In a New Yorker article published last month and recently evaluated by F1000, Jonah Lehrer describes an effect that has plagued a variety of scientific disciplines: The more times researchers try to replicate a given result, the less robust the effect. The phenomenon draws into question not only the dwindling findings themselves, but the scientific…
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead There comes a time when you have to say, “Enough.” Draw a line in the sand—this far, and no further. To stand up for what you hold dear. That’s all…
Adult lemurs appear to play as a way of breaking the ice with males not a part of the established social group, according to a recent study published in PLoS ONE. Observing wild populations of lemurs, sociobiologist Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa in Italy and her colleagues found that males tended to play…
Martin Fenner at PLoS Blogs wrote an open letter in response to Christian Specht’s analysis of “mutations” in citations of the famous paper describing SDS-PAGE by Uli Laemmli. Specht has now responded at The Scientist, with a thought-provoking conclusion: However, the fact that citation variants can be inherited may be an indication for a much…
Roger Pertwee is one of our newer Faculty Members, in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery. Back in March he reviewed a paper that showed a non-psychoactive (where’s the fun in that?) component of cannabis can reduce metastasis by inhibiting the activity of a matrix metalloproteinase (free link). He’s now been quoted in the Daily Telegraph as…
If I were a visitor from another world, what would be my impression of how we do science? First the good news. As we noted yesterday, the number of PhDs achieved by women in the US, across all disciplines, exceeded the number obtained for men. The distribution is reasonably field specific, as you can tell…
Last year marked the first year that more women than men finished their doctoral degrees in the United States, according to The Washington Post. It’s a trend that’s been changing for decades, with the proportion of women rising throughout the educational sphere. Indeed, women already had a 3-to-2 majority at the undergraduate and graduate levels.…
Following on from saying how great Flickr is for when your hard drive fails, we’re wondering how you use social media. Please check all that you use ‘frequently’, say more than a few times a month. [poll id=”8″]
One of the things I love about the iPhone is its ability to render any website as if on a desk/lap top computer. When I was responsible for the F1000 website, I was terribly pleased that the new designs just worked (and they still do. I’ll soon be able to give you some good news…
It is no secret I love my iPhone. As a telephony device (in which I include text messages as well as voice) it is very nice indeed, but its real strength, for me, lies in its internet connectivity. Oh, and location services: the most used apps on my iPhone are Mail, Safari and Maps. I…
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