All posts by admin

Irreproducibility, once more

Francis Collins wrote in a commentary

A growing chorus of concern, from scientists and laypeople, contends that the complex system for ensuring the reproducibility of biomedical research is failing and is in need of restructuring. As leaders of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), we share this concern and here explore some of the significant interventions that we are planning.
Science has long been regarded as ‘self-correcting’, given that it is founded on the replication of earlier work. Over the long term, that principle remains true. In the shorter term, however, the checks and balances that once ensured scientific fidelity have been hobbled. This has compromised the ability of today’s researchers to reproduce others’ findings.
Let’s be clear: with rare exceptions, we have no evidence to suggest that irreproducibility is caused by scientific misconduct. In 2011, the Office of Research Integrity of the US Department of Health and Human Services pursued only 12 such cases3. Even if this represents only a fraction of the actual problem, fraudulent papers are vastly outnumbered by the hundreds of thousands published each year in good faith.

I agree, that a major part of current research output is not reproduced anymore.

Furthermore,  there are doubts that science is self-correcting anymore even on the long-term run. Who will ever assemble 500K GWAS data 50.000 asthma patients and another 50.000 controls? Sharing data is the only solution to discover any false claims. Unfortunately, I could even not even get within an EU FP 5 project the genotype data from my own probands.

And let’s be clear: was is scientific misconduct? Just fraud or the long slippery slope?

According to the FDAAA, failure to comply with its provisions may result in civil penalties of as much as $10 000 per day.

Maybe the EU should implement a similar policy like the FDAAA??

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Aber wir sind doch alles Tiroler

Am Brenner heute morgen im Fernbus von Bozen nach München. Zwei österreichische Polizeibeamte gehen durch die Reihen und kontrollieren die Ausweise. Eine alte Frau ganz vorne in der ersten Reihe ganz entsetzt zu dem doch recht jovialen Polizisten: Aber wir sind doch alle Tiroler!

20160402_160528__DSC4998

gesehen in Wien / Josefstadt Anfang April

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Raspberry Infrared: Just 50€ to detect a frame motor?

At the recent bike festival Sattelfest here in Munich, I had the chance to try out an in frame electric motor Vivax Assist. The wheel was spinning slowly leading to a seat stay temperature difference of at least 5 degree Celsius compared to the top tube. There was also a clear gradient towards to the bottom bracket that should be visible with conventional thermography.
You could use the Seek Thermal Smartphone add ons for thermography (249€) while also Raspberry just released an updated camera sensor with no IR filter (23€). Unfortunately 1um wave length is way ahead from the 3um IR wavelength required for thermal imaging but there is also a 16×4 array sensor MLX90620 from Melexis that could work. Could anyone take some pictures of race bikes next week during the start of the Giro?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Angriff auf die Geisteswissenschaften

Alles kann man nun wirklich nicht auf Feierabend TED Talks verschieben, oder auf die Kombi Bachelor Studiengänge Philosophie/Politik/Ökonomie/Ethik. Zitat http://www.zeit.de:

Der Angriff auf die Geisteswissenschaften fühlt sich für Aizawa an wie eine Aushöhlung der Gesellschaft von innen. Eine Marginalisierung von Kultur, Ideen und Werten. In der täglichen Arbeit beobachtet er seit Längerem einen Wandel. “Früher ließ man uns ziemlich frei forschen. Wir bekamen ein festes Budget, das wir ungebunden nutzen konnten. Heute müssen wir ganz genau erklären, wozu unsere Forschung nützlich ist.”

oder Zitat FAZ

Mit der „Versozialwissenschaftlichung“ und Professionalisierung der Politikwissenschaft in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren, die stark vom amerikanischen Vorbild bestimmt war, ging der Siegeszug der quantitativ-statistischen Methoden einher („behavioralistische Wende“). Ursache-Wirkungs-Interaktionen wurden nun nicht mehr gedanklich-argumentativ rekonstruiert, sondern „gemessen“ und damit zugleich gegen die empirische Widerlegbarkeit immunisiert. Die Folge: eine zunehmende Selbstreferentialität und Kleinteiligkeit

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Link collection homomorphic encryption algorithm

… is a form of encryption that allows computations to be carried out on ciphertext, thus generating an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches the result of operations performed on the plaintext…

First publication: acm.org
Introduction: technologyreview.com
Details: en.wikipedia.org
Use in genomics: nature.com
R package: www.louisaslett.com

install.packages(c("Rcpp", "RcppParallel", "gmp")) 
install.packages("http://www.louisaslett.com/HomomorphicEncryption/dl/HomomorphicEncryption_0.2.tgz", repos=NULL)
library("HomomorphicEncryption")
p <- pars("FandV")
k <- keygen(p)
c1 <- enc(k$pk, c(42,34))
c2 <- enc(k$pk, c(7,5))
cres1 <- c1 + c2
cres2 <- c1 * c2
cres3 <- c1 %*% c2
dec(k$sk, cres1)
dec(k$sk, cres2)
dec(k$sk, cres3)

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Ach je, Herr Urban

500 Jahre nach Martin Luthers Reformation hat sich die evangelische Kirche davon verabschiedet, auch Kirche der Aufklärung zu sein. Sie ist zum bloßen Sozialverein geworden, gefangen in einem archaischen Weltbild. Das Sagen haben zunehmend die antiintellektuellen, bildungsfeindlichen Fundamentalisten. Diese nehmen die Bibel wörtlich und missachten die Erkenntnisse der Wissenschaften einschließlich der Theologie. Ein fundamentalistischer Glaube provoziert heute weltweit in allen Religionen Intoleranz und Gewalt.
Martin Urban, Ach Gott, die Kirche! Protestantischer Fundamentalismus und 500 Jahre Reformation, dtv premium, 270 S., 14,90 €.

Urban, ehemaliger Wissenschaftsredakteur der süddeutschen Zeitung, arbeitet in seinem neuen Buch “Ach Gott, die Kirche” die Ressentiments gegen sein evangelisches Elternhaus ab. Seine Hauptthese: Im evangelischen Kirchenleben kommen Ergebnisse von historisch-kritischer Theologie nicht vor, wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse spielen nur noch eine nachrangige Rolle, die Kirche wehrt sich nicht ausreichend gegen ihren politisch rechten, fundamentalistischen Flügel.

Auch wenn man die Kritik an den Konservativen teilen kann, so ist die Argumentation doch völlig verunglückt.  Fundamentalisten sind nahezu immun gegen externe  Kritik,  allenfalls durch systemimmanente subversive Rückfragen zu erreichen, wie es  Hubert Schleicher in einem wunderbaren Buch vorführt. Und allen anderen evangelischen Christen? Zumindest den kirchenfernen Mitgliedern wirft Urban damit das Austrittsformular in den Briefkasten. Continue reading Ach je, Herr Urban

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

No, there are no super humans

A new study – repeated by many newspapers – claims genes that rescue even in severe Mendelian disorder: cystic fibrosis, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, familial dysautonomia, epidermolysis bullosa simplex, Pfeiffer syndrome, autoimmune polyendocrinopathy syndrome, acampomelic campomelic dysplasia and atelosteogenesis.

A comprehensive screen of 874 genes in 589,306 genomes led to the identification of 13 adults harboring mutations for 8 severe Mendelian conditions, with no reported clinical manifestation of the indicated disease.

But we know about the reliability of 23andme results

Finally! 23 and the FDA warning

who even mixed up samples in the past.

Searching for genes that makes your resilient to disease is interesting of course but not very new with more examples of cystic fibrosis survivors available. Any new proof by the 23andme study is missing so far as the authors were unable to recontact any of the 13 resilient indiviuduals for whatever reasons.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Why allergy and vitamin D trials failed so far

The following figure highlights the exposure scheme in the three published vitamin D / allergy clinical trials so far: Grant 2016, Litonjua 2016 and Chawes 2016.

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None of them found anything important, maybe due to the design flaw in all these studies?

All three studies have been designed with the assumption of a beneficial vitamin D effect.

They are dose finding studies that do not allow to prove or disprove any vitamin D effect.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Up- and download in a single page application

This still not a trivial task given the patchwork of code pieces floating around. When writing a route finder app I came up with the following solution

# html
<form id="myform" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="upload.php" method="POST" target="_parent">
  <input type="hidden" name="uuid" value="1"/>
  <input id="myfile" type="file" name="file"  style="display: none;"/>
  <input type="submit" value="send" style="display: none;"/>
</form>

# query javascript that starts the upload
$("input[id='myfile']").click();

# upload.php
# note the redirect with javascript not with php allows to pass state parameters
$uuid=htmlspecialchars($_POST["uuid"]);
$uf = basename($_FILES['file']['name']);
$fn='data/'.$uuid.'.gpx';
if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES['file']['tmp_name'], $uf)) {
  rename($_FILES['file']['name'],$fn );
  file_put_contents ($fn , $txt, FILE_APPEND );
  echo '<script type="text/javascript">window.parent.location = "index.php";</script>';
}

The upload needs a quick refresh of the webpage (which could be avoided by posting to an hidden iframe and controlling response by an ajax call). The download doesn’t need a refresh:

# note the combined get and post commands
# don't know why this is necessary
$.ajax({
  data: "uuid="+fn,
  type: "post",
  url: "download.php",
  success: function() {
    window.location = 'download.php?uuid='+fn;
  }
});

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Debunking myths

It is a big question in science how to identify and debunk myths. John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky gives a free download of their debunking handbook

Debunking myths is problematic. Unless great care is taken, any effort to debunk misinformation can inadvertently reinforce the very myths one seeks to correct. To avoid these “back re effects”, an effective debunking requires three major elements. First, the refutation must focus on core facts rather than the myth to avoid the misinformation becoming more familiar. Second, any mention of a myth should be preceded by explicit warnings to notify the reader that the upcoming information is false. Finally, the refutation should include an alternative explanation that accounts for important qualities in the original misinformation.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026

Nicht in Gottes Namen

Zwei Buchempfehlungen:

Arnold Angenendt.Toleranz und Gewalt. Das Christentum zwischen Bibel und Schwert. Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2006. ISBN 9783402002155. Gebunden, 797 Seiten, 24,80 EUR
Jonathan Sacks. Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Hodder adn Stoughton 2015. ISBN 9781473616523. Hardback 19,95 EUR

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 25.03.2026