What is a wild type human? The pursuit of “normalcy” has seriously led some scientists astray and there is no better example than the recent microbiome studies that have drawn great attention in the media. I found one aspect of their study design profoundly disturbing. First to my core question. Is there even such as […]
Microbiome studies highlights the trap of the pursuit of the wild type human Read More »
I have an ongoing poll on people’s impressions of the big annual stem cell meeting, ISSCR 2012. I myself have been wishing I was in Japan for that meeting so I remain surprised at the trending of the poll toward the negative. By far the most common response has been a surprisingly ho-hum “so-so” evaluation
Wish list from 2012 attendees for ISSCR 2013: some crankiness Read More »
Why do professors leave one institution and go to another? The reasons why say a lot about academia. This is kind of a taboo topic in science, but very important. Once upon a time…. Two decades ago when I was a technician in the Pathology Department at UCSD School of Medicine and then still when
Why professors leave: elephant in the lab series Read More »
I found a mystery sculpture and it got me thinking. How often do our preconceived notions make us miss new discoveries as scientists? I fear this happens very often. What got me thinking about closed and open minds was of course inspired by my dog, Elvis. I was walking her very early one morning last
Mystery sculpture: how the brain eats up new things Read More »
This wild week started with an alarm clock ringing at 4:45AM Monday morning and me schlepping myself to Sacramento Airport to fly down to my former hometown of La Jolla, CA to meet Guv Perry of Texas. The small group had a great talk. I’m not naive enough to imagine us all singing Kumbaya together around
Scientists meeting with politicians like Rick Perry of Texas Read More »
Open access publishing is getting a lot of attention. Taxpayer supported government grants + scientists’ work = closed access publisher profits (derived from payments from taxpayers + scientists) This simple equation embodies all that is wrong with today’s predominant system of publishing. In fact, it is an indictment of closed access publishers. The profits of
The case for open access publishing embodied in a single equation Read More »
Welcome to the NFL era of the brain injury epidemic. It’s always been an epidemic, but we as a society are only realizing it now. Remember those old anti-drug commercials that aired on TV I think in the 80s saying “This is your brain on drugs”? They showed an egg frying in a pan (see
The end of the NFL? The “new” brain injury epidemic Read More »
Yesterday I put out a post as a guide for scientists to insult each other. More insults have been forthcoming from the blog readerships including some even nastier ones. Most are just downright mean, but some are sexist or racist. Sadly these comments are real. They skewer you and roast you over the coals, often
Insults 2.0: more ways scientists skewer each other Read More »
It’s been a big couple weeks of headlines in the news for prostate cancer. Let me help you make sense of it all. I’m a prostate cancer survivor and cancer biologist. Prostate cancer is almost an inevitable fate for men in America and for many around the world, but a significant fraction of the cancers
Making sense of all the big prostate cancer headlines of the last few weeks Read More »
How do you use Twitter as a scientist? If you know how to Tweet (posting things on Twitter), you have a new avenue for interacting with the world including colleagues, students, editors, etc. Twitter can be a very powerful tool for scientists. If you, as a scientist, don’t use it you are putting yourself at a
The scientist’s guide to Twitter Read More »