The first metagenomics, metadata and metaanalysis meeting held in Stockholm June 27 2009 was a raging success. People were standing all the way back to the hall jostling for elbow room, while all the other concurrent meetings were pitifully empty after word has made it about how awesome we were. OK, I may be exaggerating […]
Mass Extinctions and Genomics The geological signs for mass extinctions are very distinct: the photo shows the boundary of the Cretaceous-Tertiary KT extinction that happened ~65 million years ago (Mya), and killed some 70% of the species on Earth, most famously the dinosaurs. This was the last mass extinction, and its effects on Earth’s life […]
Apparently sequencing two white males of European extraction does not make for a very good sample of mankind, and that if we really want to get a good view of what we are really like, we need to sequence a couple more. Maybe even, you know, a woman, or someone from India or China or […]
Most of the Earth’s surface is colder than the inside of your refrigerator. Deep sea temperatures are almost universally 2-4C. That’s already 73% of the Earth’s surface. Then add to that the polar regions, mountain ranges and permafrost and you have about 85% of the Earth’s surface constantly at refrigerator or freezer temperatures. While there […]
Maybe I am slow on the uptake, but I never quite liked the term “post genomic”, and I used it very sparingly. (Yes, I do have that term in one of my better cited papers, smack in the first sentence of the abstract, but I never liked that). Perhaps because of all the associated abuse […]
(Continued from “On Microbial Sequencing“). Well, it’s really been a great meeting. The biology of pathogens, parasites and symbionts is amazing. Historically, the microbes that chiefly interested us were one of those three: those that causes disease in humans, animals (focus on domesticated animals), plants (again, mostly domesticated). However, as we are (alas, too slowly) […]
A friend of mine who is also a scientist once told me: “the only time I read, is when I write”. What he meant was, that the only time he reads scientific literature, is when he writes his own papers, and needs to do the proper research to place his research in the context of […]
