While the latter paper makes some serious points (and, unfortunately, is ammo for the muppet brigade), what caught my eye was the footnotes:

GCSS had the original idea. JPP tried to talk him out of it. JPP did the first literature search but GCSS lost it. GCSS drafted the manuscript but JPP deleted all the best jokes. GCSS is the guarantor, and JPP says it serves him right.

So I’m wondering, what’s the best Acknowledgement/Footnote/other endnote matter you’ve seen? A copy of Sydney Brenner’s book to the best!

For this week’s dose of Friday fun, what’s the cleverest or funniest article title you’ve come across? Ian has suggested this 2011 article from Lester Lau of the University of Illinois at Chicago, which must surely win the F1000 “Best ever journal article title based on libretti form comic operas” award,

CCN1/CYR61: the very model of a modern matricellular protein
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00018-011-0778-3).

Where does he find them?

Anyway, please share your favourites. I’ll see what swag I can rustle up for the best.

I’m going to let you decide instead. Tell me who you think should win this lovely bag of F1000-flavoured swag, including the much-coveted Naturally Selected sweatshirt.

The shortlist is

• Blake Stacey: Groupselectitol, for when you haven’t had a heated argument in your biology journal in too long.
• Michele Banks: Ibepaintin, for the treatment of sciartica
• Fiona: Panda Mix, derived from bamboo

Please use the voting buttons below, and I’ll announce the winner on Friday!

[poll id="12"]

The word might not mean anything to you now, but if I were to tell you it was a drug–or a vaccination–you’d probably guess right away what it was for.

Pandemrix is an adjuvanted anti-flu vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline, targetted against the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. And it has a great name.

Another great name is “Pregno”. Unfortunately that one, for a contraceptive pill, was made up by British comedian Jasper Carrott.

So in the best traditions of Fridays everywhere, I want you to make up a drug name, and tell me what it treats. F1000-flavoured swag for the funniest, as ever.

And it’ll be running on twitter too–please use the hashtag #140drugs.

(And the winner of the previous competition is

drum roll

Richard Wintle!)

It has not escaped our attention, here at F1000 Towers, that we’re approaching the tenth anniversary of the first ever F1000 evaluation.

We’re planning something a little bit science-y from our amazing Members in honour of this occasion, but as it’s Friday we can have our own little celebration in advance.

Nando Boero sent me a list of his ten music favourites, and I’m wondering, what are yours? At my discretion I’ll award a natty new F1000 sweatshirt (or possibly a tee shirt) to what I consider the best, or perhaps the most outrageous, or simply the list that most makes me want to get up and dance.

Simply post your own top ten music things–albums, singles, music videos, whatever–in the comments below. Here’s Nando’s list to get the creative juices flowing:

Frank Zappa: Over-Nite Sensation
Frank Zappa: The Yellow Shark
Robert Wyatt: The End of an Ear
Soft Machine: Third
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica
Howlin’ Wolf: The London Sessions
Jimi Hendrix: Smash Hits
Lowell George: Thanks I’ll eat it here
Ray Troll: Cruising the Fossil Freeway
Talking Heads: More songs about buildings and food

You might have noticed that we have a shiny new F1000 homepage. We’re hoping that this new look will make it more clear what we do to the casual browser, without losing the functionality you’ve all come to know, love and expect.

All our Faculties are right there on the homepage so you can go directly to your specialty. The rolling list of evaluations is still available–just select “Evaluated Articles” on the top left. From that menu bar, which persists across all areas of the site, you can also get to our Rankings to find out what’s popular, Reports (our short state-of-the-art reviews), Posters, Faculty and of course, here.

We’re constantly working on improving the site, and the next major change you might notice will be to the actual evaluation pages. We’re aiming, as ever, to make them clearer and easier to use.

There are two further things I’d like to mention. First, you’ll notice a ‘QUOTED’ section on the right hand side. Myself and a team of crack quote-spotters will be trawling the site to bring you interesting and provocative comments from all over the site, whether it be from F1000 Members in evaluations and dissents, scientists and authors in Posters, Reports or comments, or blog commenters.

Finally, we’ve created twitter lists of Faculty Members and Associates that feed into our ‘Tweet-Life‘ list. The latest two tweets from that list appear on our front page under ‘Faculty Tweets’. We’ve had to pad it out a bit because, despite having over 10,000 F1000 Members, it’s been a little bit challenging to find them on twitter.

So to the competition: I have three copies of Sydney Brenner’s “My Life in Science” to give away. Here’s how to get in with a chance of getting your paws on one: follow @F1000 on twitter and between now and next Wednesday (15 June) send a tweet saying “I’m an F1000 Member! #f1000″. I’ll choose three lucky tweeps at random.

Good luck!

Get writing for a chance to win a bag full of F1000 swag!

But this year, Nikon are straying into another hobby of mine. For the first time there’ll be a video category, Small World in Motion. This will encompass any movie or digital time-lapse photography through a microscope. Submitted movies will be judged separately, complete with separate prizes for first, second and third places:

Small World in Motion will honor the technical expertise of bio- and
industrial-focused scientists alike, who use digital time-lapse
photography to study everything from the movement of microscopic
organisms to stress on industrial materials. Winners of the Small World
in Motion category will be selected in a different judging process than
that of the images. Movies will be judged on the merit of being
visually outstanding as well as depicting the intersection of science
and art.

The deadline for submissions is 30th April 2011.

Also, keep an eye out for our own video and multimedia contest, The Labbies. We’re opening for submissions in April, so you’ll never be without a video competition to enter.

A few minutes ago, there were 98,943 evaluations live on the F1000 website. That means we’re just 1057 short of the big 100,000, so we’ll pass this milestone sometime in the next month or two.

To win a Naturally Selected sweatshirt (Etienne not included) simply predict when you think the 100,000th evaluation will be published. You can calculate our daily rate from the website, but things get a little bit complicated because we essentially shut down over Christmas. I will award the sweatshirt to the person who gets closest to the morning or afternoon (UK time) that the 100,000th evaluation is published, if the guess is within two days of the actual time.

Leave your entries in the comments below!

Hideo Otsuna of the Chi-Bin Chien zebrafish development lab at the University of Utah Medical Center won second prize for his shot of a zebrafish head.

And sticking with zebrafish, 3rd prize went to Oliver Braubach, a PhD student at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, for a great image of the model organism’s olfactory bulbs.

Check out all the winners, the honorable mentions, and the images of distinction here.

[Warning: Be prepared to blissfully burn through several minutes/hours perusing the beautiful images on this page.]

–Bob Grant, Associate Editor, The Scientist

And 330 votes later, it’s time to announce the winners!

(FX: drumroll)

A copy of “My life in science” by Sydney Brenner goes to

• dawgscholar for Maximizing mutations to monopolize munching and mating
• noodlemaz for Advantageous gene mutations increase organisms’ survival odds in environment & change further w/ time. Others drift out of existence

The grand prize of a Naturally Selected sweatshirt goes to SFRedSoxGirl and

Random changes; sometimes lucky, usually not. Lucky changes = more offspring = more offspring inherit lucky changes. Time + lucky changes = evolution

The sharp-eyed among you might notice that’s slightly longer than 140 characters, but I could easily cut it down, so I’m letting it stand. I am, however, going to award an Editor’s Special Prize to cromacrox for

Evolution is the interaction between the environment, heritable variation, superabundance and time

.

Congratulations to the winners. Let me know your mailing addresses and required size, and I’ll get these goodies out to you as soon as I can. Commiserations to the rest of you–but rest assured there will be further opportunities to bag some F1000 swag.

In the competition inspired by the genegeek blog, about fifty of you had a go at this on twitter, with another 30 or so entries in the comments here on Naturally Selected. Whittling that down to a short list you could vote on wasn’t easy, but here are seven for you, in no particular order (with the names removed):

[poll id="6"]

Please vote for your favourite definition. The lucky winner will score a Naturally Selected sweatshirt. I’ll give a copy of My Life in Science by Sydney Brenner to two runners up.

There is also an honorable mention for Jeremy Yoder, who came up with

Hmm. I’d just tweet the Price Equation but I’m not sure TweetDeck can handle Greek characters.

The Price Equation is given by

Price Equation, from Wikipedia

Voting will be open until Monday, when I’ll announce the winner!

And unlike our other competitions, I’m going to open up voting to you, my loyal readers! (Depending on how many entries we get, I might whittle down to a shortlist.) The lucky winner gets an F1000 Naturally Selected sweatshirt, and I reserve the right to award books to runners up. To get your creative juices flowing, here’s a couple of definitions we’ve already had:

#Evolution: Life’s innate capacity to persist in spite of environmental change

from @conservbytes and

‘Variation in the relative frequencies of alleles over time’ // ‘Genetically driven changes in the forms or function of organisms’

from Tim.

Go for it!

Update: Please also see Catherine’s post explaining the background. Interesting problem!

First, this poster on the DNA damage response from a group in Spain has a somewhat quirky design. I think the link to Star Wars comes from the “Wet side”/”Dry side” theme they have going on.

Harvard’s Laboratory of Personalized Medicine is listing posters that its researchers has presented at meetings. I guess this is the internet age equivalent of putting posters up in the corridor outside your lab after a meeting. A little reminder that you can check out the entire F1000 poster collection at the prototype site: because we’re getting so many submissions now the navigation has been improved, and our developers are beavering away on creating a search function as we speak.

My regulars might remember Steve Pogonowski, our erstwhile PR droid. Steve left us back in March: before that he wrote posts at blog.f1000.com (and I’ll recommend you remember that URL. More on that later) and such like. Before he returned to his native Australia, he toured the outer fringes of Europe, promising to send pics of him wearing one of our much sought-after T-shirts. Here he is outside Lenin’s tomb, flying the red flag:

I can’t imagine the Pogmeister getting up early in the morning for this stunt: I’m informed that the haze is smoke from forest fires.

This reminds me, actually, that I haven’t given away anything for a while. So… time for an off the cuff competition. Send me (or link to, or whatever) a picture of science being down in the weirdest of places. The strangest, or one that makes me giggle the most, gets a sweatshirt.

And with that, I think the clock on the wall says it’s a quarter to beer. Have a splendid weekend, all.

Dozens of comments later, I’m going to have to ask you to stop… please. There were a lot of jokes, some funnier than others, some apparently from a site on the internet (yes, I recognize them) and a few real gems that I hadn’t heard before. Oddly enough, physics rather than biology or chemistry seemed to be the richest source; I wonder if there’s a thesis in there somewhere?

Anyway, I promised a winner. I’ve got two in fact.

First, for what I thought was a clever twist on an old favourite, one that requires a little bit of thought (and I hadn’t heard it before!), I’m awarding a Naturally Selected sweatshirt to Jared:

And the bartender says “Sorry, we don

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/13/funny-honey/feed/ 13 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/06/a-biologist-a-chemist-and-a-physicist-walk-into-a-bar/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/06/a-biologist-a-chemist-and-a-physicist-walk-into-a-bar/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:46:51 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1620 Continue reading →]]> You’ve heard the one about the two atoms walking down the street?

No? How about when Professor Heisenberg gets stopped for speeding?

What’s your favourite science joke? I’m giving away an F1000 sweatshirt to the funniest and/or one that makes me groan the most, and a copy of My life in Science to the runner-up. You can tell your jokes on Twitter using the #scijoke hashtag, on Facebook, or indeed in the comments here.

(And please, do enter, if only to dilute the barrage of appalling jokes coming from some of my colleagues. They know who they are.)

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/06/a-biologist-a-chemist-and-a-physicist-walk-into-a-bar/feed/ 77 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/01/winner-takes-it-all/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/01/winner-takes-it-all/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:40:14 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1604 Continue reading →]]> By the tingling in my toes I note it’s the first of a brand new month. Which means it’s time to announce this month’s lucky Naturally Selected sweatshirt winner!

I said I’d award a sweatshirt to the best comment this month. I also ran a picture competition, which nobody was able to get right! However, there were some very funny comments on that post, so this month I’m combining the two and awarding the prize to…

Fred Schaufele, for his wildly inaccurate but amusing comment:

Clearly a Rorschach test for biologists.

All of the prior respondants are delusional. I see a primary cilium (big magenta blob) in a definitely mouse cell line, most likely an ES cell line. The primary cilium is reduced in cells infected with a lentivirus co-expressing GFP with an shRNA preventing the outgrowth of the cilium from the basal body. I

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/07/01/winner-takes-it-all/feed/ 0 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/22/starry-night/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/22/starry-night/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:44:50 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1459 Continue reading →]]> It’s been a while, I realize, since I last gave you a chance to win anything. So, here we go. For a chance of a Naturally Selected sweatshirt (here modelled by Neuroscience Section Head Andrew Lumsden),

simply tell me what’s going on in this figure from a recent paper (click through for large version):

DOI please, and a non-specialist description as a tie-breaker. Usual terms apply, and as ever, my decision is final.

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/22/starry-night/feed/ 23 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/08/rocket-man/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/08/rocket-man/#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:17:12 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1326 Continue reading →]]> What do you get if you mix 108 bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos mints?

A rocket car, that’s what.

What’s a little more startling, to me at least, is that the science of the reaction is the subject of a paper in the American Journal of Physics (thanks to Byte Size Biology for the heads up).

The Diet Coke and Mentos reaction is a fun demonstration in chemistry and physics classes of many important concepts in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, surface science, and the physics of explosions. The reaction has been performed numerous times on television and the Internet, but has not been systematically studied. We report on an experimental study of the Diet Coke and Mentos reaction, and consider many aspects of the reaction, including the ingredients in the candy and soda, the roughness of the candy, the temperature of the soda, and the duration of the reaction.

Physicists, huh? Can’t imagine biologists being so frivolous… unless you know better, of course. There might even be a prize for the best example.

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/08/rocket-man/feed/ 5 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/07/clevor-trever/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/07/clevor-trever/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:37:57 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1285 Continue reading →]]> Last week I ran a competition on Twitter to try to reduce this pile of ‘My Life in Science’ books.

And… the winner is Andrew Thaler, aka SFriedScientist. A copy of the good book will be winging its way to Andrew very shortly.

There’ll be something else to watch for this week, possibly on Facebook for a change. In the meantime, a consolation prize for those who didn’t win, a completely no-doubt-about-it awesome video of a printer made from Lego (H/T Heather & Steffi):

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/07/clevor-trever/feed/ 0 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/03/competition-update/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/03/competition-update/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:05:37 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1275 Continue reading →]]> I’m still giving away copies of My Life in Science by Sydney Brenner. The latest ruse is an online raffle. All you have to do to enter is follow @F1000 on Twitter (so that I can DM you if you win!), and retweet the line:

Virtual raffle: chance to win a copy of “My Life in Science” by Sydney Brenner. Simply follow @f1000 and RT this. #SBMLiS

Winner to be announced on Monday.

Oh, and if you don’t win, I might be persuaded to sell you a copy

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/06/03/competition-update/feed/ 0 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/28/prize-time/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/28/prize-time/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 11:45:16 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1234 Continue reading →]]> We all love prizes.

As promised, I’m giving away an awesomely awesome Naturally Selected sweatshirt, modelled here by Eva, for the best comment this month (in my opinion).

And the winner is

(drum roll please)

Ellen, for her comment about craziness in faculties, and for posing a question about “valuable lunatics”. Ellen, congratulations and please drop me a line with your preferred size (S, M, L, XL or XXL) and mailing address.

Other winners this month include Adam Ratner, for knowing too much about ignorance, and Stephen Curry, who successfully identified the structure of U1 snRNP. Adam and Stephen both get a copy of Sydney Brenner’s My Life in Science. By the way, if you want a laugh, Stephen is taking part in I’m a scientist, get me out of here. I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him the best of luck!

More competitions and prizes next month, after the UK’s Bank Holiday weekend (yes, we’re hoping for some sunshine).

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/28/prize-time/feed/ 0 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/27/who-are-you/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/27/who-are-you/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 17:47:34 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1219 I still have a box of Sydney Brenner’s My Life in Science to give away. So, in an effort to reduce the pile, can you tell me what this is?

For a tie-breaker, who published it?

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/27/who-are-you/feed/ 3 http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/25/happy-birthday/ http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/25/happy-birthday/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 11:54:34 +0000 Richard P. Grant http://blog.the-scientist.com/?p=1186 Continue reading →]]> A quick roundup of good news from F1000.

We’re pleased to announce that the following Faculty Members have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society:

Professor Nicola Susan Clayton FRS
Professor Roger Clayton Hardie FRS
Professor Angus Iain Lamond FRS
Professor Alan Robert Lehmann FRS
Professor Robin MacGregor Murray FRS
Professor Wolf Reik FRS
Professor Loren Henry Rieseberg FRS
Professor Pascale Cossart ForMemRS
Professor Detlef Weigel ForMemRS

Next, the sweatshirts have arrived! I’ll be choosing one lucky winner from our postbag next week.

And last, we wish a very happy birthday to Vitek Tracz, Science Navigation Group chairman.

Vitek will be 70 sometime in the next couple of weeks (hey, if it’s good enough for the Queen…), and this afternoon in the office will go a lot quicker after all that champagne.

]]> http://blog.f1000.com/2010/05/25/happy-birthday/feed/ 0