The Lucifer effect

I am currently reading “The Lucifer effect” by Philipp Zimbardo. Having seen many terrible things like a woman killed by more than 30 stabs with knife I know that theodicy is the main problem in theology – when the bad “situational power triumphs over individual power”. Zimbardo examines the process of transformation when good or ordinary people do bad or evil things Continue reading The Lucifer effect

First journal that allows trackbacks

There are great news – PLOS ONE now allows trackbacks that will show up close to the original article. Hopefully, this new feature will be extensively used. As Jim Giles speculated last year only the most successful researchers are confident enough to criticize others in this public way…

A short history of steamed cod liver oil

First use of liver cod oil probably originates with the fishing communities of Norway, Greenland and Iceland several centuries ago – an excellent reference is at “Cod liver oil and chemistry” 1895 by Peckel Möller. This book has a nice account on fishing at the Lofotes around the turn of the last century with many details about the cod fish migration.
The first medical use is being dated to 1789 Continue reading A short history of steamed cod liver oil

Transrapid

We have a heated debate here in Munich about the Transrapid, a magnetic monorail system that could connect Munich central station & Munich airport. It is being announced as a technical innvation reducing travel time form ~30 min down to ~5 min, however, as I would have to change trains, it wouldn´t save me anything. Instead of using it as a technical showcase – the estimated budget is ~1.8 billion € – I would certainly vote for our tax money go directly into science. German science funding agency DFG has an annual budget of € 1.3 billion only, yea, yea.

How to predict good research

It is difficult if not impossible to foresee future research results. I am sharing the belief with many other colleagues that grant applications are largely a waste of time (in particular if most applications fail). A recent correspondence letter in Nature applauds Continue reading How to predict good research

The road not taken

When discussing the problem of inducing allergy by rickets prophylaxis I have argumented earlier that there are many alternatives:

  • abandon daily oral prophylaxis in the general population (attn risk of t1d, rickets, pneumonia)
  • reduce daily oral dose with on demand therapy
  • use only 1-3 single oral shots as in former East Germany
  • exchange water-soluble by oily form
  • use chemically modified isomeres
  • co-application with “physiological” substances also in liver cod oil like Ca2+, P, vitamin A…
  • co-application with “non-physiological” Cpg ODN…
  • switch to parenteral application

There is even another option that I missed Continue reading The road not taken

Just so stories

The recent ATS congress in San Francisco had a nice session of “Just so stories“. The stories written by Rudyard Kipling three years after the death of his six year old child from pneumonia these are still some of the best questions ever asked. Answers at the ATS were by provided (by Powel) “How the birds got air sacs”, (by Loring) “How the elephant lost his pleural space” and (by Sieck) “How the diphragm got its dome”. The best session at the ATS!, yea, yea.

Enlightening

A new study reports a rather expected finding – young Finnish men in a military base ;-)

… conditions with respect to physical activity, nutrition, clohting, living quarters, and exposure to sunlight were homgenous

had twice as many respiratory infections if having serum vitamin D concentrations <40 nmol/L. The discussion, however, misses the point that there are many studies showing the same effect in children with rickets (references 82-86) eventually leading to pneumonia leading to death. “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day” (Thomas Jefferson?)

German science

The German portal academics has a rather long narrative about the failure of German science – and an excerpt from “Richard Münch, Die akademische Elite. Zur sozialen Konstruktion wissenschaftlicher Exzellenz, Frankfurt a.M.: Edition Suhrkamp, 2007”. Continue reading German science

Time to give Blackley the credit he deserves

I am currently doing some historical studies if the vitamin hypothesis fits also the temporal relationship of allergy prevalence. While ordering RKI files for my next trip to the Berlin document center, I found that farming and lower allergy sensitization is known much longer than I anticipated. Continue reading Time to give Blackley the credit he deserves

In consideration of

In case you have never read at full consciousness the copyright statements that some journals want to you to sign, here is one:

In consideration of the expenses of editing and publishing and the professional benefits relating to publication of my article or other written work, as specified above, I assign exclusively to the XXXX Society all right, title, and interest to my article or other written work, as specified above, and any ….

In consideration of the cumbersome training of a MD/PhD student I want 50% of their future salary ;-) yea, yea.

Castrated data

Nature had some good recommendations

… there are challenges to making data on individual research participants available to other investigators, every effort should be made to provide researchers with an opportunity to reproduce the reported results and to investigate new hypotheses and methods.

accompanied by a bullet list

* Statement on availability of results and data so that, as far as possible, others can analyse them independently

The new expression paper published 3 days ago, however, ignores that largely Continue reading Castrated data