Scientist Encounters Enhanced PDF, Now Refuses To Read PDFs That Are Not Enhanced

SEATTLE, WA—Reporting that the experience has fundamentally altered his relationship with the scientific literature, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Neil Prasad, 33, confirmed Tuesday that after clicking “Enhanced PDF” on an Angewandte Chemie paper three weeks ago, he now refuses to read any PDF that is not enhanced.

“I can’t go back,” said Prasad, who appears to be the only working scientist who has ever voluntarily clicked “Enhanced PDF.” “Standard PDF feels dead to me now. Static. Like reading a cave painting.” He could not identify a single specific feature that distinguishes the enhanced PDF from a standard PDF, but insisted the difference is “immediately obvious once you’ve crossed over.”

His labmates have grown concerned. “He sent me a paper last week and I said I’d already read it,” said a graduate student. “He asked if I’d read the enhanced version. I said I’d downloaded the PDF. He said ‘which one.’”

Prasad refuses to submit manuscripts to journals that do not offer enhanced PDF, a policy that has eliminated virtually every journal except those published by Wiley. His PI recently told him some of his results may be worth trying to submit to Nature, an opportunity Prasad declined. "I told her I wouldn't have my science presented in a degraded format," he said. "She hasn't brought it up again."

At press time, Prasad’s enhanced PDF reader had crashed, which he interpreted as “a sign the enhancement is working.”