Rethinking Science Publishing, Funding and Possibilities — With Seemay Chou

"Science has always been humanity’s shared adventure. But behind paywalls and outdated incentives, discovery has begun to slow. What if the next scientific revolution isn’t technological—but about how we share knowledge itself?

In this Interintellect salon, biologist and entrepreneur Seemay Chou joins economist and Roots of Progress fellow Sam Enright for a conversation about rebuilding the culture and infrastructure of discovery.

As co-founder of Arcadia Science, The Navigation Fund, and the Astera Institute, Seemay has helped pioneer new models for doing science outside traditional academia: from for-profit research labs that publish openly to philanthropic ventures designed to realign incentives around curiosity and impact.

Together, Seemay and Sam will explore:

• Why traditional publishing is failing scientists and the public alike — costing the global community $10–25 billion per year in subscription and processing fees.
• How philanthropy and entrepreneurship can build a post-journal world that values collaboration and speed over prestige.
• The role of AI and computational tools like Jupyter notebooks in accelerating reproducible, open research.
• And how this moment might mark a political and cultural turning point for science in the United States."