[DIYbio] Re: Open source web sequence/plasmid viewer/editor components?

RE: Open source discussion - Well, understanding what you have been doing and being able to communicate it adequately to others are virtues within science, so it's not quite like the choice of a more vs less transparent license is a scientifically neutral personal preference. 'Not being forced to use it' may mean that program authors have not committed a general moral offense, that that bar sits a lot lower than the one where a choice of method over its obvious alternatives is adequately justified to the scientific process. There are a lot of ordinarily-perfectly-polite things one can do that have no place in science, really.

All else being equal, I'd say say open source deserves to be a gold standard for scientific applications. Saying that writing and using applications under other licenses has 'no place in science' is hyperbole, I'll give you that, but along the same dimension I think that using harder-than-necessary terms to encourage preferred practices under scientific ideals falls some distance short of 'exaggerated entitlement and bigotry'.