very interesting & metaphysical view questioning how we conduct science

Really interesting article from the New Yorker that's worth reading & thinking about, especially if you're a scientist.
It gets me thinking about an idea I've had for a while, which they touch upon as well - somewhere where scientists can post their experimental design for critique before they even bother doing the experiment. Otherwise it can be years wasted once it gets to peer review. People are frightened of getting scooped, so perhaps we should just patent those design ideas and then, if nothing comes to fruition within a certain period of time, the patent is then open for re-application by anyone else so that it can be performed by a different laboratory.