You're definitely on to something; the parallels between science and open software are tantalizingly close. From my experience a main problem is real estate; y

You're definitely on to something; the parallels between science and open software are tantalizingly close. From my experience a main problem is real estate; you can't do most science experiments without a proper lab. We could probably brainstorm some creative solutions (like operating an "open" contract research organization to be the hands for everyone's ideas), but at the moment this is too big of a barrier. With real estate comes cost, then funding, then jockeying for funding, and finally journal impact factors as a measurement of worthiness. It's also why one can't make a science-related "hackathon" without changing the concept.