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Science 352 6285 511
Science 352 6285 511
B
eyond being the founder of Sci-Hub, possibility that such an interface could cumbersome: Post a request on Twitter
the world’s largest pirate site for one day translate the thought content to #IcanhazPDF with your email address.
academic papers, and risking arrest from one mind and upload it to another. Eventually, a generous researcher at some
as a result, Alexandra Elbakyan is But the work fell short of her dreams. university with access to the journal will
a typical science graduate student: “The lab activity was spiritless,” she says. send you the paper.
idealistic, hard-working, and relatively “There was no feeling of pursuing a What was needed, she decided, was
poor. In 1988, when Elbakyan was born higher goal.” a system that allowed that paper to be
in Kazakhstan, the Soviet Union was Elbakyan did find a community of like- shared—with absolutely everyone. She
just beginning to crumble. Books about minded researchers in transhumanism, had the computer skills—and contacts
dinosaurs and evolution fascinated her a lofty field that encompasses not just with other pirate websites—to make that
early on. “I also remember reading Soviet neuroscience and computer happen, and so Sci-Hub
science books that provided scientific technology but also philosophy was born (see main story, p.
explanations for miraculous events and even speculative fiction 508). Elbakyan sees the site
thought previously to be produced by about the future of humanity. as a natural extension of her
gods or magic.” She was hooked. She discovered a transhuman- dream of helping humans
At university in the Kazakh capital, she ism conference in the United share good ideas. “Journal
discovered a knack for computer hack- States and set her heart on paywalls are an example of
ing. It appealed to her because “unlike attending, but she struggled to something that works in the
higher programming languages that get a U.S. visa. She was rejected reverse direction,” she says,
are created by people and are volatile,” the first time and only barely “making communication
making and breaking computer security made it to the conference. With less open and efficient.”
systems requires a deeper knowledge of the remainder of her summer Alexandra Elbakyan, Running a pirate site and
mathematics and the primitive “assembly visa, she did a research intern- Sci-Hub founder. being sued for what is likely
language” that computers use to move ship at Georgia Institute of to be millions of dollars in
information. Technology in Atlanta. When she got back damages hasn’t stopped Elbakyan from
Like so many of Kazakhstan’s bright- to Kazakhstan, frustration with the bar- pursuing an academic career. Her neuro-
est, Elbakyan left the country to pursue riers that scientists face would soon lead science research is on hold, but she has
her dreams. First she worked in Moscow her to create Sci-Hub—an awe-inspiring enrolled in a history of science master’s
PHOTO: APNEET JOLLY/FLICKR
in computer security for a year, and then act of altruism or a massive criminal program at a “small private university”
she used the earnings to launch herself to enterprise, depending on whom you ask. in an undisclosed location. Appropriately
the University of Freiburg in Germany in Publisher paywalls are the bane of enough, her thesis focuses on scientific
2010, where she joined a brain-computer scientists and students in Kazakhstan, communication. “I perceive Sci-Hub as a
interface project. She was lured by the she says, and the existing solution was practical side of my research.” j
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