Only 38% voted in the DFG election
Zur Fachkollegienwahl waren mehr als 110.000 Wissenschaftler aufgerufen. Sie konnten vom 7. November bis zum 5. Dezember 2011 in einer der weltweit größten Online-Wahlen über die Besetzung der Fachkollegien für die Amtsperiode von 2012 bis 2015 entscheiden. Rund 38,2 Prozent der Wahlberechtigten nutzten ihr Stimmrecht.
just a link today Continue reading The psychology behind exaggerated research
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
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.
asks a second-hand report in Nature” last week citing an earlier PNAS study Continue reading Who needs a leader?
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…
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
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?
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
(Blanche DuBois, played by Vivien Leigh in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, 1951). And science even more depends on the ingenuity of others – maybe another reason why all these impact and best cited counters should be a thing of the past.
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.”
Sorry for this little advertisement of the Bullitt here but it really deserves some attention as well as my friends at Tiramizoo.