[cooper_ganglia]

Ultimately I'm glad that the research has seen the light, since I'm of the personal persuasion that there is no single scrap of science that should ever be done in the dark. All research, in a perfect world, would be entirely public and freely and easily accessible.

With that being said, I'm not sure if leaking a paper and selfishly putting your name on it and excluding others so that you win a Nobel Prize doesn't exactly seem "heroic". Certainly beneficial for mankind, but it seems like a self-serving action.

[zarzavat]

The means justify the end. For all we know Lee and Kim would have sat on this for another year or more. I think that’s very understandable and I can’t fault them for wanting to be certain, given all the nasty things people have been saying about them, but the leak has clearly served humanity better than keeping it under wraps.

[yetihehe]

> but the leak has clearly served humanity better than keeping it under wraps.

Yeah, advancing human knowledge serves humanity, but unfortunately not really those who are advancing that knowledge. Those with money will just use your invention and make more money, you will have a pat on the back. I wish it was more balanced, we would have a lot of inventions sooner and implemented faster.