanced biology paper is nothing new. I'd wager the scientific paper "golden age" the author cites as having such readable papers were not very readable for the general public of the time. It's just we are taught those things in elementary school and so can see the concepts in those older papers much better than the people of the time can.