Category Archives: Joke

Look here

From an email that I received today:

while open access has provided the scientific community with broader accessibility, little seems to have been done to make better use of the on-line content. We are trying to address this shortcoming through pubcasts. Pubcasts are 5-10 minute video clips which are integrated with the contents of the open access paper.

I agree with the observation that Open Access hasn´t been very innovative so far in technical terms. On the other hand I feel that my job is less about marketing than development. Are you climbing on this bandwagon? Continue reading Look here

Science skills

Theodor Fontane is characterizing Adolf Menzel:

Gaben, wer hätte sie nicht.
Talent, Spielzeug für Kinder.
Erst der Ernst macht den Mann,
Erst der Fleiß das Genie.

Skills, everyone has quids.
Talents, toys of the kids.
Seriousness makes a man,
dilligence the genius span.

sorry for my translation ;-)

Historical research on hayfever

It seems that Google has several interesting books that may be downloaded if you are using a proxy located somewhere in the U.S. A. It is quite interesting to see that there are many more books out there than I thought before:

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Most interesting is certainly the 1880 2nd edition of Blackley’s “Hay fever” Continue reading Historical research on hayfever

Hagen Rether – here in Munich

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 …

In consideration of

In case you have never read at full consciousness the copyright statements that some journals want to you to sign, here is one:

In consideration of the expenses of editing and publishing and the professional benefits relating to publication of my article or other written work, as specified above, I assign exclusively to the XXXX Society all right, title, and interest to my article or other written work, as specified above, and any ….

In consideration of the cumbersome training of a MD/PhD student I want 50% of their future salary ;-) yea, yea.

Any new paper? A video cast how to stay informed

Following a frequent request, here is a short video how to create your own Pubmed news feed. You simply need the Sage plugin for Firefox; then goto to Pubmed, create your personal RSS feed and import this URL into the bookmark category that Sage is looking for. Here is the show: Continue reading Any new paper? A video cast how to stay informed

Allergy – everything from fullerenes to cannabis

Allergy research continues to be one of the most active research fields. New studies show that that fullerenes may inhibit the allergic response

Human MC and peripheral blood basophils exhibited a significant inhibition of IgE dependent mediator release when preincubated with C60 fullerenes.

Continue reading Allergy – everything from fullerenes to cannabis

Wer heilt hat recht

This is a German quote – frequently used in the context of alternative medicine – “who heals is right”.

The history of the qutotation is unclear; maybe it is a modification of the Latin “extra ecclesiam salus non est” .

In todays English “the doctor’s always right” (or “might is right”?)

Anyway it is utter nonsense as (1) a healer wants to be successful and not rightful (2) healing (at least on a few occasions) is no proof for the right treatment only fo the good outcome.

Click chains

That seems a usual phenomenon now: I am reading an interesting article (at Edge), want to know more about an author (Fitch) and end at a storming website at University of Tübingen (recording new German words). German linguistics seem to merge day after day with English linguistics.
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