was die Welt zusammen hält… Continue reading Collegium logicum
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Sei doch in sich selbst vergnügt
Reading what FAZ’ Frank Schirrmacher writes in his new book about loosing control over his brain “Mein Kopf kommt nicht mehr mit” (“My head lost me”) Continue reading Sei doch in sich selbst vergnügt
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Lets not call it “gene-environment-interaction” anymore
(reminescence)
Gene-environment-interaction is a large bubble in complex disease research area with a label that is itself questionable. Genes do not interact with the environment (or only indirectly); the environment does not interact with genes (situations like epigenetic modification or induction of mutations are at least not meant here).
What is being meant by “gene-environment-interaction”, could be described as “genetically conditioned environmental influence” (GCEI) but not as GxE interaction… BTW is there any online list of GCEIs?
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Allergy prevention – the European guidelines
Here is an ad for our new paper on infant feeding and allergy prevention
… although all authorities agree that breast milk is the food of choice for infants, the evidence that it prevents allergic outcomes is contradictory, with different studies showing, protection, no effect and even increased risk…
… due to inconsistency of findings, there is no clear-cut evidence that the early use of cow’s milk hydrolysate exerts a preventive effect Continue reading Allergy prevention – the European guidelines
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
In response to overexaggerated predictions
Hirschhorn writes in the N Engl J Med 360;17 April 23, 2009:
In response to the skeptics, I offer a new bet. I predict that by the 2012 ASHG meeting, genome-wide association studies will have yielded important new biologic insights for at least four common
diseases Continue reading In response to overexaggerated predictions
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Born to run
There was a news item in the Jan issue of NGR
Born to run? A DNA test to identify future sports stars. The latest personal DNA test to hit the US market, from Atlas Sports Genetics in Colorado, promises to “determine if a child would be best at speed and power sports such as football or sprinting, or endurance sports such as runningâ€
What a nonsense! It would be even deleterious if anybody would be influenced by any genetic test to decide on physical fitness.
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Consort study diagrams available with Omnigraffle
The title says it all – the link goes to to the add-ons page, a very handy template Continue reading Consort study diagrams available with Omnigraffle
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Justice for Alan Turing
Petitions #10 has the full details:
2009 has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before … we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing … Continue reading Justice for Alan Turing
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
First major publisher releases article metrics
From a press release
Today, the open-access publisher the Public Library of Science (PLoS; www.plos.org), announces the release of an expanded set of article-level metrics Continue reading First major publisher releases article metrics
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
How to cheat with timesheet
Overfunding of research seems to be a largely neglected area. Getting money twice for the same project (or doing something different than being in the application) seems to be the “creative” Continue reading How to cheat with timesheet
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Helicopter
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
A useful FF search add-on
A very useful Firefox add-on is the Search Bar Plugin which allows any given search field on any given website to be moved to Continue reading A useful FF search add-on
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
So few retractions
NG has a remarkable retraction – one of the few that are ever published which is a fact that that may otherwise rise severe doubts Continue reading So few retractions
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
We feel good
If you are writing some kind of online diary your mood is already surveilled by wefeelfine.
However, if you are an allergic patient, you may be interested in a new project of the German Pollenstiftung that runs an online pollen diary. We have pollen counts for a long time but we do not know so much about thresholds and individual variation.
Continue reading We feel good
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026
Thunderbird 3 – finally with tabs
As I could now get an update for my quicktext plugin, I finally switched to Thunderbird 3. I like the new clean interface and the immediate access to many folders.
The only question that I have – is there any way to force the “new email window” into a tab?
CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 06.04.2026