[HN Gopher] Will open science change chemistry?
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       Will open science change chemistry?
        
       Author : daphnemichala
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2024-09-03 11:59 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.chemistryworld.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.chemistryworld.com)
        
       | xhkkffbf wrote:
       | > Twenty years ago the debate surrounding open science focused on
       | access to journals. By 2020 around 25% of all chemistry papers
       | published were open access, and now most of the major publishers
       | of chemistry journals offer some version of open access.
       | 
       | I'm a big fan of open source and open access, but I'm not sure
       | that access to journals is really a big problem for any working
       | chemist. So if the question is whether it will "change
       | chemistry", I would say it's unlikely.
       | 
       | Why? This isn't an easy field and it's full of landmines,
       | sometimes literally so. It's really only possible to work in the
       | field if you're in a well-funded lab in a well-funded university.
       | Not only that, but many of these chemicals are dangerous. You're
       | just not supposed to be dorking around with them in your basement
       | or garage.
       | 
       | It's nice to imagine that somewhere out there is some poor,
       | underfunded genius who doesn't have $100 or $200 to pay for a
       | copy of some article, but I think from a practical perspective
       | that's just not something holding back the field. And really,
       | most of his or her neighbors would be happy if he/she wasn't
       | working with dangerous chemicals in a garage.
        
         | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
         | Yep, as much as I love the idea, I would not recommend that
         | anyone approaches even some of the basic chemistry without
         | someone being able to stop you in time.
        
         | dexwiz wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure the majority of chemistry teachers I've had
         | with real research or professional experience over the age of
         | 50 were blind or deaf on at least one side. The remainder have
         | a story about how they almost died.
        
       | fredgrott wrote:
       | I remember a time where high school teachers thought it was a
       | good idea to do a demo of iodine mixed with ammonia to get NI3
       | which goes boom when touched and produces this nice purple
       | cloud...to shut up the classroom students....
       | 
       | My Chemistry teach was a weird bass...he also taught diving to
       | the local police departments for lake rescue in Lake Michigan and
       | rode a motorcycle to school.
        
       | aeonik wrote:
       | I've been playing with Avogadro lately, and some of the libraries
       | seem pretty advanced.
       | 
       | You know it's legitimate science when Fortran libraries start
       | compiling as part of the dependencies.
       | 
       | https://avogadro.cc/
        
       | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
       | This article conflates a lot of different "open" ideas. Open
       | access journals, machine readable datasets, standardized data
       | representation, open community engagement, etc. Each of which is
       | challenging on its own, let alone hoping to tackle all at once.
       | 
       | Chemistry has the blessing and the curse of being an older
       | disciple. Fundamentals have not changed in decades. If you grab
       | an organic chemistry text from the 70s, I guess you would be
       | missing on some cutting edge reactions, and you would be using
       | hilariously obsolete analytical techniques, but the synthesis is
       | going to be the same.
       | 
       | Which is to say, that I do not believe chemistry is particularly
       | held back at this point. I think the author was angling for,
       | "Would it not be great if we had standardized, digitized
       | chemistry reaction libraries so we could have an AlphaFold
       | moment?" Which sure, but someone is going to have to fund the
       | effort of digitizing decades of chemistry knowledge.
        
       | gorpy7 wrote:
       | I think it's okay if people take responsibility for their
       | actions, to take risks known or unknown. It's okay to live in a
       | world where we're not entirely insulated from negative
       | consequences. Ive always been bummed by how inaccessible
       | chemistry is.
        
       | ahaucnx wrote:
       | I'm a strong proponent of open data but I think it needs to go
       | beyond science. Companies should also be incentivized or even
       | required for keeping designs, data, interfaces etc. open. Because
       | often scientists are reliant on devices and data platforms that
       | restrict ownership. So even if the scientist wants to keep his
       | data open, a product or a service that the scientist uses for his
       | research might prevent this.
        
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