For the second year in a row (see awards 2011), Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock symbol ACTC) is my stem cell biotech of the year. Their trials for different forms of macular degeneration (here and here and here) are progressing well and as a stem cell scientist I really appreciate the fact they are publishing their […]
Stem cell biotech of the year 2012: Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) Read More »
I recently did a text mining of all the article titles for Cell Stem Cell for 2012. The results were very insightful (expressed in a beautiful word cloud) for the journal and what are the top areas of focus of authors publishing there. I just did the same analysis for the journal Stem Cells and
Text mining journal Stem Cells: intriguing comparison to Cell Stem Cell Read More »
How could the biggest newspaper in Japan, Yomiuri, get so badly tricked without even trying to verify facts prior to splashing it across their front page? A commenter on this blog named Mulboyne says that competing newspaper Mainichi was offered the Moriguchi story but solid investigative reporting made them decline it. Here’s the quote: “The
How did Japan’s top newspaper get tricked about iPS cells by Moriguchi? Read More »
Japan’s biggest daily newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, made international news when it reported a few days ago that iPS cells had been transplanted into human patients by Hisashi Moriguchi. In this morning’s paper, Yomiuri Shimbun issued a painful front page admission (happily reported by competing paper The Asahi Shimbun) of publishing false information about the alleged transplants, which
I’m a fan of iPS cells, but my lab has been concerned about the similarities between induced pluripotency and cancer formation for many years. We just now published a paper that directly addressed the similarities of cancer and iPS cell transcriptomes. These are cause for concern and need to be faced as we contemplate clinical
iPS cells are similar to cancer cells paper, part 2: unsettled reviewers Read More »
I regularly do an update on the publication trends in the iPS cell field and these have been posts that readers have found especially useful. Here was a popular update from 2010 and another one from 2011 that included a who’s who of the iPS cell field more broadly as well beyond just publishing. Then
Part 1 on iPS cell 2012 publication trends: an unusual year Read More »
I’ve been blogging about the darker side of science in a seven part series on what I call scientific sinning or the “seven sins of scientists”. You can see the first 5 posts here as a group, which have generated a ton of interest and many thousands of reads each. The first five posts are specifically
Seven sins of scientists part 6: quid pro quo Read More »
Is blogging for scientists a good idea? With my concise advice below, you should be ready to get started. I say, “Go for it!” I know there are quite a lot of people interested in starting to blog, but perhaps a bit uncertain or even intimidated by the idea. I think this is especially true
Top ten tips for blogging for scientists Read More »
I’ve sponsored a stem cell essay contest with two winners: age 18 or younger (category 1) and age 19 or older (category 2). The deadline has passed and we have our winners. I received a number of interesting essays and today I’m happy to announce the winner in the younger category: Claire August. I’ll announce the category
Stem cell essay contest winner category 1: Claire August Read More »
I put up a poll asking readers what the single most important issue is today for the future of science. You can still vote. Going into this I thought “funding” would come out of top, but instead by a large margin readers voiced most concern over the anti-science climate in the U.S. It really is
Poll results on most important issue for future of science: anti-science climate Read More »