 A scientist's job is to obtain knowledge about the natural world. Sharing that knowledge is critical for scientific progress as new information produced by one scientist can be used by others to make new discoveries and further benefit society. In 1665, the Royal Society of London created the first scientific journal called Philosophical Transactions to facilitate the transmission of new scientific findings. This publishing model established the concept of peer review to ensure scientific quality and the defined date of publication to establish priority of discovery. These principles have laid the foundation for the nearly 30,000 scientific journals that exist today. Let's see how the process works. First, scientists write a manuscript and send it to a journal for consideration. If the editors are interested, it is sent out to a group of anonymous scientists for their opinion of the quality of the work. The journal receives commentaries from the reviewers and decides whether to accept or reject the manuscript, or commonly requests revisions that require more experiments, resubmission and re-review before the journal makes a final decision. This process works, but it takes time. It's not uncommon for studies to be published one year after initial submission. In addition, excellent work can be rejected on the basis of its perceived importance. Are there better ways biologists can share information? Biology may learn a thing or two from the physicists. In 1991, Paul Ginsburg revolutionized communication among physicists by producing a preprint server called archive that allows for rapid communication among scientists. Archive now posts more than 100,000 papers each year. Preprint servers in the life sciences exist, but they are not yet widely used. A preprint server is simple. A scientist uploads a manuscript to a server. The paper is screened to ensure its scientific nature. Within a few days, the manuscript is posted online and becomes visible to the entire scientific community before peer review. Subsequently, the manuscript is usually submitted to a traditional journal for peer review and publication. Most, but not all, journals will accept work previously posted on a preprint server. The immediate access of the preprint has many advantages. Preprint servers give the authors feedback from a larger group of people than the anonymous peer reviewers. Preprints can be an announcement of a discovery, which helps scientists establish priority of their work. With preprints, authors can share work in progress or recent accomplishments with funding agencies, promotion committees, or future employers. Preprints are open access. Anyone in the world with an internet connection can view the manuscript for free. Preprints accelerate scientific progress by speeding up access to new findings. The internet is continuing to redefine how people access information and create social networks. Using the internet, physicist Paul Ginsparg tried the first truly new experiment in scientific communication since the creation of the philosophical transactions 350 years ago. As our lives go digital, many new ideas and experiments in scientific communication will facilitate access to data, changing how scientific work is evaluated and discussed, and pushing scientific innovation at an ever-accelerating rate. Let's see what the next 10 years will bring. This video was produced by Eureka Science and is brought to you by ASAP Bio.