Allergy, Vitamins

The 5 most important papers on vitamin D and respiratory infections in asthma

Ginde AA et al., Vitamin D, respiratory infections, and asthma, Current Allergy and Asthma Reports 2009:

Substantial evidence now indicates that vitamin D may enhance the innate immune response and protect against respiratory infection. The human cathelicidin hCAP- 18 appears to have a particularly important role in the vitamin D–mediated mechanism against infection. Additionally, early evidence suggests that vitamin D modulates regulatory T-cell activity and IL-10 production, which are critical to the Th1–Th2 balance. These findings may be particularly important in the pathogenesis, control, and severity of asthma. However, Continue reading The 5 most important papers on vitamin D and respiratory infections in asthma →

 

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Joke

Stultitia loquitur

Having seen so nice pictures of Erasmus this week at “Dürer, Cranach, Holbein, Die Entdeckung des Menschen: Das deutsche Portrait um 1500” I had to look his famous quote

Utcumque de me vulgo mortales loquuntur – neque enim sum nescia, quam male audiatur STVLTITIA etiam apud stultissimos – tamen hanc esse, hanc, inquam, esse unam, quae meo numine Deos atque homines exhilaro. Vel illud abunde magnum est argumentum, quod simulatque in hunc coetum frequentissimum dictura prodii, sic repente omnium vultus nova quadam atque insolita hilaritate enituerunt: Sic subito frontem exporrexistis, sic laeto quodam et amabili applausistis risu, ut mihi profecto – quotquot undique praesentes intueor – pariter deorum Homericorum nectare non sine νεπενθη temulenti esse videamini, cum antehac tristes ac solliciti sederitis.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 11.04.2026
Software

Sync Lion desktop via iCloud

While all that sync’ing works quite well, I still have different desktops on my MacBooks.
Here is a solution that is based on some undocumented feature of the iCloud that I have found at macstories.net. It basically needs to activate the iCloud settings also for files which will give you in Lion access to a magic 5 GB ~/Library/Mobile Document folder very much alike to Dropbox.
I am rsyncing here now my Desktop folder by an automator action as described at banana.com. Can be done in less than 5 minutes…

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 11.04.2026
Philosophy

Crossmarks

Papers are not sacred – this what I have been advocating even after having personal distress after commenting on a PLoS ONE paper. Nevertheless, the new Nature editorial supports my view

What is needed, instead, is a system of publication that is more meritocratic in its evaluation of performance and productivity in the sciences. It should expand the record of a scientific study past an individual paper, including additional material such as worthy blog posts about the results, media coverage and the number of times that the paper has been downloaded.

where Crossmark may jump in Continue reading Crossmarks →

 

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Philosophy, Software

Infinite stupidity?

This is a new Edge conversation with Mark D Pagel.

A tiny number of ideas can go a long way, as we’ve seen. And the Internet makes that more and more likely. What’s happening is that we might, in fact, be at a time in our history where we’re being domesticated by these great big societal things, such as Facebook and the Internet. We’re being domesticated by them, because fewer and fewer and fewer of us have to be innovators to get by. Continue reading Infinite stupidity? →

 

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Vitamins

Deadly vitamin D

A German newspaper ( Ärztezeitung ) reports that vitamin D deficiency apparently increases all-time death rate.

Ein Mangel an Vitamin D erhöht offenbar die Sterberate.
Eine Studie in den USA hat ergeben, dass 70 Prozent der knapp 11.000 untersuchten Erwachsenen einen Vitamin-D-Mangel hatten.
Das Sterberisiko war in dieser Gruppe dreimal so hoch wie bei Personen ohne einen Mangel an dem Sonnenvitamin.

Looking at the original paper it appears Continue reading Deadly vitamin D →

 

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Philosophy

The lying Dutchman

Another series of faked studies are reported by washingtonpost

“Many of Stapel’s students graduated without having ever run an experiment, the report says. Stapel told them that their time was better spent analyzing data and writing. The commission writes that Stapel was ’lord of the data’ in his collaborations. It says colleagues or students who asked to see raw data were given excuses or even threatened and insulted.”

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 11.04.2026
Philosophy

Make hypotheses!

The main challenge for bioinformatics is certainly not to stop at the description of all these nice networks and pathways but to develop hypotheses that add to our understanding (and that may be tested further). So, I am a little bit late to say that I liked the presentation of Sascha Sauer ( MPG Berlin ) at a meeting Paris at May 31, 2011 on genomic epidemiology using the title “Make hypotheses”. Continue reading Make hypotheses! →

 

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Genetics, Philosophy

Too much to read too little time

I didn’t find so much time to update the blog during the past few months – there are too many attractions out there, and so many interesting things to do. The never ending problem is that there is too much to read and too little time. This is, however, what also other people find, for example genomeweb.com

Pedro Beltrao at the Public Rambling blog says there never seems to be enough time to keep up with all the literature researchers keep churning out. In 2009, 848,865 papers were added to PubMed, he says — that’s something like 1.6 papers per minute. While there’s definitely no scarcity of outlets to publish, is anyone even paying attention?

Or the Latest Everything blog

From a half-forgotten Einstein quote to the complete works of J. S. Bach, everything is instantly available. But what can we really do with it all? A HALF-CENTURY ago Marshall McLuhan wrote: “We are today as far into the electric age as the Elizabethans had advanced into the typographical and mechanical age. And we are experiencing the same confusions and indecisions which they had felt when living simultaneously in two contrasted forms of society and experience.”

who republishes theNew Scientist article (04 April 2011) pp. 1-3 in Surfing the data flood: Continue reading Too much to read too little time →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 11.04.2026