Nautilus

Nature Geoscience publishes a regular feature called BackStory, at the back of the journal or on the journal's website, in which the authors of a paper in the current issue of the journal answer questions about their field work -- providing an unusual perspective on the region of the world that contributed to the paper. The Backstory in the July issue (Nature Geoscience 1, 482; 2008), Sailing for a stretched lithosphere, describes how Jenny Collier and colleagues, having managed to get themselves and all their instruments on board a ship not too far away from an imminent war zone, enjoyed the serenity of life at sea as they investigated the rifted continental margin of India.

How long did it take to plan the fieldwork?

Two years elapsed between getting the project approved and setting sail. We wanted to use a particular vessel, the RRS Charles Darwin, which was already in the Indian Ocean and had the scientific capability that we needed. Unfortunately, we had to join a rather long waiting list. Coordination was a nightmare — our scientific instruments were all in different parts of the world, taking part in experiments that were also subject to scheduling changes. When we finally had our chance, the build-up to the Iraq invasion resulted in several changes to our port of embarkation. It was a huge relief when we finally set sail with all the equipment onboard!

See Nature Geoscience's website for the rest of the Backstory.
The paper featured is: The relationship between rifting and magmatism in the northeastern Arabian Sea, by Timothy A. Minshull, Christine I. Lane, Jenny S. Collier & Robert B. Whitmarsh (Nature Geoscience 1, 463-467; 2008).

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 03, 2008
Categories: Communication, Disciplines | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature reports in News this week (453, 1149; 26 June 2008) that a Canadian graduate student dissatisfied with science coverage on online sites such as Google News and Yahoo News has created a news aggregator especially for scientists.
Michael Imbeault, an HIV researcher at the Université Laval in Quebec, launched his fully automated site called e! Science News last month. It has already attracted 300,000 different users, and averages 5,000 visits a day, he says.
News aggregators display headlines and snippets from other media sources, but don't produce their own content. Of the top five online US news sites, three are aggregators — Google News, AOL News and Yahoo News — and only two — CNN.com and MSNBC.com — generate original content. Yahoo and AOL use human editors and source almost all science stories from wire agencies, such as Reuters. Google News uses computer algorithms to aggregate headlines from thousands of news sources, ranking them by how often and on which sites stories appear. Science and technology coverage on Google News, for example, is notoriously devoid of basic science.
The above is taken from the Nature News story, where more information can be found.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 30, 2008
Categories: Communication, Public and media | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Communication Channels in Biology is the title of a workshop that takes place next week, on 26 and 27 June, at the University of California, San Diego. Hilary Spencer of Nature Precedings will be giving a talk, as well as Moshe Pritsker of JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) and many others. The agenda can be viewed here. The workshop is open to the public and is free, although prior registration is required.
From the programme: "The workshop will focus on the range of emerging approaches within e-science, community engagement in dialogue knowledge input/review or assessment, science blogs, and authenticated wiki-like research discussions and analysis, as well as the potential to formalize such community level contributions. These new approaches to communication are becoming important for biology as biological scientists attempt to address the inherent complexity of life, manage both high information content and high throughput data streams, and employ the opportunities emerging from advances in e-communication/networking and information technology."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 19, 2008
Categories: Communication, Conferences | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature Physics, in its June Editorial (4, 429; 2008), adds its own advice to recent articles on presenting talks, summarized and referenced here. From the Editorial:

Presenting your research to an auditorium of peers can be a daunting prospect, particularly for those at the start of their careers. But with a little thought and preparation, it needn't be.
We editors go to a lot of meetings, and have listened to a lot of talks. To hear a good talk can give you a reason for being. To hear a bad talk can make you wish you'd never left your hotel room. But even if your results won't earn you a trip to Stockholm (yet), there is no reason they shouldn't be the seeds for a lively discussion. And lively discussion is what it's all about. We've put together a collection of do's and don'ts to delivering a talk that will move your audience, not put them to sleep.
Once you've cut, tightened and improved the content, deliver it again, listen to it again, and fix any remaining weaknesses, again. Then again. And again. Until you are so familiar with its structure and content that you could give it in your sleep. Familiarity fosters confidence, and a confident talk is a compelling talk.
As it is with writing papers, so it is with giving conference talks — if your research is worth being presented to your colleagues, it's worth being presented to them well.

Read the rest of the Editorial at Nature Physics.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 17, 2008
Categories: Communication | Permalink | Comments (0)

SciDevNet's Practical Guides offer very useful advice for scientists who wish to communicate their results, not only in journals but in other ways and using other media. Articles include 'How do I become a science journalist?'; 'Planning and writing a science story'; 'How do I apply for a research grant?'; 'Spotting fraudulent claims in science'; 'How do I become media-savvy?'; 'How do I make a science news story for the radio?'; and others. A full contents listing is here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 16, 2008
Categories: Communication, Partners, Writing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature reporter Quirin Schiermeier is spending June 5-12 aboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, as part of a project to study climate change in the high Canadian Arctic. His dispatches can be read at In The Field . At the start of his voyage, Quirin writes:

After an epic journey, on four planes and one helicopter, I have at last arrived on board the CCGS Amundsen. The final leg of my trip, the short transfer from Inuvik to Cape Parry at the northern tip of Canada’s Northwest Territories, was easily the most spectacular flight of my whole life. The tiny aircraft flew at very low altitude, so that every barren hill and every glittering lake in the tundra below seemed almost seizable. Then we were out on the frozen Franklin Bay, an inlet of the Amundsen Gulf, and headed towards the edge of the fast ice. We went down on a gravel airstrip next to an abandoned cold-war early warning station. From there a helicopter took us on board the icebreaker which is currently staying put in the fast ice at only a few ship lengths distance to the ice edge.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 10, 2008
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Networking is an essential part of the conference experience, but what opportunities are there for those who cannot make it to many, or even any, meetings? Can Web 2.0 applications enable scientists that do not have the time or money to attend meetings to reap the benefits of networking, and do Web 2.0 applications have a place in both our social and work lives? The June Editorial in Nature Reviews Microbiology (6, 410; 2008) takes a look at selected virtual networking resources, including wiki software such as OpenWetWare, preprint servers (for example, Nature Precedings) and scientific social networking sites (for example, Nature Network), that might be useful for microbiologists, and the editors welcome your comments here. From the editorial:

Finding the time to write and read blogs could stimulate collaborations or open up new career opportunities in science writing and education, but how many microbiologists actually write blogs? In the United Kingdom, the only microbiology academic who blogs on a regular basis is Alan Cann from the University of Leicester. His blog on new and exciting microbiology research, aptly named MicrobiologyBytes, has been particularly successful, with 300,000 page views over the past 18 months and 750 comments on 468 posts (Alan filters out all spam comments or 'splogs'). He also blogs about science in general on Science of the Invisible, and his enthusiasm for new technologies has led him to divert his energy into a non-laboratory-based career researching the use of online resources for education. Other active microbiology 'bloggers' include Moeslio Schaechter, whose blog Small Things Considered is hosted by the ASM, César Sánchez, whose blog Twisted Bacteria has a particular focus on actinomycetes and Ed Rybicki, whose blog ViroBlogy concentrates on virology. Some other bloggers, including microbiologist Rosie Redfield, focus more on their own research to provide an insight into the everyday lives of research scientists.
It is now even possible to attend conferences without leaving your desk: the first ever International Online Medical Conference was held on 10–11 May. But how useful will Web 2.0 applications be in your research? We welcome your views, as comments to this post.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 16, 2008
Categories: Communication | Permalink | Comments (3)

Presenting at a conference is a unique opportunity to communicate your work. Editors attend many conferences, and although they may not address an audience often, they have plenty of opportunity to observe presentation skills.
Nature Methods (5, 371 - 372; 2008), in its May Editorial, makes ten suggestions for making the most of such presentational opportunities, and invites readers to add their own tips and comments at its blog Methagora. The Nature Methods list:
1. Plan for the allotted time.
2. Know your audience.
3. Define your goals.
4. Structure your talk.
5. Keep your slides simple (content).
6. Keep your slides simple (design).
7. Beware of animations and multimedia.
8. Watch your delivery.
9. Choose your words.
10. Rehearse!
Advice can also be found on Nature Network: see Lab Daze blog; End of the Pier Show blog; Expression Patterns blog; and a post in the Visualization and Science forum, in which Hilary Spencer provides some very good, practical advice about the balance between information and presentation in Power Point slides.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 12, 2008
Categories: Communication | Permalink | Comments (2)

Charles Darwin has taken up blogging. He describes himself as a "resurrected Victorian scientist and author", now "a ‘blogger’ (a criminal offence when last I was alive) -- a commentator on science in society." From his customary seat in the Natural History Museum cafe, Mr Darwin overheard conversation about "a film called Expelled, traducing natural selection and championing something called ‘intelligent design’. I thought we had settled Mr Paley’s watchmaker nonsense in 1859."
Mr Darwin continues:
"I am used to bad reviews: I was much savaged in the press when I published The Origin of Species, but Expelled holds me responsible for a particularly vile chapter of genocide which occurred in the 1930s and 40s. I do not recall advocating genocide, indeed distinctly remember writing with anguish about the massacres of the Indians in South America during my voyage on HMS Beagle. Could it be that my critics have formed opinions about my work without actually reading it? Surely not." This is "more than even a marble statue can stand".
Moved, therefore, to take up blogging, Nature Network "has been so kind as to give me a blog and asked me to cast my eye over modern scientific developments. A little stiff in the joints, and with some catching up to do (if only I had known about genetics in 1858!) but if there is anything you wish me to consider, please leave a comment at the blog or contact chazdarwin(at)gmail.com." (Link to e-mail provided here.)
Mr Darwin has already expressed opinion about the advance of science since he was last alive, as depicted in the Sunday newspapers; and has had a nasty surprise about his backdated Royal Society subscriptions.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 29, 2008
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Amyloid-β and tau in Alzheimer's disease, by Frank M. LaFerla, May 2008.
Poster from Nature Reviews Neuroscience, available free online (PDF).
Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with a relentless progression. Its pathogenesis is believed to be triggered by the accumulation of the amyloid-β peptide, due to overproduction and/or the failure of clearance mechanisms. This peptide, together with the microtubule-associated protein tau and their associated signalling pathways, represent important therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease. The pathogenic mechanisms are described in more detail here, and are shown graphically in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience high-resolution poster.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 23, 2008
Categories: Communication, Education | Permalink | Comments (0)

Venture capital is a key part of growing a start-up company, but can be fraught with problems. Nature Biotechnology is gathering together a group of seasoned chief executives, venture capitalists and a venture lawyer at a one-day event 'Bioentrepreneur beware: CEO war stories on investor nightmares', to discuss what can go wrong during the financing process, including term-sheet negotiations that seriously dilute equity, rounds that fall through at the last second, investor activism and hostile takeover of board seats. Take the opportunity to participate in a lively panel discussion that will explore key issues when borrowing other people’s money and ways that you can ensure investor and management goals are compatible with your biotechnology business. The meeting will take place on 20 May 2008 at The Meritage Resort, Napa, California, and is free to attend. The speakers and programme, and more details, can be found here. For information and to register, please send full company name and contact details by email.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 22, 2008
Categories: Author services, Communication, Conferences, Partners | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are a scientist-blogger and are interested in a real meeting as opposed to a virtual carnival, please visit the Nature Network bloggers' forum , where Matt Brown reports the good news that The Royal Institution in London has offered to host a European science blogging conference later this year, to be organised by the bloggers. The rationale for the European bloggers' conference is given here.
The first thing to do, Matt writes, is to pick a date, from August 16th, 23rd, 30th, or September 13th, so please head to Nature Network and state your preference.
Another piece of science blogging news concerns microblogging. A microblog is a post of 140 or fewer words. Attila Csordas informs me that there is a new microblog called Biotecher, on the Twitter platform. Biotecher tracks every biotech-, biology-, medicine- and bioinformatics-related 'twitter' (microblog on the Twitter platform) to create a 'biotwitter community'.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 15, 2008
Categories: Communication, Conferences, Partners, Writing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature Publishing Group presents a Collection on microRNAs and cancer, which includes original Research and Review articles, as well as Research Highlights, from Nature Genetics, Nature Reviews Genetics and Nature Reviews Cancer. The collection is freely available until 30 September 2008.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) — an abundant class of small non-protein-coding regulators of gene expression — play an important role in tumorigenesis and, depending on their targets, can function as tumour suppressors or oncogenes. Crucially, miRNA-expression profiling of human tumours has identified signatures associated with diagnosis, staging, progression, prognosis and response to treatment. The editors of the Collection summarise the content here, and the table of contents can be viewed here. On the Library page, there is a set of links to a selection of News and Views, Research Highlights, Reviews, Research Articles, Perspectives and Commentaries published by Nature Publishing group journals on microRNA and cancer, some of which are freely available to June 2008.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 15, 2008
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An Editorial in the April issue of Nature Biotechnology (26, 358; 2008) reports that corporate biotechnology has finally entered the 'Web 2.0' world, with the launch of a blog by Centocor, the biologics division of Johnson & Johnson. The Editorial points out that plenty of other pharma and biotech-related blogs exist, by people who see themselves as commentators on the industry and its activities. Some of the most insightful, topical and entertaining are from industry insider Derek Lowe, veteran journalist Ed Silverman and the editors of Windhover's In Vivo. What distinguishes the Centocor blog is that it is the first biotech industry blog that has the company's imprimatur. To what extent the blog is a blog or an extension of the company's corporate PR is discussed in the Editorial, which goes on to outline ways in which blogging can be part of the informal yet often powerful public debates about important industry issues. Centocor's blog gets the thumbs-down from Nature Biotechnology, which says of it "what's the point?" But unlike some corporate blogs, it is open to comments (see this post, for example, which describes some goals of the blog and asks for reader feedback). It is a welcome toe in the water of public engagement.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 14, 2008
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In his Thesis article The literature of promises (Nat. Nanotech. 3, 180 - 181; 2008), Chris Toumey asks how science fiction has been influenced by nanotechnology, and why so many reports about the possibilities of nanotechnology read like science fiction. The article covers ideas discussed at and arising after a conference on nanotechnology, literature and society in December 2007. Professor Toumey writes: "Steve Lynn, my colleague in the English department at South Carolina, has been saying for years that the purpose of science fiction is not to predict the future, but rather to put science and technology in a new and different light so that we can explore their place in our lives. Nanotechnology endures a great deal of prognostication, prophecy and prediction in government documents, social-science journals and humanities conferences. It can be difficult to resist the urge to predict the future, but nanotechnology needs to be examined in terms of how it affects our lives today. Science fiction is hardly the only way to do so, but it has a rightful place among the humanistic perspectives on nanotechnology. Sometimes it treats nanotech lovingly and sometimes rudely, but nanotechnology and science fiction could have a long and beneficial friendship."
Read the rest of the Thesis article at Nature Nanotechnology, April 2008 issue.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 10, 2008
Categories: Communication, Writing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watch five hours of US cable news, and on average you will see around 35 minutes on election campaigns, another 36 minutes on US foreign policy, and 26 minutes on crime — but only about one minute on science and technology, slightly more on the environment, and only a little over 3 minutes on medicine and health care. (The rest is taken up with other local issues, weather, entertainment and so on.) Science news in the United States has indeed been squeezed to around 2% of the total since the events of 11 September 2001. But it was never that high, hovering around 4–6% from the mid-1970s until 2001. And the drop does not reflect a falling public interest in science, as much as the media's increased emphasis on foreign policy, war and the homeland: the diversity of US news coverage has decreased across the board since 9/11.
These numbers are obtained from a new study by The Pew Research Center, The State of the News Media 2008, and were discussed in one of Nature's editorials last week (Nature 452, 378; 27 March 2008). From the editorial: "The Pew Center's numbers offer another reason not to be gloomy: the Internet is overtaking television as the public's main source of science news. This means that a larger global audience can now access, on demand, a great diversity of science coverage from media outlets around the world. Moreover, the public are no longer just passive consumers of information. The Internet is now the first place people go to look for more information on a scientific topic, such as stem cells or climate change. Thanks to the Internet, in short, one could argue that the overall state of science communication is better now than at any time in the past."
Nature's editorials are free to access online, so please read on at this link.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 01, 2008
Categories: Communication, Public and media | Permalink | Comments (0)

From an Edtiorial in the current (April) issue of Nature Genetics (40, 375; 2008):
Communicating the details of science to nonspecialists is intrinsically hard because research entails specialized techniques for empirical testing of counterintuitive ideas. Public imagination may be more readily seized by stories that fit with preconceived models, and distortion can happen when communicators employ the most transmissible ideas. But when new concepts are successfully represented in everyday imagery, there is no reason the public cannot follow in detail the excitement of doing research. When engaged in the details of the analogy, nonspecialists can ask questions from a perspective that will be useful to the expert.
In an interview with Robyn Williams on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Science Show [15 March 2008 edition], Oxford University researcher Kim Nasmyth explained molecular mechanisms of chromosome segregation with a riddle. In his allegory, chromosomes are represented as pairs of socks.

Continue reading "Analogies to describe science to nonscientists" »

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 31, 2008
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This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors. The Nature Network week column is archived here.

In the science writers' group, Angela Saini asks what science stories would be great for television, given that her non-scientist friends frequently tell her that "there is not enough science on TV". Among the responses so far are suggestions about heirloom tomatoes, better science for children, fun science and a magazine show. Matt Brown , who provides a weekly round-up of UK science TV on the network, comments that his favourite science programme on TV is "the recent BBC4 documentary about the lead singer of Eels discovering his father’s pioneering work on parallel universe theory. In other words, rock star learns extreme physics." Read on, and add your suggestions, at the Network forum.

At the NatureJobs careers forum, Paul Smaglik provides advice on roles in clinical trial programmes and starting a research career.

At the good paper journal club, Linda Cooper asks why so many scientific articles are difficult to read, and Heather Etchevers encourages more suggestions of well-written papers for dissection. Continuing the theme, Richard Grant at his blog The Scientist asks why most scientific papers are so boring. There is a very nice blog post by Mico Tatalovic, providing a student's perspective on students' science-writing skills -- including a round-up of undergraduate science journals.

Anna Kushnir initiates what has turned out to be a very informative debate about PubMed searches, at her blog Lab Life. There are plenty of tips and links in the long comment thread. You can also read an article on Partial Immortalization blog, "How to filter and read PubMed articles through RSS feeds", complete with screen shots, by Attila Csordas.

Jose Manuel Otero has started a Nature Network blog to discuss the difference and similarities between academic and industrial research. He is setting out to destroy some common myths. One such is that industrial research environments are not focused on problem understanding, but instead exclusively concerned with project milestones and product delivery, and therefore, will punish any type of mechanism-based efforts towards enhanced and deeper understanding. Wrong! Unsurprisingly, this blog is attacting stimulating discussion, which doubtless will continue.

John Willbanks writes about creative works, copyrights and publishing, providing some further thoughts after his talk at MIT on the question of how to extricate the “non-creative facts” from the creative, copyrighted work.

Perhaps the most intense and long comment thread for the week is Jennifer Rohn's post and discussion on Mind the Gap, "In which I utterly fail to conceptualize". Initially on the use of Excel spreadsheets to analyse genome-wide screens, the discussion becomes a full-blown debate on the contributions of bioinformaticans and "wet" (laboratory) biologists. And perhaps the most significant Nature Network group that started this week is called Collaboration: bringing Nature Network members together, set up by Bob O'Hara in direct response to this discussion. Can Nature Network create collaborations between its members? How can NN facilitate this process? Here you can discuss these details, and look for other people who are interested in working on the same topics as you are. I encourage you to sign up.

Previous Nature Network columns.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 28, 2008
Categories: Communication, Nature Network round-up, Partners | Permalink | Comments (0)

Noam Y. Harel of Yale University writes in Nature's Correspondence page (Nature 452, 409; 2008):

Writing grant proposals is difficult enough; keeping track of different deadlines makes for an endless cycle of procrastination and frantic preparation. The added stack of bureaucratic forms, with arcane variations from agency to agency, can tip one over the edge as a deadline nears.
Is it almost too obvious to wish for a centralized proposal repository? Investigators could submit proposals at any time, in a common format that highlights the science rather than obliterates it with red tape. Funding agencies could search the repository for proposals matching their interests. A minimum of bureaucratic information would be required up front. Budget details could be worked out between funding agencies and investigators as necessary.
Ideally, all proposals would be publicly accessible. However, most of the scientific community has not yet accepted the inevitable dawn of truly open science. Submissions to a central repository could therefore be made accessible only to funding agencies that agree to keep proposals private (unless a submitting investigator indicates a willingness to share his or her proposal publicly).
The repository would make life easier for scientists by eliminating the hassle of searching for suitable grant mechanisms and the stress of meeting various deadlines. It would make life easier for funding agencies by expanding the pool of applications from which to choose. Of course, the best proposals could attract offers from multiple agencies. Rather than forcing investigators to choose non-overlapping sources of funding for each project, why not use the repository to mediate shared funding agreements that could benefit everyone involved? In effect, it would serve as the mediator between grant-seekers and grant-providers.
In a world where eBay, Facebook and Google powerfully demonstrate the communal nature of the Web, it is a pity that scientists and funding agencies don’t have a similarly modern forum for matching their interests and offers.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 26, 2008
Categories: Access, Communication, Data availability, Support | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hearing about past and present issues in the world community of immunology can enrich all of us, according to the Editorial in this month's (April) issue of Nature Immunology (9, 331; 2008). The journal is publishing a series of commentaries on immunology in various places in the world, to demonstrate how, as a community, immunologists work and live together to advance the discipline.
Beginning with a piece by Agustin Lage on immunology, public health and biotechnology in Cuba in February (Nat. Immun. 9, 109-112; 2008), this series provides information on funding and infrastructure for immunology, special projects, and people, places and events. It also provides an opportunity for readers to compare and contrast the familiar scene in their own regions with that of other places. Commentaries now scheduled or under consideration survey the scene in India, the Middle East, Argentina, Russia and South Africa, and, in the current issue, Xuetao Cao discusses immunology in China (Nat. Immun. 9, 339-342; 2008).
The commentaries will not cover immunology comprehensively, but will present a few well chosen places—and well-chosen authors—to provide insight into new projects, ideas and concerns. In the words of the Editorial: "We hope that these commentaries, which will appear periodically over the next year or so, will enrich understanding of the familiar and the not-so-familiar in the world of immunology."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 24, 2008
Categories: Communication, Disciplines | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corie Lok, Nature Network's Editor, was in Toronto over the weekend attending the world’s first Scibarcamp, where 120 scientists, writers, artists, technologists and business people discussed topics ranging from science '2.0'; science and art; and whether can technology can make us happy. Corie highlights a session led by Eva Amsen on '10 things everyone should know about science'. Eva asked conference-goers to write down their ideas for what everyone should know about science on a board, which is photographed at Corie's blog, together with a list of her favourites.

In a post called The condition of Denmark, Nature editor Henry Gee writes on scientific literacy and how "Selecting papers for publication in Nature is rather like standing in front of a firehose and picking out a few choice drops of water. Even then, Nature’s subeditors remain hardpressed, given that papers these days contain volumes (volumes) of accessory and supplementary material—none of which existed a decade ago. Online publication means that papers are published round the clock, rather than just once a week. And things are unlikely to get any easier."

The Fiction Lab, coming soon to the newly refurbished Royal Institution, will be a reading group dedicated to lab lit and other science-related or inspired literary fiction, introduced by Jennifer Rohn at her blog Mind the Gap. The first book to be discussed is The Sun and Moon Corrupted by Philip Ball, who will also be making a personal appearance.

In response to a question at the NatureJobs career forum from a Network user who has a medical degree and wants to start a job in research, Paul Smaglik advises that "it’s perfectly acceptable to start as a technician, learn a few skills, decide whether or not you like what you’re doing, and, if you do, seek further training. That’s perhaps a more rational approach than in investing seven years in a PhD, a few more in a postdoc, then learning you despise benchwork."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 21, 2008
Categories: Communication, Nature Network round-up, Partners | Permalink | Comments (0)

This month's Nature Reports Stem Cells newsletter explores banks and registries. Lawyers, ethicists and scientists meet in California to figure out what the field needs, and so does a global group of stem cell funders. A registry of human embryonic stem cells is colaunched by a country that has criminalized most research on these cells. Private stem cell banking firms criticize their competitors' approaches while claiming all stem cell triumphs.
Featured stories include:
Thickets and gaps blocking stem cell science
Cross-institutional collaborations could advance stem cell science
The European Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry — a personal view from Germany
Joeri Borstlap, technical coordinator of the registry, explains why a country that has criminalized work on some embryonic stem cell lines is participating in this effort
Related story: Q&A with Anna Veiga, the registry's scientific coordinator
Stem cell banking: lifeline or subprime?
Bryn Nelson reports that cell banks are charging high prices to store stem cells for therapeutic applications that may never be realized
Q&A: Head of the UK’s Medical Research Council ponders global stem cell efforts
At a meeting of the International Stem Cell Forum, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz describes the need for multiple registries and banks
Umbilical cord companies in Asia
Announcements of deals to bank and use umbilical cord blood in India, Vietnam and South Korea point to an industry that is both promising and prone to overpromising
For more stories, as well as research highlights, news, journal club and "featured editor", visit Nature Reports Stem Cells -- where you can also sign up for the monthly newsletter (see button at right-hand side of the page) and subscribe to the associated blog, The Niche.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 18, 2008
Categories: Communication | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few useful links and some weekend light reading suggestions via Nature Network:

Who's got an opinion on public engagement with science? asks Nature Network London editor Matt Brown.

An overview of science-related "stuff" at Second Life, by T. Troy McGonaghy of Science in the Metaverse. Via the link, you can see the slides and a video of Troy's presentation at the recent Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums conference.

On the Visualization and Science forum, Hilary Spencer posts what she calls a "rant" about powerpoint, public speaking and blog posts. I'd define it as a strongly opinionated article: it contains her reactions to presentations at a recent conference she attended, and provides some useful advice about how to make and how not to make helpful slides. In a post with a related theme, Nuruddeen Lewis at his blog Lab Daze provides a very useful primer about how to give a talk: 'Tips for nailing your next presentation'.

Martin Fenner on his excellent blog Gobbledygook writes on the "complicated" aspects of paper writing: all those policy and format requirements, ethical bodies' requirements, and international nomenclature committees' pronouncements. And Richard Grant, at The Scientist blog, hosts a discussion on writing style: 'On the care and training of students, especially the training.'

Stew at Flags and Lollipops picks up on various recent posts and articles about the lack of take-up among scientists of the online commenting facilities often offered by journals on the papers they publish. Stew takes previous suggestions with a pinch of salt, homing in on the two main reasons he believes inhibit people from writing comments on published papers.

LabLit publishes the first installment of Private Investigations, a four-part story about the adventures of a very special scientist-for-hire. The author? He or she is not unknown to Nature Network, as a small amount of detective work will reveal.

What is the best way forward for Eastern Europe's science? asks Mico Tatalovic at Cambridge Student blog, in an article featuring the new life-sciences institutue MedILS at Split, Croatia.

If you are in reach of London, there are some unusual science-related events coming up, listed by Li-Kim Lee (see links for further details): Elizabethan Sea Charts and Maps (behind the scenes); Francis Crick - DNA and beyond; Leonardo's philosophical anatomies; and my favourite, Prince Rupert, Cavalier and Scientist.

Today (14 March, which in the US style is 3.14) is Pi day; see Gobbledygook for links to the Pi day website, but also to some music, including the American Pi song -- as Martin points out, best listened to at 1:59 today.

And finally, again from Matt Brown, Nature Network's ten most prolific bloggers over the past six months, with links to the blogs concerned. They'll give you a good taste of the lively discussion on the network - do join us there.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 14, 2008
Categories: Communication, Partners, Publishing, Writing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via the Nature Network blog Science in the Metaverse:

"The popular BBC Radio show The Naked Scientists will be broadcasting live into the virtual world Second Life starting this Sunday, 2 March at 18.00 GMT (10:00 AM PST). They have an island with a nice mansion and lots of comfortable chairs where you can listen to the show with other science enthusiasts and discuss whatever comes to mind. It’s in the middle of the sim named ‘SciLands’. If you already have a Second Life account, here’s a direct link to their mansion."

The background to the event is told by Dave Taylor at Knowlege Transfer Innovations:
......"last November I contacted Dr Chris [of The Naked Scientists] and asked him if he would be interested in having a studio audience in the SciLands. By happy coincidence Chris had been thinking along the same lines and so the idea of Naked Scientists in Second Life was born. This weekend Gordon Clark and I headed to Cambridge while colleagues in Second Life tested the audio link. The resulting podcast included an interview with us both. I described the ISM’s tour of the planets and our joint nuclear experiments with University of Denver while Gordon spoke about his recent trip through a biological sim. You can read the transcript or download the podcast here. During the show I said that innovations often come out of different disciplines meeting and having corridor discussions."

Joanna Scott, Nature Publishing Group's expert on Second Life, is usually at Second Nature (Nature's island on Second Life) between 4 and 5 p.m. GMT (8 - 9 a.m. SLT) , so please log in and join her then if you'd like to tell us what you are doing in Second Life, and what you think Nature Publishing Group might do there that would be useful for you. She looks forward to meeting yo