Scammers are cashing in on the ebola scare. The news media is cashing in on the ebola scare. Politicians are cashing in on the ebola scare. Unfortunately, neither international healthcare nor biomedical research are cashing in on the ebola scare. I found the first software patch. Seems pretty robust. Diet can influence certain autoimmune […]
TL; DR: The genome sequence of the North American Wood Frog will tell us a lot about the genetic control of freezing and reanimating whole organisms. My friend and colleague, Dr. Andor Kiss is crowdfunding this project. If you would like to help, please go to experiment.com. You will get acknowledged by name in the paper. To […]
This came up in my inbox. An interesting and welcome initiative, making thousands of ALS patients’ medical data available for analysis. It doesn’t seem to have any sequence data (so not a bioinformatic database), but there are heaps of biomedical data in which to sink your statistical teeth. Dear All, My name is Hagit Alon […]
We have Palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and God-like technologies. E.O. Wilson Whole genome sequencing will soon be cheap enough to be widely affordable. We are nearing the time when omics data may be retained for patients on a wide basis. These may include full exome, haplotype, full genome sequencing, tissue level transcriptomic data, microbiome […]
Note: a repost of a 2010 post I published for Ada Lovelace day. Unfortunately, I am too busy these days to write a new one. “Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated today to “…raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.” So without further ado: She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration […]
Should DNA be subject to copyright law, rather than patent law? Section 101 of Title 35 U.S.C. sets out the subject matter that can be patented: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the […]
Three postdocs positions available at a great lab in Denmark. Read on: We are seeking three Postdoctoral Fellows to The Cellular Signal Integration Group (C-SIG). The group is a network biology research group located at the Department of Systems Biology at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Our department represents one of the […]
“We seek to download from the amazing successes of the computer industry two principles: that of open source, and that of crowdsourcing; to quickly, responsibly accelerate the delivery of targeted therapeutics to cancer patients. Our business model involves all of you. This research is funded by the public.”
The IgNobel prizes were awarded this week. Yes, the Nobel prizes too, but the IgNobels are the really interesting ones. (For an thoughtful piece about why the Nobel Prizes in the sciences do not enhance or may even hurt scientific recognition, read Carl Zimmer’s piece at The Loom) . The IgNobel prizes are awarded annually for […]
Percent of pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed when the disease is still localized: 8 Their 5-year relative survival: 21.5% Percent of pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed when the disease has metastasized: 53 Their 5-year relative survival: 1.8% Mean survival rate after diagnosis: < 1 year Ranking in cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide: 4 Number of effective […]
Thanks to John Stevenson for drawing my attention to this one: Giant African Pouched Rats are trained as detectors; a good solution for low-income countries and communities. HeroRATS, as they are called, come in two “models”: landmine detectors and tuberculosis detectors. Rats born in captivity (captured rats are impossible to train) are trained to […]
א וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל-אַהֲרֹן לֵאמֹר. ב דַּבְּרוּ אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַאֲמַרְתֶּם אֲלֵהֶם: אִישׁ אִישׁ, כִּי יִהְיֶה זָב מִבְּשָׂרוֹ–זוֹבוֹ, טָמֵא הוּא. ג וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה טֻמְאָתוֹ, בְּזוֹבוֹ: רָר בְּשָׂרוֹ אֶת-זוֹבוֹ, אוֹ-הֶחְתִּים בְּשָׂרוֹ מִזּוֹבוֹ–טֻמְאָתוֹ, הִוא. ד כָּל-הַמִּשְׁכָּב, אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁכַּב עָלָיו הַזָּב–יִטְמָא; וְכָל-הַכְּלִי אֲשֶׁר-יֵשֵׁב עָלָיו, יִטְמָא. , The day after Valentine’s Day. Ah! What better day in the year can we find […]