apalazzo | June 14, 2006(via The Scientific Activist, Evolving Thoughts)
First came PLoS, then PLoS ONE, now PLoS blogs
A blog? Here's their mission:
... to give an insider's view of the latest developments at PLoS. To keep it simple, we've divided the content into two tracks:
Publishing
Enter a discussion of our latest e-publishing initiatives.
Technology
Enter a debate surrounding our new open access 2.0 platform.
Here is an exerpt from one of the first entries:
This is the first post from me on the PLoS Blog. My name is Liz and you can check out my background here.
While preparing to launch this project, a…
apalazzo | June 14, 2006Part of the problem with Science is the verification process. From the outside looking in, you may guess that there is a quick and easy solution ... data should be reproduced by others. In the end scientists should be concerned with the facts.
Alejandro Rivero comments on my entry on being scooped:
What do you mean by "Being scooped"? If the paper that comes out coincides with your research, that is good, shouldn't it be?. If it proofs that your research line is a failure, then really your work has been useless.
In response to my entry on Nature's new and experimental Peer review system,…
apalazzo | June 13, 2006OK time for an irreverent answer to Scienceblog's question of the week.
If I had infinite time and money I would like to figure out HOW TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF HOURS IN A DAY.
Between work, the World Cup, eating and sleeping I have simply have no time to read the literature (scientific and non-scientific). I must admit that I did find time to work on my banners ... however my blogroll is still way out of date.
So as a result I think the # of posts over the next month will drop ...
So be it. Forza L'Italia.
apalazzo | June 11, 2006OK still fiddling away with the banners.
Here are the two latest ones:
I've distributed the banners among the various sections (Latest Post, Individual Entries ...) I've also been advised that if I choose to have multiple banners, I should "stick to a single font". Courier New seems appropriate (if you don't know why, you've obviously not used much of NCBI's site).
apalazzo | June 11, 2006I'm here at the lab. Watching the World Cup. Digesting DNA. Subclonning. And splicing in some new banners.
Here are a couple of models:
What do you think?
apalazzo | June 10, 2006With regards to the World Cup, the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO has asked the question, "which team is our 'economic favourite', that is, the country which should become world champion in order to maximise the impact on the world economy."
Say what?
Yes they released a report on this very important issue.
So why do we do this?
Leaving aside the fact that many economists who are also soccer fans will use any excuse to bring soccer into their work, we are convinced that soccer has an impact on the economy and therefore justifies some research effort.
So ... the goal is to help the world economy. And…
apalazzo | June 9, 2006Back in the fall of 2004, I submitted a prediction to TimeLine+25, a web based "cultural experiment" where random individuals were asked to predict near future events.
Here was my entry for the year 2025:
Plastic eating bacteria
Novel forms of bacteria which subsist solely on various forms of plastic come to life. Plastic around the world starts to decompose. Although plastic from garbage dumps "becomes" biodegradable, computers, airplane parts, CDs, DVDs and many everyday items start to rot. Panic sets in across the industrialized world.
OK so I was off by 19 years ... and I thought that…
apalazzo | June 8, 2006Brain drain, brain sucking ... whatever. Here is my take on this:
Right now you are better off in the US than abroad. Even with the terrible visa policies here in the US. (For your info, I'm Canadian.)
Anyway ... all I know is that there are many non-Americans around our department and this week the #1 topic of discussion is the upcoming World Cup. In the Longwood Medical Area (Harvard Medical School, Boston) there will be at least two spots that plan to show almost every game (contact me if you would like to know where the viewing areas are located). In addition, the games will be shown…
apalazzo | June 8, 2006I was alerted to the fact that strange things are happening at Nature Magazine.
From the Nature website:
Peer review is the bedrock of scientific publication (for Nature's position on peer review, see our Guide to Authors). It is widely considered essential for improving submitted papers and enhancing the credentials of scientists as well as those of the journals in which they choose to publish.
But, like any process, peer review requires occasional scrutiny and assessement. Has the Internet bought new opportunities for journals to manage peer review more imaginatively or by different means…
apalazzo | June 7, 2006Last night we were invited to celebrate the launching of Nature Publishing Group's Network Boston at the Museum of Science here in Boston.
What, you may ask, is Network Boston? It was described as a new digital community center for scientists in the Boston/Cambridge area. Another description would be the academic version of myspace. If all goes well other network sites will open in the near future.
Scientists can post their profile (photo, interests, publications etc. click here to see mine), form community groups (such as an RNAi discussion group), look for jobs in academia and industry (…
apalazzo | June 6, 2006OK here is a myth that I'd like to explode (or at least be provocative about). Technology is NOT inevitable.
Say what?
We humans think that technology increases steadily. With every space shuttle and iPod, humanity advances by one small step. Sort of like that image of the ape walking more and more upright
... yeah that one. But the steady progress of technology is a myth.
Then how does it advance? Punctuated equilibrium? Not really. Humans are adept at finding tricks and shortcuts. We're natural-born cheaters.
There I've said it.
All of our technologies are exactly that. Tricks. Brute…
apalazzo | June 5, 2006There's a giant crater underneath Antartica! The collision that caused it may have also precipitated the Permian-Triassic extinction ... or perhaps not.
Can't get to the overloaded Knox homepage to read the Colbert Commencement speech? Well then click here.
MIT Cosmologist vs. Mus musculus. From Max Tegmark's homepage:
According to the authoritative text on the subject, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, humans are the 3rd most intelligent species on Earth, superceded not only by dolphins but also by mice. This page provides evidence supporting that hypothesis, although it can be debated…
apalazzo | June 2, 2006I just got this email from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Editorial Cartoon Contest Will Draw Attention to the Misuse and Abuse of Science
Top Cartoonists Will Judge Amateur, Professional Talent in "Science Idol"
WASHINGTON, DC - Teaming up with leading editorial and strip cartoonists, the
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today announced an editorial cartoon contest
to draw attention to political interference in science. Science Idol: the
Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest will bring together aspiring
cartoonists to compete to win a number of prizes, including an all-…
apalazzo | June 2, 2006Summers and the Allston expansion. Latest stats on gender and higher education. And free books! Ladies and Gentlemen start your hard drives. (all quotes+links below the fold)
From today's Boston Globe:
As Harvard University searches for a new leader, questions loom over its last president's most ambitious project: turning America's oldest university into the nation's hub for life sciences.
During his 5-year tenure as the university's president, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers worked to put Harvard at the forefront of research on how the human cell works, a question the school'…
apalazzo | June 2, 2006Well I've been engrossed in reading books on happiness, now apparently Bob McDonald from CBC's Quirks & Quarks interviews leading researchers in the field, including Dan Gilbert. (from Daily Zeitgeist)
Previously:Last happiness entry.NY Times review of Stumbling On Happiness.Dan Gilbert on Belief and Proof.Notes from a Seed Dinner (attended by Dan Gilbert). + photos on Stochastic.
apalazzo | June 1, 2006Recently I've written a couple of entries on Journals and open access. In the latest WIRED, there's a good article on Harold Varmus, and his quest to shake up the biomedical journals.
From the article:
Varmus is the most visible character in the movement to free the scientific world of its figurative corks: scholarly journals that restrict the flow of information by charging often hefty subscription prices for access to their content.
...
He calmly lays out his campaign. For centuries, journals have been the means both of disseminating scientific knowledge and building scientific careers.…
apalazzo | May 31, 2006This week:
Since they're funded by taxpayer dollars (through the NIH, NSF, and so on), should scientists have to justify their research agendas to the public, rather than just grant-making bodies?
Yes, yes, and yes.
But if the public does not agree? Then the blame rests on our scientific leaders. They should be out there in the spot light, educating the populace as to why this research is important. If the public does not want to fund this research, then the scientific establishment has failed in educating the public on the benefits and importance of basic research.
Part of the reason for…
apalazzo | May 31, 2006The nuclear membrane separates the nuclear space from the cytoplasm. This barrier is comprised of two membranes (Inner and Outer Nuclear Membrane) that are continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum. To cross the double membrane, molecules traverse the nuclear pore complex (NPC), a giant macromolecular complex that has an eight-fold symmetry and weighs over 100MDa. To date, only two components of the NPC have been identified: gp210 and Pom120. Interestingly many cells only express one of these proteins. Well it seems like Dirk Gorlich's group have been able to knock out BOTH genes from Hela…
apalazzo | May 30, 2006I haven't been blogging that much recently ... well to be honest I've had too much work to do.
But as time goes on my ability to cope with the rich experience of daily lab life requires me to rant every so often. So here is today's rant.
There are two approaches to small biology, studying molecules and studying processes. Stay away from the molecule-centric approach!
What do I mean by that?
An easy trap for biologists to fall into is to latch on to their favorite protein and attempt to explain how it functions within the context of a cell. This methodology can sometimes lead to advances,…