Lord Lichfield One of the great things about doing science, especially if you’re lucky enough to be a cell or structural biologist, is just how gosh-darned pretty it can be. Sometimes, crouched over a microscope or synchrotron hutch late at night (or very early in the morning, with the latter), the sheer prettiness of what…
Just a reminder that I’ve extended the deadline for our twitter #scifubar competition until Monday. Post your most embarrassing scientific error or egregious lab-based manipulation to Twitter with the #scifubar hashtag. If you’re too shy to ‘fess up, pretend it was your labmate… The winner gets a bag of F1000 swag, including the much-coveted laser-stylus-pen-torch…
You turn me right round As an undergraduate, I remember being fascinated by the family of rotary motors that is the proton-translocating ATPase. This is the protein complex, resembling something from the imagination of E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith rather than anything merely biological, that either pumps protons from one side of a membrane to another,…
The media faces constant criticism from medical specialists and advocacy groups whenever it trumpets the latest new wonder drug to cure any form of cancer. Many spurious claims have over the years been splashed across the UK Daily Mail’s front page, prompting backlash from organisations such as the National Health Service, Cancer Research UK and…
As anyone who has worked in a lab will tell you, labcoats are a complete pain in the Gilson until the day they save your Armani suit from being dosed with TEMED, E. coli or radioactivity (and in extreme cases, all three). Invariably made from cheap polycotton with fasteners that don’t and sleeves that dangle…
As anyone who has worked in a lab will tell you, labcoats are a complete pain in the Gilson until the day they save your Armani suit from being dosed with TEMED, E. coli or radioactivity (and in extreme cases, all three). Invariably made from cheap polycotton with fasteners that don’t and sleeves that dangle…
It is well known that the average physician in training will be expected to work more than a few 24 hour shifts during their training. It is also well known that sleep deprivation affects performance (how much? Now that’s the real question, but I digress). I read a paper, evaluated by Faculty of 1000 member…
It’s all in the mind Neuroscience is a fascinating subject, and not just because our friend Robert Sapolsky is a Faculty Member. Neuroscience (at least at F1000) covers a spectrum of subjects and disciplines, from the molecular basis of odour discrimination, through neural processing in the retina all the way up to anticipation of rewards…
Sometimes there’s a real life-changing thrust to blog posts, that drives at the heart of a pivotal issue in modern society and make people question their motives, passions, opinions or even educational goals. But seeing as we’re all coming down off a post-Oscars high, let me preempt your own judgement by rating this one as…
A few weeks ago I went to the Faraday Prize Lecture at the Royal Society. The lecture, The secret mathematicians, was given by the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy. Du Sautoy talked about five artists, how they were inspired by mathematics, and how their art tells us things…
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