Last summer, as part of the Royal Society’s 350th Anniversary celebrations, I took part in a panel discussion on the history of science conversation. Afterwards, a chap by the name of Patrick Morris came up to me to talk about a play about Isaac Newton.
Perhaps the most distinctive and powerful thing about Science is its tendency, or rather proclivity to ask searching, even uncomfortable questions. And unlike belief systems, or ideological and political and movements, or pseudoscience, it asks those questions of itself. There’s been a fair bit of that going on recently.
The question in the title was prompted by a comment I received on a previous Naturally Selected blog post about the three deadly sins of grant writing. The commenter chose to pick on my grammar in the post, insinuating that because, in her opinion the post exhibited poor grammar, I wasn’t to be listened to.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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