Uncategorized

La grande salle

Karfreitag / Good Friday 2007. When digitizing old slides, I found these interesting ones – they show the large ward at the hospital at Beaune in the Bourgogne. The hospices de Beaune were founded in 1442 by Nicolas Rolin. A M.A. thesis at the university of Tübingen has more details – charity as part of the social status (page 26) and a reason why the initials of Nicolas Rolin (and his third wife) Continue reading La grande salle →

 

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Uncategorized

Let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven

The great pyramid of Giza by Cheops (Khufu, Χέωψ) is a true mystery. SPIEGEL online now reports another attempt to explain how the pyramid has been constructed. A French architect believes Continue reading Let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025
Genetics

The winner’s curse

is another attempt to explain why replication fails frequently in genetic epidemiology. Zöllner and Pritchard write in the AJHG (their server is currently down)

For a variant that is genuinely—but weakly—associated with disease, there may be only low or moderate power to detect association. Hence, when there is a significant result, it may imply that the genotype counts of cases and controls are more different from each other than expected. Consequently, the estimates of effect size are biased upward. This effect, which is an example of the “winner’s curse” from economics depends strongly on the power of the initial test for association. If the power is high, most random draws from the distribution of genotype counts will result in a significant test for association; thus, the ascertainment effect is small. On the other hand, if the power is low, conditioning on a successful association scan will result in a big ascertainment effect.

I haven´t fully understood the following argumentation, but promise to revisit it some times later, yea, yea.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025
Genetics, Philosophy

Gary Taube’s limits and my interest in molecular epidemiology

Curative medicine contributes only 10% to 40% to individual health (figures are depending on models and methodology according to a recent commentary in the Deutsche Ärzteblatt, for milestones check the BMJ) – a reason why I finally decided to become an epidemiologist. Continue reading Gary Taube’s limits and my interest in molecular epidemiology →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025
Genetics

Anticipating trouble

Science magazine today reports another ego trip.

A U.S. company [454] has begun to trickle out information on a unique DNA study it calls “Project Jim,” a crash effort to sequence the entire genome of a single individual. The results are likely to be made public this summer. Anonymity is out of the question: It has already been announced that the genome belongs to James D. Watson, winner of the Nobel Prize and co-discoverer of DNA’s structure. Watson won’t be alone: Harvard Medical School has approved a plan by computational geneticist George Church to sequence and make public the genomes of well-informed volunteers—including his own. And J. Craig Venter says his nonprofit institute will soon release a complete version of his genome.

My daily newsletter says that Roche is going to acquire 454 for $155M and plans to use the sequencer for IVD applications, I hope they will forget “Project Jim” somewhere on a harddisk.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025
Philosophy

Antedisciplinary Science

.. another thoughtful essay by Sean Eddy in PLOS Computational Biology cites the NIH Roadmap Initiative

The scale and complexity of today’s biomedical research problems demand that scientists move beyond the confines of their individual disciplines and explore new organizational models for team science. Advances in molecular imaging, for example, require collaborations among diverse groups—radiologists, cell biologists, physicists, and computer programmers.

which sounds great like all interdisciplinary science but has also all the drawbacks (“to temper the wind to the shorn lamb” seems to be the English translation of the German “weakest ring of the chain”).

Progress is driven by new scientific questions, which demand new ways of thinking. You want to go where a question takes you, not where your training left you.

Sure, the game is more about interdisciplinary people than interdisciplinary teams

A motley crew of misfits

and not EU accountants drive progress.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025
Genetics

Collins: Testimony on the threat of genetic discrimination

The testimony of Francis Collins before the subcommittee on Health is now online

A recent NIH study of families at risk for hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer … revealed that the number concern expressed by participants regarding genetic testing was about losing health insurance, should the knowledge of their genetic test result be divulged or fall into the “wrong hands” … Unless Americans are convinced that their genetic information will not be used against them, the era of personlized medicine may never come to pass. The rest would be a continuation of the current one-size-fits-all medicine, ignoring the abundant scientific evidence that the genetic differences among people help explain why some of us benefit from a therapy while others do not.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 29.11.2025