This is timely, given the recent release of "Intuition", blogged here last week.

The whirlwind pace of innovation in the 21st century conceals a dark secret of science: Research is generally at least a year old before it appears in scientific journals.

Publishing a study is often a downright lethargic process: Researchers with a hot new result submit an article to a journal, wait a minimum of three months for experts in the field to review the findings and then spend another few months revising to the reviewers' recommendations. When a paper is finally accepted, it is edited again and checked by the authors, only to linger—often for several more months—for its turn at the printer.

The process can take so long that some scientists have decided to avoid it altogether.