Bermuda Rules: Community Spirit, With Teeth

The so-called "Bermuda Rules" instruct competitors in the cutthroat field of genome sequencing to give away the fruits of their research for free. The insistence on quick, unconditional release of data lies at the heart of the dispute between publicly funded genome scientists and the private company that has just produced a draft version of the human genome, Celera Genomics of Rockville, Maryland.