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A few years ago, I wanted to switch my CS specialty from computer vision to bioinformatics and biology simulation. I have always been intrested in optimization,
by Iv 9y ago
A few years ago, I wanted to switch my CS specialty from computer vision to bioinformatics and biology simulation. I have always been intrested in optimization, often wrote GPU code, found biology much more rewarding than augmented reality.
A good researcher in the field was generous enough to guide me through the process and gave me a list of basic and also cutting edge articles that I should understand to be useful in the field. Coming from CS, I expected the literature to be basically free to download from researchers webpages. Boy was I wrong.
The guy sent me a few copies, I was at the time also working close to a uni so I leeched a few from their library access, but this was a new field for me: every article rests on well-known conclusions explained in another article so I needed a ton of references, each bringing other references. Exactly like when you start reading an article in wikipedia on a subject you don't know.
At one point I just felt ashamed of asking articles after articles and my library (that was not specialized in biology) only had half the articles I needed. I considered paying for them, but I needed probably at least 200 references and each was in 30 dollars range.
I quit. I am still doing computer vision. I was ready to earn less to do research in a critical field for society, but I abandoned mostly because of this stupid barrier, that said that not only should I be ready to earn less, but also pay a huge rent to people I know to be parasites in order to be allowed to help research.
Fuck that.
- SirZimzim 9y agoI concur fuck it. Im in a similar place right now. You'll figure it out.
- skrebbel 9y agoWas this before Sci-Hub existed?
- Iv 9y agoYes. There was a newsgroup (or already a subreddit?) where people asked for articles and got answered with copies but these were usually students or researchers stuck by a specific article they could not get. Not someone like me who would have to ask 20 references at a time.
- vanderZwan 9y agoWell, that suggests that now is a good time to at least explore things again. Bioarxiv also exists now
- vanderZwan 9y agoThis also highlights another effect: imagine you would have stuck around, and not have bundled access to all required papers because, as you said, it's outside of your main department (which also, obviously, encourages that expertise stays in its own little silos) . You'd have to be selective with which articles you give a try. And which ones will that be? In this age if Google Scholar, more often than not the ones with a lot of citations already, I bet. So the already existing effect of people sticking to the commonly accepted truth is amplified. But science works at the edge of our knowledge, where what is already known breaks down and different and/or less commonly known ideas and solutions are needed.
- Zabb 9y agoOff topic, would you be able to share the list of the articles given to you by your colleague?