The current issue of U.S. News is worth picking up for a great article on the science of cancer detection and treatment. The online version lacks a whole bunch of cool graphics and sidebars.

Of special interest is the sidebar on Patrick Brown, inventor of the gene chip, and one of the classic pure scientists in an age when many people think that everything has been done, and it's all only for the bucks.

...One of Brown's crusades is making scientific information freely available. After he invented the gene chip, a nearby company made its own version, but it kept its production methods closely guarded and charged a fortune for the chips. Brown, by contrast, put everything–-including a manual on how to build the machine and software for analyzing data–-on the Web, free.

Cool. This attitude, kind of like "open source software," has helped spread this new lifesaving tech to many areas.