It may not be recent, but I can give the example of Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin. He did not patent his discovery saying that "nature invented pe

It may not be recent, but I can give the example of Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin. He did not patent his discovery saying that "nature invented penicillin, I merely discovered it." He wanted it to be as widely available and affordable to everyone who needed it. (Similar for Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine). Fleming discovered penicillin in a government funded academic environment and was not incentivized by money. Maybe that was just more common back during that era (also given the Salk example). Maybe we're at a later stage of capitalism where it's less likely to happen.