#homecmos IRC log for Wednesday, 2013-03-06

kanzureeleitl is trying to do diy production of microelectrode arrays. anyone have experience in this area?21:54
diginetgod I hate patents22:20
diginetnot saying the idea doesn't have merit, at least theoretically, but it's just gotten ridiculous now22:20
soul-dlol what did they try to patent this time ?22:53
azonenbergmethod of exercising a cat? ;)22:56
Sync_:D22:56
diginetso I was reading about various processes of purifying silicon, just out of curiosity (I don't know much on the specific, well, didn't, I know more now)22:57
diginetanyway, I come across this company which claims to have invented some eco-friendly (should have been a red flag right there) way to make solar-grade silicon from silica, instead of starting from metallurgical grade22:58
diginetanyway, their "unique process" is just reacting silica with lye in aqueous solution to make sodium silicate and then running the solution through some ion exchange columns to remove impurities22:59
diginetexcept, that very same process has been used for at /least/ 60 years to extract silica from agro waste (like rice hulls)23:00
diginethow in the hell did these idiots manage to patent an extremely elementary method in chemistry that any first or second year undergrad could do?23:00
diginetutter insanity23:01
Sync_well probably their process has something special23:06
diginetno, it doesn't23:07
diginetthe only "difference" is that they use an column for boron and phosphorus, but they didn't invent either of the resins23:07
diginet*a column23:08
Sync_yeah but they changed that there and thus they can patent their process23:08
diginetthat's absurd23:09
diginetyou shouldn't be able to patent *basic* methods in synthetic chemistry23:09
Sync_huh23:10
Sync_they patented the process23:10
diginetyes, they patented "their" method of purifying silica, except they didn't invent anything23:11
Sync_hm, purifiying SiHCl3 is not that hard23:11
Sync_well they innovated by putting the dopants in there23:11
Sync_bam, pantentable23:11
diginetthey're not TCS23:12
diginetan extremely common method of purifying silica from biological sources is to burn it, then put the ash in concentrated solution of NaOH, and then use ion exchangers to purify the resulting sodium silicate and then hydrolyse that to make silica and lye again23:13
diginetthey patented something which has been for 40-50 years at least23:13
Sync_yeah but they put boron and p in there23:13
Sync_which is new23:13
Sync_or not patented already23:14
diginetno they didn't, they just decided to specifically try and remove B and P23:14
Sync_well I guess they have something special to their process23:14
Sync_nukem gmbh patented a pressure cooker for nuclear materials23:15
diginetI'm just sick of these absurd patents in the first place23:16
diginetthe thing is, there's no such thing as individual research23:16
diginetall inventions are necessarily collaborative23:16
diginetwhat really irks me is tax dollar grant money being used to fund research which is then patented. No, it should be public domain23:16
diginetI'm sick of public money being swindled by universities to VC crap23:17
azonenbergdiginet: This is why i'm using the "scorched earth" IP policy for my research23:44
azonenbergpublish early and often so nobody has a hope at patenting it23:44
diginetsweet23:44
azonenbergbecause my work is its own prior art23:44
diginetyou are awesome23:44
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