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Philosophy

Postdog

As our government now even pays us to write applications for European collaborations instead of putting this money directly into grants – here comes another quick post on what a Nobel says:

There is a notion favored by some that individual scientists need to be corralled to work together under a more rigid, directed framework to solve important problems. We disagree. Real innovation comes from the bottom up, and good science policy requires promoting the free market of ideas rather than central planning.

BTW the postdog is sitting at the Kornberg site.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Genetics, Theology

46andyou

I have no idea how 23andme got its name but the business model of this company seems to rely on a rather haploid view of the world.
I had the pleasure this weekend to listen to a talk by Joanna Mountain(senior research director at 23andMe, the company that was founded by Googles Sergey Brin‘ s wife Anne Wojcicki). For whatever reasons Brin Continue reading 46andyou →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy

The price we have to pay for better science

A paper by Young / Ioannidis / Al-Ubaydli attacks the oligopoly of biomedical journals (just as I have done here many times including also the idea of a winner’s curse). From the press release

The current system of publishing medical and scientific research provides “a distorted view of the reality of scientific data that are generated in the laboratory and clinic,” says a team of researchers in this week’s PLoS Medicine […]
There is an “extreme imbalance,” they say, between the abundance of supply (the output of basic science laboratories and clinical investigations) and the increasingly limited venues for publication (journals with sufficiently high impact). Continue reading The price we have to pay for better science →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy, Software

Basic instinct for math?

It seems that there are two numbering systems in humans – a general sense of numbers for some quick and dirty estimates and some more genuine computation skills of showing the result of (2327)^2. At least the first capacity seems to be inborn (and an important survival skill). According a recent SZ article (29th Sept 2008) a host of new studies now show that

the two number systems, the bestial and celestial, may be profoundly related, an insight with potentially broad implications for math education

and as I believe – for science in general as most science fields are being dominated by the Fermi problem. Continue reading Basic instinct for math? →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy

Journals under Threat

Under the headline ”Journals under Threat: A Joint Response from HSTM Editors” the editors of some of the leading international journals for history and philosophy of science and social studies of science have issued a joint declaration that I received by email and that I am reprinting here to give it a larger audience.

We live in an age of metrics. All around us, things are being standardized,
quantified, measured. Scholars concerned with the work of science and
technology must regard this as a fascinating and crucial practical, Continue reading Journals under Threat →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy

Beer lets humans settle down

Occasionally, I am taking up a topic that directed a google search to my site. Anyway, I have doubts if this is really a big scientific question as highlighted in an interview and a new book of a Munich professor. With the Neolithic Age farming was raising – and usually thought as a response to famine. Reichholf believes that humans put down roots by drinking beer. Is that a good joke right to Octoberfest this year? Cheers.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy, Theology

Science magazine on bible references

Yes, a somewhat unusual topic, but a HONORABLE MENTION in the “2008 Visualization Challenge“shows an

illustrated Bible with a modern twist. Römhild started with a list of verses in different versions of both the Old and New Testaments that referred to figures or ideas from earlier passages, then combed through both books for additional examples. Using a custom-built computer program, Harrison translated the trove of data into “Visualizing the Bible.” … “It almost looks like one monolithic volume”.

true observation or wishful thinking?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Genetics

Will current SNP chips unintentionally diagnose Huntington?

I wondered if Chorea Huntington may be unintentionally diagnosed by current SNP chips used in research projects of other diseases. On a first glance, this seems to be unlikely – we are dealing with repeated CAG repeats in huntingtin located on chromosome 4p16.3 that are not easily accessible by SNP panels. Continue reading Will current SNP chips unintentionally diagnose Huntington? →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Allergy, Genetics

Asthma is a iatrogenic disease

1 Comment

The new Lancet has a paper from our own group as well as another one from ISAAC. We have already suggested earlier that asthma is a iatrogenic disease- the ISAAC paper now confirms at least the long suspected association with paracetamol use – gratulations to my London friend who had been working so long on this hypothesis. The accompanying editorial puts in into context:

Furthermore, although many important potential confounders were included in multivariate analyses, confounding by underlying respiratory disease, differences in hygiene, and use of other antipyretics might also explain the findings.

To put it more on a general level – more iatrogenic factors cannot be excluded, yea, yea.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026
Philosophy

Gödel’s proof

A recent opinion article (Nature, Aug 14) has an interesting retrospective look on Gödel’s proof, the 1958 secondhand description of Gödel’s 1931 finding that rules of logic for quoting axioms eg. substituting variables and formulating deductions are themselves mathematical operations – pretty much the same of todays object oriented programming Continue reading Gödel’s proof →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 16.01.2026