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Allergy, Vitamins

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 →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Genetics

X activity center

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A recent editorial in PLoS Biology was about “Sex, dose and equality“. I always had problems to understand X linked recessive disease and carrier status of a woman: If the random X inactivation would have been complete why are there not much more colorblind women? Obviously the second X is at least partially active as a rescue system. Continue reading X activity center →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Software

More Zotero support

Welcome Just Science Participant! Here is an extra primer how to store your references from the scientific papers that you are reading. In 1983 I was writing on cards, moved to a simple 4-column-database in 1989, used Endnote in 2005 and eventually moved to Zotero in 2007. Zotero is an open source database that sits as a plugin in your Firefox browser [download link]. The neat thing Continue reading More Zotero support →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Genetics, Philosophy

New psoriasis gene would have been missed by testing linkage only

A recent study published in nature genetics study highlights a ß-defensin gene where increased copy numbers are related to psoriasis. The normal range is 2 – 12 copies with the risk increasing with each extra copy. I don´t know if the given explanation is really correct: more genomic copies lead to more RNA, lead to more antimicrobial peptide, lead to skin inflammation. Maybe there is an unknown intermediate step: more antimicrobial peptide -> induce other inflammtory interleukins -> skin inflammation.
In any case, Continue reading New psoriasis gene would have been missed by testing linkage only →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Theology

Just Science Week

The Just Science 2008 will start next week – and here is my last chance to say something non scientific: Science is a method, that has certain prerequisites, works under certain conditions while using techniques with strengths and limitations and is leading to certain conclusions evident to some but not all humans. Needless to say that from a protestant / Lutheran view that there are other ways to explain a phenomenon while providing even extra dimensions like giving an ethical justification.

Haldane / When I am dead / 1928: I am not myself a materialist, because, if materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the results of a chemical processes going on in my brain, they are determined by the laws of chemistry, not those of logic.

More at the recent immersion blog post…

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Video, Vitamins

A secosteroid transcriptional activator

A new vitamin D review is more serious about the biology and possible outcomes than some others.

The popular press is talking about vitamin D as “The Sunshine Vitamin”, promoting it as capable of reducing the risk of cancers and autoimmune disease. Yet vitamin D is actually a secosteroid transcriptional activator, at the heart of the innate immunity.

This looks trivial but it isn´t if you look at the NEJM paper Continue reading A secosteroid transcriptional activator →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Genetics

Zotero Miniserver

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Here is a proof of principle project that can be further adjusted to your own needs – a simple server script that can look up your most recent Zotero database entries and display them to the world. When run in a DOS or Linux box as ZoteroServer path/zotero.sqlite it will display the most recent entries to clients listening at localhost:8888. The code should be pretty straightforward and may be replaced with even other items.

ZoteroServer.pl
|wj_ZoteroServer.txt|

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Allergy

Atopic march to a dead end

“.. or does the theory really have legs?” is the title of a critical editorial in JMCP last month. Although I will co-author a forthcoming paper on allergic rhinitis being a risk factor for later asthma, the situation is far from being understood. “March” implies a command for all to go into one direction which is arguable a poor analogy Continue reading Atopic march to a dead end →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026
Joke

Why blog writing is something different from writing a paper

This may be obvious, at least if you have read Daniel Gilbert

In 2002, Jane Ebert and I discovered that people are generally happier with decisions when they can’t undo them. When subjects in our experiments were able to undo their decisions they tended to consider both the positive and negative features of the decisions they had made, but when they couldn’t undo their decisions they tended to concentrate on the good features and ignore the bad.

When reading my own writings a second time, I always discover typing errors, crude sentences, and other poor habits – blogs as snapshots of less happier minds?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 15.01.2026