Mechanism of a molecular electronic photoswitch

Zhuang and Erznzerhof, "Mechanism of a molecular electronic photoswitch"
PRB 72, 073104 (2005)

This is a cute theoretical paper (DFT+NEGF), on the mechanism behind a nice light-driven molecular switch that has already been experimentally demonstrated. However, as a sign of "the spirit of the age", an almost identical paper appeared less than a month ago from Kondo et al., Chem Phys Lett 412, 55 (2005) Kondo (KTY) et al submitted 4 months earlier than Zhuang and Erznzerhof (ZE), but ZE had their paper in final form a month earlier than KTY. Despite this, KTY appeared online a month earlier than ZE. Is molecular transport becoming like biology, where (if the horror stories are correct) a PI listening to a conference talk will be on the phone immediately to tell his/her army of postdocs and graduate students the details of a protocol, so that they can race to publish it a week or two before some other group?
Maybe somebody should also start a blog just to chronicle these types of incidences.