A report in Biospektrum 07.07/13:762 about the production of endotoxin free ovalbumin by a German company now reveals that nearly all commercially available ovalbumin preparations are highly contaminated with endotoxin. Company A included 723, company B 1038, company C 257 and company D 342 EU/mg LPS. As all mice are usually also on a vitamin D supplement diet, recent mouse studies may have produced largely artifacts if both – agonist and antagonist – are included in an uncontrolled manner, yea, yea.
Bias against negative studies
We probably all agree that a publication bias against negative studies will severely distorts our opinion. To repeat an earlier Nature letter
Why negatives should be viewed as positives … This filtering of results undoubtedly biases the information available to scientists (see, for example “Null and void” Nature 422, 554–555; 2003). And communication is at the heart of science.
Here is an email that I received from the editor Continue reading Bias against negative studies
Yes, it is true and and quite right too
Science reports that the NEJM is being sued by Pfizer
in various jurisdictions on product liability grounds. Plaintiffs are claiming that its products Celebrex and Bextra cause cardiovascular and other injuries. Pfizer asserts that in some cases plaintiffs are making use of published papers from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). So it wants to dig though the confidential reviews of those papers in search of something to strengthen its defense.
Two giants fighting each other… Continue reading Yes, it is true and and quite right too
Phantastic, the peer-review system is broken
A comment on the online Nature website says it all
Phantastic. Moreover, the peer-review system is broken with top PI’s getting away with publishing high impact poorly reviewed rubbish. If more non-peer-reviewed research becomes more prominent it will hardly make a difference to quality and can overall only be a good thing.
commenting on the recent decision at Harvard to automatically publish all papers by its Faculty of Arts and Sciences on the university’s website (except there is a waiver). I am waiting for the first German university to follow; effectively since January 2008 we get all our ordered documents on paper again for copyright reasons.
SuperSAGE plus highly parallel sequencing
Current RNA chip technology, although quite advanced, is usually limited to known transcripts. As rare transcripts (N=1 to 5) usually cannot be quantified, current chip technology is probably useless for building realistic virtual cells. Maybe there are there are other options? SAGE – serial analysis of gene expression – has been also around Continue reading SuperSAGE plus highly parallel sequencing
Un altro giro di giostra
This is the book that I am currently reading – a monologue of the world famous journalist Tiziano Terzani – who describes at the end of his life his view of the “scientific” medical approach at MSKCC, the achievements but also shortcomings. “Un altro giro di giostra”.
Blue eyes
A nice study in Hum Genet by Eiberg hit the public press (and the blogosphere 1|2). Although I agree with most commentators that this is a sound study with a bit antiquity dust in the methods, I am unsure if I should believe the main conclusion of a founder mutation Continue reading Blue eyes
Parascience in nature medicine?
I wonder about the title of a new nature medicine editorial
Breathing easier with breast milk
It is not so much the unwanted analogy to aspiration; the paper simply hasn´t to do anything with breathing. It is a poor narrative of a concomittant NM article repeating many of its prejudices. Although the authors would like to let you belief that they have discovered allergen transfer into breast milk, this is known Continue reading Parascience in nature medicine?
Watermarking microscopic photos with your iris data
… or your gel scans with fingerprints seem to be the only secure way to prevent later photoshopping. Engadget has all the details of a new Canon patent, yea, yea.
Unnecessarily disruptive
“Positively disruptive” – a new nature genetics editorial – makes a U turn of the opinion voiced only two months earlier – having at that time cautioned users of new consumer genomics services. The current editorial now reads like an advertisement for deCODEme or Navigenics. Continue reading Unnecessarily disruptive
Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind?
While Nature magazine is preparing something about Darwin’s enduring legacy here is a piece from Darwin’s own writings
doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?
which can be found in Continue reading Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind?
I am number eight
The trouble with coauthors, a wonder poem
I am not sure exactly
how I came to be where I am,
number eight among eleven authors…
The full text is at the link above, yea, yea.
CD1 to CD350
I had to g..gle several times to find a comprehensive list of CD marker. Yes – I could buy this book, retrieve this paper or surf to this web site but I simply need a quick reference for all CD classes. A student here helped me – go for the (printed) Biologends catalogue. Nice to know that Invitrogen has a free online book, yea, yea.
Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange
This Byron quotation is taken from the foreword of Selye “Calciphylaxis” 1962 and may help to introduce the followup story on the question who described for the first time vitamin D as cofactor in the allergic sensitization process. Continue reading Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange
When science fails
Science fails if there is no gain in knowledge. At least in my research field the majority of papers does not provide any significant new knowledge leading even to the incredible notion “Beam me up”. Paper output is reaching an all time height as reported in a recent Nature commentary [1, 2]. Continue reading When science fails