Today’s guest blog post on regenerative capability in newts comes from Siân Dawkins, Senior Editorial Assistant at F1000… Giving new(t) insight into the success of salamander regeneration with age, this dedicated study from Eguchi et al. answers the important question of the extent to which adult newts lose their regenerative capability. In answer, they don’t.…
Thank you to Richard Wintle who has provided us with this guest blog post on operating core facilities… A recent Commentary in Science Translational Medicine by Gregory K. Farber and Linda Weiss, entitled Core Facilities: Maximizing the Return on Investment (abstract here; article is subscription-only) is an interesting read. In it, the authors outline not…
I recently finished reading ‘Dark Star Safari’ by Paul Theroux, in which he relates the story of his travels through Africa. One quote particularly sticks out in my mind – upon the author making vague enquiries as to why there are certain African social problems, one chipper fellow answers in a north African accent, “too…
F1000 Posters continues to expand: guest post from Michael Markie, Associate Editor for F1000 Posters… It doesn’t seem that long ago since we were beating the drum about reaching our 1000th poster submission. Nevertheless, a mere four months on, F1000 Posters has doubled that feat in double quick time. Since our 1000th submission, we have…
Here’s an evaluation that coincides with the welcome return (welcome, really? Ed.) to our television screens of the ‘singing’-competition The X Factor – could having one’s tonsils removed improve one’s singing? Singers are understandably anxious about undergoing throat surgery in case it impairs their vocal performance. However, a recent paper from the Journal of Voice…
As Richard promised, here’s the latest guest blog post from Nando, his confessions of an F1000 addict… When I was invited to join F1000, I was very flattered of course. I knew about it, but I had no access to it. I have substantial experience in processing articles for journals; I even direct one (The…
Nature News posted a piece on Friday about a new enterprise Science Exchange which its co-founder, Elizabeth Irons, describes as: ‘an ebay, but for Scientific Knowledge’. Cool idea and obviously born of a real need to get things done. As Dr Irons recounts, the genesis for the idea was when she wanted to commission experiments…
A colleague in our editorial department forwarded an article from The Telegraph on to me this morning as it poses an interesting question: are we wasting money on alternative therapies? Apparently, the British spend around £2 billion a year on unproved alternative therapies, and 100% of cancer patients have used ‘alternative’ therapies. Examples in the…
After a week looking at retractions and getting thoroughly depressed, let’s lighten the mood a bit. I received (as a joke, I should add) someone’s bio in haiku form–my own fault, I asked for “a brief CV”–last week: I sit on my butt Hiding from controversy Dispensing wisdom Yeah, he’s in admin now. Can you…
How’s this for a demonstration of how science builds in incremental steps, on the efforts of others? And, sadly, how cracks in the foundation have effects further up in the edifice. In 2005, the laboratories of Fred Ausubel and Jorge Vivanco, at Harvard and Colorado State University respectively, published a paper in Nature, Mediation of…
