In an essay for LabLit, cancer researcher Alexis Barr, discusses whether competition drives science forward or wastes resources. The essay was recently shortlisted for the British Society of Cell Biology Writing Competition. This years winner was By Emily Pritchard, MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh.

Exert from Competition in Science
Have you ever had that heart-stopping moment during a routine search of recently published work when a paper appears that pretty much covers everything you have been working on for the past few years? When complaining about the fact that I had been beaten to publication to a non-academic friend of mine, my friend replied, “Why were you both working on the same thing in the first place?”

See the lablit website for the rest of the essay.