The ever proliferating number of review requests comes like a denial of service attack – just like hacking attacks to high-profile web servers.
Best of all – however – it is a self limiting process. There is no more editor on the phone Continue reading A denial of service attack
Thunderbird security improved
A new plugin lets you immediately verify the sender by comparing the From: line and sending IP of emails against the published Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DNS-based reputation lists. Verifying addresses Continue reading Thunderbird security improved
Avoid boring people
I have always been amused by the fact being listed at the HUGO meetings immediately after a Nobel winner as WJ–ST follows WA–TSON. Not so amused by his many ignorant, Continue reading Avoid boring people
First individual human genome
courtesy of Craig Venter – whom else? It is also one half of the genome of his only son (the individual denoted 3.5 Continue reading First individual human genome
And now all together
A quick update of my DNA pooling studies: The Affymetrix Genotyping Console 1.0 now includes a parameter CONTRAST Continue reading And now all together
A excellent explanation why we get cancer at an advanced age
Embedded in the tragic history of Henrietta Lacks – a 31 old mother of five small children – the authors of a new Nature review show how closely both processes are being related. The main culprit seems to be genomic instability as shown by loss of heterozygosity. What has been particular new to me were the cross links to autophagy – the waste management of the cell that came into focus only recently in Crohns disease. Yea, yea.
Don’t let them hear you typing
Yes, some scientists can think and write pretty fast while others are much slower. Software created for the Dark Web Project of the Artifical Intelligence Lab U Arizona can measure that and identify an author by Continue reading Don’t let them hear you typing
Peer to peer publication
Although not so much appreciated by big companies, peer to peer technologies have a great success in sharing communities. Peer to peer might even work with mobile phones in Africa as shown recently by a Swedish company.
I wonder if peer to peer would also work. Continue reading Peer to peer publication
Obituary of a parrot
Edge has an obituary of Alex, the worlds most famous talking bird.
What the data suggest to me is that if one starts with a brain of a certain complexity and gives it enough social and ecological support, that brain will develop at least the building blocks of a complex communication system.
More on paranormal inheritance of allergy
This note should probably start with a smile ;-) as you may already know about my interest in parthogenesis, microchimerism, siRNA transmission and other epigenetic wonders. We already know about preferential transmission of allergy by the allergic mother Continue reading More on paranormal inheritance of allergy
Genetic databases – the tragedy continues
A new review paper about online genetic databases nicely summarizes the current state of the art (including my own efforts). There are only 13 databases Continue reading Genetic databases – the tragedy continues
Accidentally deleted files
Only a couple of years ago, you could edit your file allocation table and replace all these fancy question marks in ?ecret.doc to undelete your files.
While importing now my holiday pictures from a SD card to Picasa 2, I accidentally Continue reading Accidentally deleted files
Repetitio est mater studiorum
but repeats in the human genome are not such impressive. Instead they create a lot of trouble when situated in the close proximity to genes. Think of Huntingtons disease, myotonic dystrophy, fragile X or some ataxias. The human genome sequence paper already had a chapter Continue reading Repetitio est mater studiorum
Geotagging: Fast lane from JPG & NMEA to KMZ
Have you ever ever wondered how these nice photo tracks in Google Earth work?
After spending hours of try & error, here is my recommendation if you can record NMEA stream on your GPS device and JPG on your camera. No hacking, no conversion, no scripts, just a quick & intuitive way by freely available software.
Adjust your camera & GPS to be absolutely synchronous. After data recording copy all your files into a single directory and let Locr GPS Photo propose a GPS position for all photos. Correct positions in the map window if necessary.
Then fire up COPIKS Photo Mapper, load photos plus track and export all together as a KMZ file.
Living on borrowed time
An excellent new review summarizes our current knowledge about telomeres – the complicated chromosome end machinery that is necessary to prevent unwanted repair while allowing to track for the number of replications. Think of it like a source code control system as CVS, the Concurrent Version System. During a recent research project on life cycle of single point mutations / SNPs I realized Continue reading Living on borrowed time