Here are my gratulations to the current IG Nobel Prize Winners – see also Science magazine. Is there anything else that I may have missed? Oh yes, the official prizes… As a new service you can even ask them questions.
Transcription factor Pax5 is a key regulator for the B cell lineage (it may even be reponsible for redifferentiation from B to T cells according to new research from the Busslinger lab). As human CD23a, the low affinity IgE receptor, has a functional Pax-5-binding site, there could be a relationship to allergy inheritance. So far I have only looked into Pax-8 while Pax-5 might be even more important.
Yahoo News writes “Doubts cast on hygiene hypothesis“. As far as I know YN highlights the first experimental study of the hygiene hypothesis. Although the authors could achieve a reduction of respiratory infections by controlled randomized hygiene intervention, there was no effect on later asthma or allergy.
all these journals will kick your manuscript from of the submission database if they find any (assumed) formal error. It reads something like this Continue reading Bioinformatics does it, Allergy does it and Nature does it
Over and over I am flooded with emails like
Let me introduce myself to you. I am xxxxxxxxxx, completed M. Sc Micro Biology. At present I am working as a research Fellow in Centre for xxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, India. How are you sir? I am your student. How can I mean, in January 2005 you come to India. At that time your engaged some class to us in xxxxxxxxx College, Axxxxxxxx. Presently I am working on Genetics of “xxxxxxxxxxxx†under the esteemed guidance of Dr. xxxxxxxxxxx and Dr. xxxxxxxxxx. I am very much interested to do PhD. Herewith, I am sending my curriculum Vitae as attachment to your kind perusal. I assure you, I shall work with at most devotion and sincerity to give you satisfaction and also I am confident that I can lead PhD successfully with the experience I gained during my research work at xxxxxxxxx. Given a chance I will prove my caliber.
Continue reading Want to work with you
I could not find so much infomation out there about the HP Ipaq hw6515 power surge – my device runs on battery only a few hours if both GSM and GPS are being enabled. After several unsucessful attempts I found only two options to prolonge battery life – disabling both SD card slots and by CPU clocking down from ~300 to ~100 Mhz.
Munich has a long tradition (“Münchner Lach und Schiessgesellschaft“) of doing political comedy, known as “Kabarett” . Yesterday evening we have been in Schwabing’s “Lustpielhaus” to see Hagen Rether. Excellent, I would not have to write a science blog if I could earn my money by entertaining people on such a level …
A recent email of Donna Karolchik – the maintainer of my favorite human genome viewer – reports Continue reading New genome browser version
We already talked about academic salaries in Germany. “Academics – Das Karriereportal der Wissenschaft” now has some figures on extras. You may expect 250,000€ – 260,000€ in biosciences for your first professorship with annually 48,000€ for consumables. You will get 6 rooms on average and ~2 technical positions, yea, yea.
The WordPress editor window is somewhat odd if you are writing in text mode but need to scroll down to preview your post. From several blog editors that I have tested now – there is now one that made it onto my desktop. Scribe Fire is an advanced Firefox plugin that can be nicely configured as you can see on this screenshot.
The “powered by” can be switched off Continue reading Fire Scribe
A new nature medicine review is listing clinical trials targeting Toll-like receptors. These include 3 preclinical studies all using cpG-ODNs against TLR9 by Dynavax Astra-Zeneca, Coley / Sanofi-Aventis and Idera / Novartis. Lets wait and see…
Haile Gebrselassie has broken the world record on the Marathon distance in Berlin with 2:04:26! Gratulations!! Earlier this year in London he could not finish due to breathing problems. I wonder if there has been any systematic research on the relationship of air pollution and Marathon results? Munich marathon will start on Oct, 14!
The most recent Edge issue cites
… Kahneman’s view that “the administration’s unwillingness to face reality in Iraq reflects a basic human aversion to cutting one’s losses—the same instinct that makes gamblers stay at the table, hoping to break even.”
as well as another one of Kahneman’s ideas Continue reading Unwillingness to face reality
No, I am not confusing here vitamin A and vitamin D as done in the early days of vitamin research. This post is really about vitamin A (but with similar nomenclature problem as with vitamin D). Retinol is ingested in a precursor form; animal sources like liver (–>cod liver oil) contain retinyl esters, whereas plants like carrots contain carotenoids. Continue reading Vitamin A and allergy