

Show HN: Petridish.org, a kickstarter for scientific research - ilz
http://www.petridish.org

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possibilistic
I was working in this space part-time but got beat to the starting line. I
still think I have something to offer since I am a scientist. I don't want to
port the conversation I'm having in another news item here, so would anyone be
kind enough to offer me some advice in the following thread?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3680207>

I could also use some 1-on-1 advice via chat if it can be spared.

edit: Thanks to everyone who has commented and emailed me thus far! All of
your advice is wonderful and really encouraging. I still appreciate new
comments, and I'd really love to hear from Atlanta-area Python/JS hackers.

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irollboozers
We are launching Microryza, which is still differentiated enough, but is
pretty much the same thing.

<http://www.microryza.com/>

We got beat by 4 days. But, screw it, we're going to launch anyways because we
feel we have a better product.

Though, of the 14 competitors in this space, these guys flew under the radar
pretty damn well.

~~~
possibilistic
Wow, best of luck! It'll be hard to compete with VCs, but if you're a
scientist you speak a language that isn't easy to learn. That could be a
deciding advantage.

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wgrover
My favorite thing about this is how it exposes non-scientists to the first
(and IMHO most exciting and least appreciated) phase of research - thinking up
experiments.

~~~
cing
It also exposes your research plan to other scientists when your work is at a
stage where it's the easiest to be scooped. I have a science project idea to
be crowdfunded, but I'm still a bit skeptical...

~~~
wgrover
That's a real risk. But the longer I'm in science, the more I believe that
"ideas are cheap, follow-through is everything." If I'm scooped, it's not
because someone else had the same idea (probably _lots_ of people had that
same idea); it's because I didn't reduce it to practice first. If getting
funding from Petridish helps you reduce your idea to practice first, maybe
it's worth the risk of getting scooped.

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SamLR_66
Are the various proposed projects vetted at all? This seems like the sort of
thing that would result in lots of pseudo science getting funded or is it
buyer beware in that respect?

Also do you envisage any way of helping fund less glamorous projects?

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pgroves
I'd actually be more concerned about trying to define "junk science" than
having a bunch of psychics running experiments.

What is the harm in someone putting their own money into a pseudo-science
experiment? It will fail if it's an incorrect hypothesis either way.

In fact, the feedback loop between a "believer", their money, and reality,
seems like a feature not a bug.

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psylence519
I hope someone is working on a Kickstarter for Kickstarter clones, huge market
opportunity there.

~~~
yread
It could be called Kickexchange!

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davedx
Awesome idea, I'll be watching it for interesting projects.

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emeltzer
Why is there no link to information about the team under About?

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ilz
It's on our todo list to add info about the team, but here are our profiles on
the site:

Matt Salzberg: <http://www.petridish.org/users/2> Ilia Papas (me):
<http://www.petridish.org/users/1>

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evoxed
Where in New York are you guys? Do you need interns?

~~~
msalzberg
Sure, we could potentially use interns. Send us a message through our contact
form and we'll talk about it.

~~~
evoxed
Done, even if potential means you weren't really considering until somebody
asked!

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eli_gottlieb
You mean like Fundageek?

------
cing
U.S. only?

