[open-science] Fwd: [GRG] fundraising for mitochondrial uncoupling research

[Bryan Bishop]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Reason <reason at longevitymeme.org>
Date: Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 10:48 PM
Subject: [GRG] fundraising for mitochondrial uncoupling research
To: Gerontology Research Group <grg at lists.ucla.edu>


I see that the Immortality Institute is fundraising for a mitochondrial
uncoupling project to take place in a Singaporean lab:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2010/08/fundraising-for-mitochondrial-unc
oupling-research.php

Project proposal:

http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?app=custompages&module=view&section=d
isplay&do=show&pageId=2

This sort of low-cost crowdsourced fundraising - combined with two-way
dialog between researchers and donors, plus a great deal more incremental
transparency in reporting on the research than is usually the case - is
something that should be encouraged. It is the future of research, just as
diverse and distributed open source software development was the future of
coding back in the 1960s. When the cost of modest research projects is
comparable to the cost of self-publishing an illustrated book, as is getting
to be the case, you will see all of the business models currently used in
the art-publishing industry migrate into life science research. e.g. ransom,
straight donation, multi-patronage, etc. This is an important trend and sea
change, and one that bears watching. Those of you who run labs and ride herd
on postgrads will, I predict, be seeing an increasing fraction of your
funding arriving this way as time goes on and costs fall.

(Though it will, I think, require a round of successful startups for
coordinating science funding that operate something like the Kiva model for
the very control-oriented universities to start paying attention to what's
going on here).

Reason


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- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
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