Why paywalls have to go

On the PLoS blog, an article from Jack Andraka, winner of the 2012 Intel Science prize for the invention of a dip stick test for pancreatic cancer, on trying to reach behind paywalls as a 14 year old:

I soon learned that many of the papers I was interested in reading were hidden behind expensive pay walls. I convinced my mom to use her credit card for a few but was discouraged when some of them turned out to be expensive but not useful to me. She became much less willing to pay when she found some in the recycle bin!

…

Some adults have told me I should have done that but, as a 14 year old, it was intimidating. It was also hard to get my parents to drive me to a University library since they didn’t really believe in my project and were trying to convince me to change projects! So there are a lot of barriers for kids to learn more and educate themselves. Open access would help people like me who may not drive or have access to a University library.

Although Andraka was young and unaffiliated with a university, he still had better access than a lot of others from more disadvantaged backgrounds.  The solutions that worked for him, and allowed him to contribute to medical research at such a young age, will not work for everyone else.