Keith’s update: A month ago, on 2 May 2024, NASA Ames posted “Researchers Develop ‘Founding Document’ on Synthetic Cell Development“ which says “In a paper published recently in ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers outline the potential opportunities that synthetic cell development could unlock and what challenges lie ahead in this groundbreaking research. They also present a roadmap to inspire and guide innovation in this intriguing field.” When it was originally published at NASA.gov it had a link to “Building Synthetic Cells─From the Technology Infrastructure to Cellular Entities” (ACS Synth. Biol. 2024, 13, 4, 974–997 Publication Date: March 26, 2024) which, it would seem, was the ‘Founding Document’ that NASA wanted everyone to know about. Cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up NASA. But wait: the article that NASA points to is behind a pay wall. It is rather odd for NASA PAO to overtly promote this article as a ‘Founding Document’ – one that is apparently important (to NASA) – but then lets this important thing sit behind a paywall offsite. So I sent an email to NASA a month ago. They said they’d fix it. They then fixed it. Now the link is simply gone from the NASA.gov article and no hint is offered as to where it is or how to read it. A month later and there is still no link to the article or link to the text that is this ‘Founding Document’ By now NASA should be aware of various OSTP/OMB policies with regard to making taxpayer-funded research available. NASA has gotten better at this but apparently not everyone got that memo. So, will you please post the ‘Founding Document’ NASA – or make it openly available at its source?
(more…)
