Who says science isn’t political? One of my oldest contacts in the world of crystallography recently contacted me about the Petition for Open Data in Crystallography. The initiative, like similar efforts in the realm of genomics, hopes to persuade the curators of crystal structure information (the CSD, ICSD, CRYSMET and ICDD) to provide an open access, “lite” version of their content, crystal data and powder patterns. I’d urge you to take a look and vote on this important issue before the next meeting of the IUCr in August 2005.