Mentioned in Despatches

After F1000 Posters, our next best-kept secret is F1000 Reports. F1000 Section Heads select the topics, as well as authors who can summarize and put into context recent developments and emerging themes in biology and medicine. The Reports are relatively short, peer-reviewed and adapted versions are featured in The Scientist magazine—oh, and they’re available in…

How many leucines?

Removal of neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft is accomplished by a class of transporter called Neurotransmitter/sodium symporters (NSSs). These couple the uptake of neurotransmitter (including dopamine, GABA, serotonin, noradrenaline) with sodium ions. They’re the target of pharmaceutical interventions, particularly antidepressants (serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, collectively SNRIs), as well as being behind the basis of…

News in a nutshell

This week’s news includes further retractions from a troubled German lab, accusations of fraud at a major funder of global health initiatives, the publication of new guidelines on how to collaborate in stem cell research, a harrowing tale of bravery from a California pharmaceutical plant, the discovery of adult kidney stem cells, and a new…

Not your Mercator's projection

Europe in collaborations

We like network maps. We’ve done them before. Via Mun-Keat at the Wellcome Trust, I came across an intriguing map of scientific collaborations, created by Olivier H. Beauchesne, from lists of co-authors in Elsevier journals. Essentially, each time authors from different cities appear on the same paper, a line connecting those cities appears on the…

Slimy farmers

From the Department of Hot Damn, But That’s Cool: Primitive agriculture in a social amoeba, DOI: 10.1038/nature09668. We humans think we’re so clever, with our hunting, gathering and intensive farming of potatoes for vodka. But the cell biologist’s favourite model, the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum, has got us beat. This little critter (which, in case…

The alternative to warfarin: how much to prescribe

One of our highest ranked papers discusses a randomized trial looking at a long-sought after orally administered substitute for warfarin in reducing the risk of embolic events in cases of atrial fibrillation. The paper, which finds dabigatran to be a promising alternative (warfarin is extremely good, but has a narrow therapeutic range and is cumbersome…

Bruce McEwen

We’re pleased to welcome Bruce McEwen as joint Head of Physiology. Bruce joins Allen Cowley and Denis Noble, and we look forward to his continued work on behalf of Faculty of 1000.

News in a nutshell

This week’s news includes an ongoing debate about cholera vaccination in Haiti, two misconduct updates, the loss of a stem cell pioneer, a possible new test for Alzheimer’s disease, a new report on treating genetic disorders in utero, and a peculiar marine mammal meal.

Memory, Sex and Stroke—2010 in review

As New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside and 2010 begins to feel like a distant memory we take a look at the F1000 Posters Editor’s choice selection of the top three posters to grace the F1000 Posters site last year. Novel mechanism for long-term memory?

Tick tock

This probably wouldn’t work all that well as a lab timer, but it is a gorgeous piece of art: Every second runs round the dial This is a true mechanical clock. There’s a good description of the chronophage—visuals showing the levers of the escapement, and the vernier slit and lens system that actually displays the…