Re-imagining
Scien i ic Cul u e
in a Changing Wo ld
Alexa T. McC ay
P o esso o Medicine
Ha a d Medical School
amcc [email protected] a d.edu
Open Science Fai 2025
CERN, Sep embe 15, 2025
Scien i ic Cul u e
Scien i ic, o esea ch, cul u e “encompasses he
beha iou s, alues, expec a ions, a i udes and
no ms o ou esea ch communi ies.”
The Royal Socie y
Re : h ps:// oyalsocie y.o g/news- esou ces/p ojec s/ esea ch-cul u e/
Scien i ic Cul u e
Majo scien i ic ad ances ha e an
impac on he scien i ic cul u e o he
ime
Among he ad ances in he la e pa
o he 20 h cen u y and he i s qua e
o his cen u y a e:
•Wo ld Wa II Inno a ions
•B eak h oughs in Gene ics
•The Digi al Re olu ion
•Inno a ions in esponse o he
Global Pandemic
•The AI Re olu ion
Image sou ce: h ps://www.np .o g/sec ions/13.7/2017/07/18/537882769/ (1870 eng a ing)
Wo ld Wa II Inno a ions
WWII Majo Inno a ions
•Compu ing: The ENIAC
(Elec onic Nume ical In eg a o
and Compu e ) compu e , buil
be ween 1943-1945, was he i s
gene al-pu pose p og ammable
elec onic compu e
•Physics: In he ea ly 1940’s, he
op-sec e Manha an P ojec was
ini ia ed wi h he goal o
de eloping and es ing a omic
weapons
•Medicine: Penicillin was disco e ed
in 1928 by Alexande Fleming,
who widely sha ed his
Penicillium mold
Penicillin was mass p oduced o
he oops du ing WWII
ENIAC compu e
Si e o he Manha an p ojec
1940’s ad o penicillin
Image sou ce: h ps://www.nps.go /a icles/000/
manha an-p ojec -science-a -los-alamos.h m
Image sou ce: h ps://www.na ionalww2museum.o g/
si es/de aul / iles/2017-07/ hanks- o-penicillin-lesson.pd
Re : h ps://www.seas.upenn.edu/abou /his o y-he i age/eniac/; h ps://www.na ionalww2museum.o g/wa /a icles/scien i ic-and- echnological-ad ances-wo ld-wa -ii
Image sou ce: h ps://www.compu e his o y.o g/
e olu ion/bi h-o - he-compu e /4/78/317
Responsibili y o Socie y
•J. Robe Oppenheime ’s speech o his
Los Alamos colleagues:
“I you a e a scien is you belie e ha i is
good o ind ou how he wo ld wo ks; ha
i is good o ind ou wha he eali ies a e;
ha i is good o u n o e o mankind a
la ge he g ea es possible powe o con ol
he wo ld and o deal wi h i acco ding o i s
ligh s and i s alues.” J. Robe Oppenheime ,
‘ a he o he a omic bomb’,1945
•A physicis in con e sa ion wi h wo
o he physicis s who all eside in an
insane asylum in Dü enma ’s 1962
sa i ical play:
“We ha e o ace he consequences o ou
scien i ic hinking. I was my du y o wo k
ou he e ec s o my [ heo y]…The esul is
–de as a ing. New and inconcei able o ces
would be unleashed … i my indings we e
o all in o he hands o mankind.”
Dü enma , p. 75
•A e he wa , Oppenheime chai ed
he Gene al Ad iso y Commi ee o
he A omic Ene gy Commission and
lobbied o in e na ional a ms con ol
Re : h ps://ah .nuclea museum.o g/ah /key-documen s/oppenheime s- a ewell-speech/; Dü enma , F ied ich, The Physicis s;; h ps://ah .nuclea museum.o g/ah /p o ile/j- obe -oppenheime /
Image sou ce: Dü enma , F ied ich, The Physicis s
(Co e ). T ansla ed by James Ki kup, G o e P ess, 1964
Seeing an Oppo uni y
•Pos Wo ld Wa II, Maxwell, a
young en ep eneu , “had his
sigh s se on ‘becoming a
millionai e’”
•He wined and dined leading
scien is s and pe suaded hem o
become edi o -in-chie s o
‘In e na ional Jou nals o …’ in
newly de ined a eas o science
•He o med Pe gamon P ess in
1951
•Maxwell sold Pe gamon o
Else ie in 1991
Robe Maxwell in 1985
Image sou ce: Re : h ps://www. hegua dian.com/science/2017/
jun/27/p o i able-business-scien i ic-publishing-bad- o -science
Re : h ps://www. hegua dian.com/science/2017/jun/27/p o i able-business-scien i ic-publishing-bad- o -science
B eak h oughs in Gene ics
•In 1944 Oswald A e y and
colleagues disco e ed ha DNA
was he ma e ial o which
ch omosomes a e made
•In 1953 he double helix s uc u e
o DNA was disco e ed
•The double-s anded s uc u e o
DNA bo h p oduces exac copies
o i sel and ca ies gene ic
ins uc ions
•The 1962 Nobel P ize in
Physiology o Medicine was
awa ded o F ancis C ick, James
Wa son, and Mau ice Wilkins
•Rosalind F anklin’s con ibu ions
we e no acknowledged
Gene ics Resea ch
Re : h ps://p o iles.nlm.nih.go /spo ligh /cc/ ea u e/biog aphical-o e iew; h ps://www.na u e.com/a icles/171737a0
Rosalind F anklin,
B i ish chemis and x- ay c ys allog aphe
in he lab in he 1950’s
Image sou ce: h ps://www.na u e.com/a icles/d41586-023-01390-6
Applica ions in Many Domains
•In 1994, CERN hos ed he i s
in e na ional WWW con e ence
(‘Woods ock o he Web’)
Showcased applica ions om An a c ic
exhibi ions o paleon ology o wea he
mapping
•Scien i ic li e a u e
In he ea ly 1990s, Publishe s began
publishing hei jou nals in digi al
o ma
In 1991, a Xi , a ee online global
p ep in se ice was de eloped by Paul
Ginspa g
In 1997, PubMed, an open web-based
in e ace o li e sciences li e a u e
ci a ions, was launched by he U.S.
Na ional Ins i u es o Heal h (NIH)
•Clinical in o ma ion
In ea ly 2000, ClinicalT ials.go , an
open eposi o y o web-based clinical
ial in o ma ion, was launched by he
NIH
Vice P esiden Go e sea ching he
newly eleased PubMed Web in e ace
a a ce emony on Capi ol Hill in 1997
Image sou ce: h ps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go /Web/Newsl /aug97.h ml
Re : h ps://www.w3.o g/His o y.h ml; h ps://www.na u e.com/a icles/476145a; h ps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go /abou /; h ps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go /11033590/
•Building on he wo k o Tim
Be ne s-Lee, Se gey B in and
La y Page de eloped he Google
sea ch engine
•Fo scien is s ha mean ha , in
p inciple, he scien i ic li e a u e
would be easily a ailable o hem
•O en when an a icle would be
ound ia a Google sea ch, he
message would come back om
he publishe : “You do no ha e
access o his i em.”
•The only ecou se would be o
subsc ibe o he jou nal o pay a
pe -a icle ee o he publishe
Image sou ce: h ps:// esea ch.google/pubs/ he-ana omy-o -a-la ge-scale-hype ex ual-web-sea ch-engine/
Technical pape in oducing Google in 1998:
The ana omy o a la ge-scale hype ex ual web sea ch engine
Google 1998 image sou ce: h ps://commons.wikimedia.o g/wiki/File:Google_1998_logo.png
Inno a ions in esponse o he Global Pandemic
Messenge RNA
•Ea ly me hods o deli e y o
mRNA in o cells we e de eloped
in he 1970s
•mRNA p o ed di icul o wo k
wi h, bu h oughou he 1980s
and 1990s, esea che s a ound he
wo ld ca ied ou expe imen s o
es i s he apeu ic and disease
p e en ion e icacy
•Nano echnology ad ances ea ly
in he 21s cen u y enabled he
apid de elopmen o mRNA
accines o use in humans
•In e na ional collabo a ion on
mRNA accine de elopmen and
policy con inues
Re s: h ps://www.na u e.com/a icles/d41586-021-02483-w; h ps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.go /a icles/PMC10653775/
h ps://www.science.o g/con en /a icle/o e looked-supe powe -m na- accines
A heal h wo ke p epa ing he mRNA accine in 2021
COVID-19 and Open Science
•Du ing he ea ly days o he
pandemic, COVID-19 esea ch
esul s con ibu ed o a la ge
inc ease in he use o p ep in s
and o he open dissemina ion
p ac ices
•The CORD-19 machine lea ning
p ojec was ini ia ed on Ma ch
16, 2020
•“Immedia e public access o
COVID-19 esea ch is a powe ul
case s udy on he bene i s o
deli e ing esea ch esul s and
da a apidly o he people.” Alond a
Nelson, OSTP, Augus 25, 2022
Re : h ps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.go /a icles/PMC7251955/; h ps://bidenwhi ehouse.a chi es.go /wp-con en /uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pd
Image sou ce: h ps://www.cshl.edu/co id-19-machine-lea ning-e o -p ep in s-a e-key/
COVID-19 open da ase o machine lea ning
The AI Re olu ion
AI o e he decades
•The de elopmen o expe
sys ems in he 1980s elied on
human expe s o supply domain
knowledge
•Geo ey Hin on, he ‘god a he o
AI’ and 2024 Nobel Lau ea e in
Physics, published a seminal pape
in 1984 on s a is ical me hods ha
can lea n abou a domain “simply
by being shown examples om he
domain”
•Cu en machine lea ning sys ems
ely on massi e da ase s
•La ge language models, such as
Cha GPT, de eloped in he 2020s,
domina e AI oday
Image sou ce: h ps://openai.com/ esea ch/
“We belie e ou esea ch will e en ually lead o a i icial
gene al in elligence, a sys em ha can sol e human-le el
p oblems. Building sa e and bene icial AGI is ou
mission.” S a emen om OpenAI’s websi e
Re : h ps://www.cs.u o on o.ca/~hin on/absps/bm .pd
“All hings ha exis ”
Image sou ce: h ps://www.me e sege books.com/pages/books/M0596m/
ga dine -alan-hende son/ancien -egyp ian-onomas ica- ol-i-ii- ex - ol-iii-pla es-comple e-se
Egyp ian ‘Uni e sal Ca alogue’
•Amenopē(~1200 BC), an
Egyp ian sc ibe, se ou o
ca alogue he uni e se
•I was o be he beginning “o he
eaching o clea ing he mind, o
ins uc ion o he igno an and
o lea ning all hings ha
exis …”
•The esul ing ex , likely compiled
o e a numbe o yea s, consis ed
o mo e han 600 en i ies
o ganized in eigh high le el
ca ego ies, including ‘Sky, wa e ,
ea h’, … ‘Classes, ibes, and
ypes o human beings’, … ‘Pa s
o an ox and kinds o mea ’
Re : Ga dine , Alan H. (1947). Ancien Egyp ian Onomas ica, Volume I. Ox o d Uni e si y P ess
Cha GPT Que y: “Desc ibe all hings ha exis ”
Re : h ps://cha gp .com/?openaicom_ e e ed= ue&model=au o
Cha GPT Que y: “Desc ibe all hings ha exis ”
Re : h ps://cha gp .com/?openaicom_ e e ed= ue&model=au o
