I spend some hours each week reading and thinking about the recent scientific literature and I’m sure many of you do the same thing, but do we gravitate towards hyped “holy crap” papers? Every so often, a new paper erupts on the scene. It makes a big splash with a flashy entrance that captures people’s …
The ‘Holy Crap’ Effect: Reflecting on Big Splash Papers Read More »
Recently I posted a piece on a list of stem cell journals that is growing longer by the day. Below for fun I’ve made up some new names of stem cell journals possibly of the future. I’ve also in some cases included commentary. I have a feeling that some of these may become real in coming years …
The funny list of phony & possible future stem cell journals Read More »
I have to admit a small fascination for tabloid, wildly over the top stories about stem cells. Maybe it’s just that I need a good laugh to escape the black hole of academia at times even if only momentarily? Of course some crazy stem cell stories reflect actually dangerous situations for patients, but that doesn’t …
We all have heard the expression “eyes on the back of one’s head”, but a nose on top of one’s head? What the heck? A Chinese doctor has apparently grown a new nose on top of a patient’s forehead. The patient had his nose damaged by an injury and then also ravaged by infection. It …
Was Einstein wrong on his definition of insanity? “Insanity”, said Einstein, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But in science, how sane is it to expect experiments to give precisely the same results? How big a problem is irreproducibility in science? Experiments on that question have given variable …
Over at Health in the Global Village, Leigh Turner yesterday published an excellent piece updating us all on the latest news on Korean stem cell company RNL BIo (알앤엘바이오) and its leader, Dr. Jeong Chan Ra (라정찬 ). Addition: The story was reported in several Korean news outlets including Hani here. A video here by MBC News of Korea, one …
Jeong Chan Ra Arrest: Can RNL Bio (알앤엘바이오) Survive? Read More »
When a high-profile paper ends up having mistakes, it can be a big deal and cause a lot of problems for the authors and the field. Recently, a sexy Cell paper on ES cell cloning from the lab of Shoukhrat Mitalipov was published and soon a number of mistakes were identified. How does that impact …
What do you make of the human cloning paper mistakes? Take our poll Read More »
I recently did a post and a poll on whether a blogger scientist should blog about a very weak, but sexy paper from a famous, powerful scientist in the stem cell field whom I called “Dr. Famous”. The poll is still getting a lot of responses so I’m not going to discuss the results yet …
The identity of Dr. Famous of the stem cell field Read More »
Is this a “good” stem cell blog post to write as I gobble down my lunch in between working on grants….hmm, maybe not. Too late! Stem cells are hot all around the globe, but they are particularly scorching hot in certain countries such as the Philippines. There are an increasing number of news articles on …
Please pass on bull testicles Soup No. 5 & on stem cell Soup No. 7 Read More »
A team from the Salk Institute in La Jolla led by Inder Verma has reported dedifferentiation in a paper in Science some important findings that I believe make their paper in the top 10 as a candidate for paper of the year. The paper, entitled “Dedifferentiation of Neurons and Astrocytes by Oncogenes Can Induce Gliomas …
Dedifferentiation of neurons & astrocytes into glioma forming cells Read More »