I'm curious -- you are clearly quoting from somewhere else in this piece, but where? You don't cite your source for paragraphs such as the one beginning "With help from a local developer..."
I'd like to read the original story. (Plus, it's only polite to give credit to whomever wrote it.)
I used to work for the American Chemical Society in its journal publications department. I can say without a doubt that making money -- gobs of it -- is the primary focus of these journals. Anyone who suggests that 'furthering human understanding' is even a close second is woefully uninformed.
These journals will fight tooth and nail against anything that threatens an incredibly lucrative business. Think about it -- their content is supplied free by scientists at universities, and then they sell journal subscriptions for thousands of dollars back to those same universities.
So yes, the idea of any of "their" content ending up on Wikipedia scares the heck out of them. The last thing any scientific publisher -- except the Public Library of Science -- wants is for science to be free.
The very first issue of Discover magazine -- way back in the 1970s -- covered the possibilities of "L-Sugar" which used left-handed molecules of sucrose to match the taste of "real" sugar.
That was the last I heard of it, till Wired and tagatose. Not exactly the same concept, but close.
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Um... where are you quoting from?
I'm curious -- you are clearly quoting from somewhere else in this piece, but where? You don't cite your source for paragraphs such as the one beginning "With help from a local developer..."
I'd like to read the original story. (Plus, it's only polite to give credit to whomever wrote it.)
From a former sci journal employee
I used to work for the American Chemical Society in its journal publications department. I can say without a doubt that making money -- gobs of it -- is the primary focus of these journals. Anyone who suggests that 'furthering human understanding' is even a close second is woefully uninformed. These journals will fight tooth and nail against anything that threatens an incredibly lucrative business. Think about it -- their content is supplied free by scientists at universities, and then they sell journal subscriptions for thousands of dollars back to those same universities. So yes, the idea of any of "their" content ending up on Wikipedia scares the heck out of them. The last thing any scientific publisher -- except the Public Library of Science -- wants is for science to be free.
Fake Sugar - Long Ago
The very first issue of Discover magazine -- way back in the 1970s -- covered the possibilities of "L-Sugar" which used left-handed molecules of sucrose to match the taste of "real" sugar.
That was the last I heard of it, till Wired and tagatose. Not exactly the same concept, but close.