
Science Exchange (YC S11) enables researchers to tap labs worldwide - markmassie
http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21635323-startup-enables-researchers-tap-labs-worldwide-conduct-experiments-their/
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privong
This is a cool idea. It seems like the meatspace analogy of BOINC[0],
substituting physical lab equipment for computing power.

I wonder if this could lead to grant approvals requiring that procedures be
duplicated in at least one remote lab and those results also discussed in
publications. It would protect against tampering data tampering, but it could
also potentially catch lab errors by providing a second dataset.
Unfortunatley, I suspect the overheads will mean that such duplication in an
external lab might be tough to justify, from a cost standpoint.

[0] [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/](https://boinc.berkeley.edu/)

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djoshea
Sometimes results won't replicate because the people or equipment at the
second lab aren't skilled enough to do the experiment correctly. You can get
type II errors on difficult tests because of impurities, noise, etc. But most
of the tests listed on Science Exchange seem like standard tests, where the
labs doing it are probably better at it than you are, so this wouldn't be too
much of an issue.

I think another effect of this experiment-for-fee model would be to level the
playing field for smaller labs that can't master every tool simultaneously.
Whereas before a researcher would have to choose between (a) learning a new
technique and buying new equipment and (b) finding an alternative way to
demonstrate a result, presumably with older or less reliable methods, now they
can do a very simple one-off collaboration of sorts without any of the
overhead of real collaborations (esp. negotiations over authorship).

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clarkm
The article makes it sound more like Heroku for experiments than Uber, but I
guess that comparison is too niche. Some other companies in this space are:

[https://www.transcriptic.com/](https://www.transcriptic.com/)

and

[http://www.emeraldtherapeutics.com/](http://www.emeraldtherapeutics.com/)

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vubuntu
Shouldn't it be more like "Airbnb for Expermients" , you are renting out
unused lab resources, right?

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neurotech1
Can companies/PR/media stop using "Uber for.." in their descriptions?

Uber as a company and their business practices isn't exactly positive to say
the least.

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devilsdounut
My favorite is "Uber for genetic testing". That is exactly what I want, a
company like Uber completely ignoring all moral and legal rules with complete
access to all of my genetic information.

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neurotech1
Thats exactly my point. Science Exchange (or 23AndMe) may be a good idea, but
associating with a company that seems to be "ignoring all moral and legal
rules" like Uber is not such a good idea.

I realize 22AndMe operates in a few legal grey areas but I believe they don't
run the company by "ignoring morals" in their business practices and
management.

