A long time ago, when the world was young, I had a polio vaccination. It came as a purply liquid, soaked into a sugar cube. Being of a very tender age, I extrapolated from this and it came as a great shock when I had a booster for something else and got a hypodermic needle…
This week’s news includes a report that two American university campuses in Tokyo remain closed today after last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, a study that suggests a role for gut bacteria in the health of starving children, two new peer-reviewed journals, a ruling from the European Court of Justice that procedures involving human embryonic…
Determining the structures of neurotransmitter transporters is not only technically difficult (integral membrane proteins are notoriously recalcitrant subjects), but also the subject of much controversy. Knowledge of structure is essential to understanding mechanism, which can of course lead to more rational therapeutic design. Neurotransmitter transporters are important for the re-uptake of neurotransmitters after synapse firing:…
It might seem strange to run a series called ‘The Art of Oncology‘, especially if you’re the Journal of Clinical Oncology. But this is what they have: fairly short articles, written by oncologists, talking about the experiences and the humanity of cancer specialists.
Much as I often begin blog posts by staring wistfully at a blank word document for 10 minutes, I’m sure many of you are no stranger to musing over a clean white PowerPoint presentation (if that’s that your software of choice), hoping that a concise and graphically beautiful poster may magically appear. Alas, failing a…
Via a tweet from Chris Surridge (Chief Editor and Associate Publisher, Nature Protocols) I found Richard Poynder‘s potted history of PLoS ONE. Fair warning though: that link goes to a short teaser; the full, 42-page analysis is available as a PDF. So no, I haven’t read it all.
This week’s news includes some updates from old misconduct cases, a scientist’s harrowing tale from Libya, protocells that trick viruses into their own demise, an endangered marine archive, and a new iPad app that lets researchers move molecules. Some fraud updates Immunlogist Luk van Parijs, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who was fired…
The British Heart Foundation funds basic research into coronary and circulatory diseases. They’ve recently launched a campaign to “Mend Broken Hearts“, with the aim of raising £50 million over the next ten years. This money, which is in addition to the ~£70 million the BHF spends on research each year, is going to be devoted…
The Wellcome Trust gives around £700 million to research each year. Naturally, the Trust wants to know where this money is going, and how well it’s being spent. This involves contextualizing Wellcome-funded research, and they’ve just published a fascinating timeline (see below) of research in (human) genetics, starting with Darwin and Mendel, noting the publication…
“We are all individuals!” chants the group, repeating after Brian. “I’m not!” says a guy, jumping up and down and waving his hands above his head. —the effects of groupthink distilled into a hilarious 30 second scene from Monty Python. We all, to a lesser or greater extent, buy into groupthink. If we didn’t, we’d…
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