Kind of an odd editorial in the latest issue of Science. The author, computer scientist Ben Schneiderman coins what he apparently thinks is a new term, “Science 2.0” (I’m sure he might get a few arguments on that), and defines it as the study of human interactions on the internet. It’s a reasonable enough thesis, that these tools make it easier to study how people collaborate (when using these tools), and it will be an interesting subject. I’m not really sure how relevant it is though, to scientists who aren’t studying human interactions. Researchers need to carefully pick and choose tools that are most likely to be fruitful, to add to their research rather than take away from it by demanding their time and effort. And as Jaron Lanier has pointed out, there are some problems where the group-think inherent to social networks and open collaborations can stifle real progress.