Ear­lier this month Seed Media, the organ­i­sa­tion behind the excel­lent Seed Mag­a­zine, launched Research Blog­ging — a great new website/hub for dis­sem­i­nat­ing peer-reviewed research. In light of this, The Econ­o­mist dis­cusses the future of sci­en­tific debate on the Inter­net.

Although Web 2.0, with its empha­sis on user-generated con­tent, has been derided as a com­mer­cial cul-de-sac, it may prove to be a path to speed­ier sci­en­tific advance­ment. Accord­ing to Adam Bly, Seed’s founder, internet-aided inter­dis­ci­pli­nar­ity and glob­al­i­sa­tion, cou­pled with a gen­er­a­tional shift, por­tend a great rev­o­lu­tion. His opti­mism stems in large part from the fact that the new tech­nolo­gies are no mere new­fan­gled gim­micks, but spring from a desire for timely peer review.