Nautilus

Following on from yesterday's post about schemes to involve the general public in the daily lives of scientific researchers, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology announce an initiative to connect commercially oriented academics with their local business community (Nat. Med. 15, 1095; 2009). The SciCafé is a series of networking events in Boston and San Francisco that help researchers connect with investors and serial entrepreneurs.
The SciCafé is intended to provide a showcase of the work of investigators publishing cutting-edge work to an invited audience of 30 or so business people. The first SciCafés were in Boston and San Francisco because each area not only produces a prodigious amount of high-quality science, but is also home to a large number of sophisticated, early-stage life science investors/entrepreneurs. Starting next month, the journals are extending the concept to Europe, with a SciCafé in planned in London. Nature Medicine writes:
"Academics are selected on their publication record and on the potential commercial interest of their research. Editorial responsibility for selection rests with the participating journals, which take an ecumenical approach, looking at the whole literature—not just papers published in Nature journals. Those selected are given one-on-one coaching by the editors on how best to present their research to an investor audience. We also invite the technology transfer offices of any selected academics to send a representative to the SciCafé.
In announcing the SciCafé to the broader biomedical community, we would like to also invite applications from investigators in the Boston, San Francisco or London areas who are interested in presenting. Applications should be sent to scicafe@us.nature.com outlining in 1,000 words the applicant's contact details, the three peer-reviewed papers most relevant to their work, a clear but brief description of the commercial potential and any associated intellectual property.
We acknowledge that many in academia have no interest in seeking closer ties with the investor community. But for those who do wish to commercialize their work, we hope SciCafé offers a new opportunity."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 13, 2009
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The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) are pleased to announce a partnership to publish the society's leading international journal Polymer Journal. From July 2009, articles will be freely available. Further developments will culminate in January 2010 when the full site is launched.
Polymer Journal publishes high-quality peer-reviewed articles spanning all areas of polymer research. The monthly journal was launched in 1970 and is keen to continue its record of facilitating important advances in the field, ensuring rapid publication of papers after they have undergone review. Polymer Journal welcomes submissions across a variety of article types including Original Articles, Notes, Short Communications and Reviews.
Essential polymer research is regularly published in NPG's flagship journal Nature, as well as in a number of other Nature journals including Nature Chemistry, Nature Materials, Nature Physics and Nature Nanotechnology.
The Editor-in-Chief of Polymer Journal, Professor Toshikazu Takata of the Tokyo Institute of Technology leads a first-class, internationally diverse editorial board. The combined knowledge, experience and dedication of the board provides a first-class editorial service across the full spectrum of polymer science.

About Polymer Journal.
Journal aims and scope.
About the Society for Polymer Science, Japan.
Editorial board listing.
Benefits to authors.
Request a sample copy and subscription information.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 10, 2009
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On Monday 8 June, Nature is hosting The Big Science Debate: A Biological Century? The event starts at 7 p.m. at Kings Place 90 York Way, London NI. Physics, biology and chemistry have all helped define the twentieth century. Many world-changing innovations from physics include electric power, the microchip and the internal combustion engine. In biology and chemistry, an agricultural revolution has helped to feed a growing population. But some of these advances have also helped to create climate change and a rate of species-loss not seen since the last mass extinction. What will physics and biology look like 50 years from now? And what might the impacts be?

Join three distinguished panellists -- a physicist, a biologist and a historian -- as they cast their gaze into the future of science, and its possible impacts. Will we resolve the riddle of dark matter and dark energy, and will string theory remain the best candidate for unifying the forces of nature? Will stem cells have fulfilled their promise and what of the potential of genetically modified crops in agriculture?
Panellists:
• David Edgerton, Professor of the History of Science, Imperial College London
• Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, University College London
• Alison Wright, Chief Editor of Nature Physics
Chair: Ehsan Masood, Acting Chief Commissioning Editor, Nature
Host: Nick Campbell, Managing Editor, Nature
For more info on The Nature Debate series, please email the organizers.
Tickets are available online, by email or via the King's Place Box Office on +44 (0)20 7520 1490.
Kings Place, and how to get there.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 03, 2009
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Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World is the title of a new book by Eugenie Samuel Reich. The book tells the story of Jan Hendrick Schön 's discovery of a plastic that worked as a superconductor - hailed as a scientific triumph before revelations that his discoveries were fake. (See here for Nature's editorial about the journal's retraction of seven papers by Schön.) This book analyses the fraud and considers pressures that force unscrupulous behaviour from science's rising stars.
Comments from some reviews of the book:
'…Reich’s journalistic persistence and technical thoroughness yield a largely complete, often dramatic account of Schön’s roguery and downfall.' - Booklist
'Eugenie Samuel Reich unpicks the tale with meticulous care.' - Philip Ball, Sunday Times
‘…a wonderful piece of forensic writing.’ - Clive Cookson, Financial Times
'It is gripping stuff: a surprising page-turner that is well worth reading.' - New Scientist
The book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and costs £15.99. For more details and to order, see the Palgrave website.

World Scientific Publishing Company and Nature Publishing Group have just announced that they are co-publishing a book called Nanoscience and Technology. This collection of Reviews from Nature journals will be launched in October 2009 at Frankfurt Book Fair. The book is a collection of more than 30 review articles by internationally renowned researchers working in nanoscience and nanotechnology, first published in various Nature journals. Topics covered include nanomaterials and nanostructures; molecular machines and devices; nanoelectronics; nanophotonics; nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine; and applications of nanotechnology.
"World Scientific and Nature Publishing Group should be applauded for publishing this collection of some of the most important papers in nanoscience," said Dr. Mark Lundstrom, Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor at Purdue University. "Pulling these papers together in one volume helps put the remarkable advances in this very new field in perspective, and stimulates thinking about future directions in nanoscience and technology. It will be an important resource for the community."
More information on Nanoscience and Technology.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 02, 2009
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The Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators is presented to young scientists for outstanding achievements in the field of biomedical research based on methods of molecular biology. The award is presented in partnership with the scientific journal Nature. Last year's winner was Simon Boulton of Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute, for his work on genome instability and cancer. A list of previous winners is available here. The deadline for applications for the 2009 award is 30 June, and details of how to apply can be found at Eppendorf's website. Applications must include a title summarizing the submitted work, a curriculum vitae, a publication list, PDFs of up to three of the candidate's published papers, and a 300-word (maximum) essay summarizing the submitted papers. The prize will be awarded by a committee of four experts, chaired by Professor Kai Simons of the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden. Neither Eppendorf nor Nature has any influence on deciding on the winner.
More about Nature awards.
Nature awards for mentoring in science.
Nature Publishing Group's programmes and awards for developing countries.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 01, 2009
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Nature Publishing Group is pleased to announce the launch of the Lipidomics Gateway - a free, comprehensive resource for researchers interested in lipid biology. The site enables users to stay abreast of developments each month from across the field, and explore the rich information collections, tools and resources from the LIPID MAPS consortium. Each month it is updated with specially written content from Nature Publishing Group editors, including research highlights, news, events and a growing research library.
The LIPID MAPS (Lipid Metabolites and Pathways Strategy) consortium is a multi-institutional effort to further our understanding of lipid metabolism and the role lipids play in diseases such as diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The consortium takes a systems biology approach using the mouse macrophage as a model system, and provides tools and resources for the wider community.

Lipidomics Gateway update (new content added each month).
Events calendar - a directory of meetings, conferences and events of interest to lipid researchers.
Lipidomics Gateway resources.
Lipidomics Gateway search.
About the Lipidomics Gateway.
About LIPID MAPS - the consortium, key people, core labs and bridges.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 13, 2009
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Four decades after the first Moon landings (Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969), the original space-racers have been joined by China, India, South Korea, even Nigeria. Why do we still need manned missions? Does human space exploration need countries to cooperate, or does it benefit from the oxygen of international conflict and mistrust? Join a lively debate on the Moon and beyond at London’s premier new arts venue – Kings Place - on 11 May 2009.
Hosted by Nick Campbell (Managing Editor, Nature) and chaired by Christine McGourty (Science Correspondent, BBC News), come and hear Kevin Fong, Oliver Morton and Martin Sweeting debate these stimulating questions.
Racing to the Moon is the first of two Words on Monday events organized by Nature to be held at Kings Place over the summer season.
More details of the programme and speakers are attached (Word document).
Alternatively, see the Kings Place website for details and booking information.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 27, 2009
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Hear the experts speak about the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, tools and resources -- including the National Cancer Institute-Nature Pathway Interaction Database -- at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Denver on Monday 20 April 2009. The Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid session starts at 10:30 a.m. and will be followed by demonstrations of tools. Two Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) sessions will be held on Tuesday afternoon. All the sessions will be targeted at bench researchers. Further details are available here.
Recently added pathways to the Pathway Interaction Database include polo-like kinase signaling events in the cell cycle and E-cadherin signaling in the nascent adherens junction. For further updates, news, primers and all things related to biomolecular interactions and cellular processes assembled into human signalling pathways, sign up for the e-alerts to this free resource.

About the Pathway Interaction Database.
User guide to the Pathway Interaction Database.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 16, 2009
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Via press release:
InnoCentive, Inc., the global open innovation marketplace, and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) have announced a partnership to facilitate greater scientific collaboration and open innovation.
The two companies will collaborate to stimulate the involvement of scientists worldwide in solving global scientific challenges, via an online marketplace for problems and their solutions. The concept of “open innovation” addresses the research challenges that organizations face, by using external expertise to solve problems and drive development of new products and technologies. Global challenges such as the development of better protection against malaria, finding ways to shorten the clinical trials process and the design of environmentally friendly, sustainable product packaging, to name a few, require broad and diverse expertise.
InnoCentive’s open innovation web site provides a platform for organizations, companies and government agencies (known as ‘Seekers’) to post innovation ‘Challenges’ for the public (known as ‘Solvers’) to solve for financial reward. NPG and InnoCentive intend to jointly produce an online platform for open innovation challenges in the coming months, to facilitate the participation of NPG’s large expert audience.
“Nature has for nearly 150 years been at the forefront of bringing significant advances in science to the attention of the research community and the public, and strives to be an integral part of the scientific community, aiding collaboration and the spread of knowledge. For large global challenges like infectious diseases and climate change, it makes sense to cast the net as wide as possible to find experts who can solve a problem,” said Steven Inchcoombe, Managing Director, Nature Publishing Group. “Through this partnership with InnoCentive, Nature Publishing Group hopes to explore how we can help increase the chance of solving these global problems. We look forward to working with InnoCentive to promote the expertise of scientists and bring benefits to the wider community.”
NPG press release announcing the partnership.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 14, 2009
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Classical and emerging infectious diseases, viral pandemics, and drug-resistant pathogens remain challenges to human health. However, contemporary advances in genetics and genomic technologies provide new approaches to understanding and combating these diseases. The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) are partnering with Nature Publishing Group (NPG) to organize an international conference to discuss how the genomes, unique biologies, and interactions of both host and pathogen are being revealed using novel genomic technologies, and how this information can and will translate into disease management and therapies. This conference, from 21 to 24 March 2009, at the Ritz Carlton Millenia Hotel, Singapore, will engage basic and clinical scientists, including human geneticists, genome scientists, computational biologists, and experts in pathogenic microbial agents, to chart the effects of genomics on questions in global infectious disease management.
Organizers; Aravinda Chakravarti (American Society of Human Genetics, USA) ; Jeremy Farrar (Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Viet Nam) ; Louisa Flintoft (Nature Reviews Genetics, UK); Chris Gunter (HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, USA); Edison Liu (Human Genome Organisation, Singapore); and Magdalena Skipper (Nature, UK).

Website for conference on gentics and genomics of infectious diseases.

List of speakers.

Register here for this conference.

More about location and accommodation.

About the organizers.

Nature Conferences: programme for 2009.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 26, 2009
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To help celebrate two notable anniversaries this year which I assume you have not missed (Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of first publication of On The Origin of Species), the Elucian Islands in Second Life will play host to its very first interactive game, Notes from the Voyage, tomorrow (Wednesday 25 February 2009).
Joanna Scott tells us: "To complete the series of tasks in Notes from the Voyage, you will need to brave earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, swim among coral reef and uncover buried fossils, as well as encounter wildlife including jaguars, sloths and tortoises. Armed with your toolbag, compass and notebook, can you relive the highlights of Darwin’s famous Beagle voyage and rediscover his key scientific findings? Prizes await all those who succeed."
The new addition to the Elucian Islands archipelago, which includes a lush re-creation of South America and the Galapagos Islands, as well as a Second Life scale replica of HMS Beagle, will be opened on 25 February at 1800h GMT / 1000h PST and SLT (second life time), by Karen James, Darwin co-ordinator at the Natural History Museum, London and Science Director of The Beagle Project. Karen will talk to attendees about her work for the Darwin anniversaries. There will also be a showing of a short film from Nature Video of David Attenborough talking about his view on Darwin, natural selection and the Bible, before the game begins.
The Elucian Islands will also host a special series of talks on topics including the history of Darwin and Darwinism in research today, as well as themed podcasts and videos. All these events are free to attend and everybody is very welcome. To be kept up to date with all events, watch Joanna's blog or join the Nature group in Second Life.

Elucian Islands on nature.com: what it's about and how to get started.

Nature's Darwin special: all the magnificent content in the journal to celebrate Darwin, in one place.

More Nature videos.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 24, 2009
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SciBX (Science-Business Exchange) is a year old, and executive editor Gaspar Taroncher-Oldenburg describes the publication's progress in an editorial in the current (February) issue (SciBX 2, doi:10.1038/scibx.2009.167). SciBX is mapping the translational space in depth, based on the collaboration between Nature Publishing Group and BioCentury to identify science with commercial potential and to describe the work required to complete the transition from bench to bedside. Gaspar writes:

"In its first-year assessment of the scientific space, the SciBX team evaluated more than 16,000 peer-reviewed journal articles published in over 40 top life science journals and selected over 2,000 papers for further editorial review of their scientific and commercial merit. This effort resulted in the publication of more than 850 Distillery briefings distributed across 19 disease classes." The largest segment of peer-reviewed science with commercial potential is being produced in the 'cancer space', even though most disease-related deaths worldwide are from cardiovascular disease. Statistics are provided on the proportion of peer-reviewed papers covered; the money raised by private and public biotechnology organizations; NIH funding by discipline, 2008; and WHO disease burden from 2004, projected to 2030. The article further explores how research efforts focused on cancer do not reflect the public health burden created by other diseases.

About SciBX.

Current issue.

Subscribe to SciBX.

About BioCentury, SciBX's partner.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 16, 2009
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Make personal history and come to the first Digital Lives Research Conference. The Digital Lives Research Project is hosting a conference starting on Monday 9 February 2009, and continuing until Wednesday 11 February, at the British Library in London. The aim is to explore a wide range of aspects of digital lives and the curation of personal digital archives in a collaborative conference bringing together researchers, professionals, creators and the digital public.
On 11 February, virtual delegates can join the conference on the Elucian Islands, the Second Life home of Nature Publishing Group and Macmillan Publishers. The programme for the day focuses on the web, and is oriented towards life online and online lives. Topics range from virtual worlds and iScience to cloud computing. Speakers include Dame Wendy Hall DBE and Nature Publishing Group's Timo Hannay. The day finishes with polar explorer Ben Saunders talking about 'Digital Life at the Extremes'. Other highlights include a talk by Georgina Ferry, author of some superb scientific biographies including those of Dorothy Hodgkin and Max Perutz; and a “writers in conversation” session to include Dame Antonia Byatt and Rt Hon Anthony Wedgwood Benn. I (Maxine Clarke) shall also be attending.
The conference is free to attend on 9 and 11 February, registration required. There is a small registration fee for 10 February, but waivers are available.
About the conference.
Programme and speakers.
Registration details.
Digital lives project team blog.
Information and user guidance about the Second Life version of the Digital Lives conference.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 07, 2009
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The first Nature Darwin debate has the title: Are We Still Evolving?, and will take place on Monday 9 February 2009 at Kings Place, London at 7 p.m. local time. Speakers are Henry Gee, palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and senior editor, Nature; Susan Blackmore, psychologist, writer and visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol; and Andrew Pomiankowski, Professor of Genetics, University College London. Chair of the panel is Oliver Morton, chief News and Features editor at Nature. The panellists will be addressing the question of whether natural selection is still shaping humans, given that our survival is often more dependent on technology than genes. What might our species look like 1000 years from now?
Further details, including venue information and more about the speakers, can be found at the Nature Network London events forum.

Discuss this event and the general topic at the Nature Network London forum.

See also further discussion at the Nature Network Opinion forum, to which you are welcome to contribute.

Nature's special celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday - a wonderful collection of articles and interactive content of all types, updated as the year continues.

Fifteen evolutionary gems: free access to 15 Nature publications that illustrate the breadth, depth and power of evolutionary thinking.

The second Nature Darwin debate: What Price Biodiversity?, will take place on 9 March 2009. More details are available here.

Kings Place "Words on Monday" debates.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 05, 2009
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From my colleagues in the Nature press office:

British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough presents his views on Charles Darwin, natural selection, and how the Bible has put the natural world in peril in an exclusive interview for Nature Video.
Talking about his new programme "Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life", to be broadcast on BBC One on 1 February 2009, Attenborough singles out the book of Genesis as the root cause of man's exploitation and devastation of the planet, and explains that evolution is vitally important because it inextricably places man as part of the natural world. He also gives a personal insight into his 50-year career as a science broadcaster and life-long campaigner for evolution.
Access the video free on Nature’s YouTube site.

Nature' s YouTube video channel index page is here, from which you can access our other videos, also free.

Nature's video archive at the journal website.

Nature's multimedia index page.

David Attenborough's recent troubles with creationists are described at End of the Pier Show, the personal blog of Nature senior editor Henry Gee, and at The Great Beyond (Nature's science news blog).

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 30, 2009
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There is still time to register for Interpreting the Human Genome, the Miami 2009 Winter Symposium organized by the University of Miami, Nature Publishing Group and Scripps Florida. The conference takes place 24-28 January 2009, at Deauville Beach Resort, Miami Beach.
The human genome has hidden levels of regulatory complexity and variability that have begun to reveal themselves since the initial sequence became available in 2001. Today, with increasingly powerful sequencing and analysis technologies, we are not only beginning to appreciate the scale of variation in individual human genome sequences, but also gaining a greater understanding of how genome differences relate to human evolution and disease. This meeting will showcase these advances in our understanding of human genome regulation and variability as well as the potential of new technologies to drive the advancement of knowledge.
Speakers and honoured scientists include Svante Paabo, J. Craig Venter and George Church (full list available here).
Organizing committee of the symposium.
Meeting programme.
Conference registration details.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on December 18, 2008
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Nature Education, a new division of Nature Publishing Group, has launched Scitable, a free online educational resource for undergraduate biology instructors and students.
Scitable, which currently covers the field of genetics, is built on a library of overviews of key science concepts compiled by Nature Publishing Group's editorial staff. Scitable’s evidence-based approach explains science through the lens of the scientific method, with links to milestone research papers.
Topics of investigation include:
• Chromosomes and cytogenetics
• Evolutionary genetics
• Gene expression and regulation
• Gene inheritance and transmission
• Genes and disease
• Genetics and society
• Genomics
• Nucleic acid structure and function
• Population and quantitative genetics
Scitable is designed to help teachers engage students in a deeper appreciation of science by combining the site's content libraries with the kinds of social learning tools that students enjoy.
Visit Scitable to register, browse the content libraries, and create a classroom research space for your students.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on December 09, 2008
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The Structural Genomics Update for December reports a centralized system created by the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) that allows investigators an easy way to submit protein target suggestions to the ten PSI structural genomics centres. These proposals are evaluated for feasibility and consistency with the overall goal of the programme. The four large-scale production centres are pursuing structural studies of more than 1,400 community-nominated targets. The six PSI specialized centres, which focus on various structure-determination bottlenecks, also consider target nominations. For further information, guidelines and submission service, see the news article.
In the rest of the December update, see the featured molecule (scavenger decapping enzyme DcpS), selected free-to-access research articles from across Nature Publishing Group journals, as well as other articles and news, including an events calendar.
The PSI-Nature structural genomics knowledgebase is a free service, designed to turn the products of the Protein Structure Initiative into knowledge that is important for understanding living systems and disease. Use the site to explore the PSI's work, and stay informed about advances in structural biology and structural genomics by signing up to the monthly e-newsletter.

Nautilus post announcing launch of the structural genomics knowledgebase.
Previous Nautilus posts about structural genomics.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on December 02, 2008
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This is the text of a recent Editorial in Nature (456, 2; 2008):
Six foreign medics escaped the Libyan death penalty last year thanks to intense diplomacy, supported by the advocacy and decisive expertise of scientists. But the researchers' involvement was largely a matter of luck and serendipity. Science and scientists have much untapped potential to contribute to human-rights issues, but until now there have been limited efforts to systematically consolidate the interactions between science and human-rights groups. Two new initiatives of the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science are intended to help fill that gap.
Its On-call Scientists program launched last month aims to create a database of scientists who will volunteer time — be it a few days or a few months — and expertise, and human-rights organizations — including non-governmental organizations and international agencies such as the United Nations — seeking practical help or advice.
'Human rights' covers a gamut of issues, from exposing abuses to disaster relief. The range of scientific advice sought is correspondingly broad — statistical or methodological help to get a more accurate picture of conflict or ethnic cleansing, advice on water issues from hydrologists, or forensic help to document mass executions or overturn false convictions.
The service faces a steep learning curve in deciphering the diverse needs of human-rights groups, and how scientists might be able to help in ways perhaps not yet imagined. But better communication between scientists and the alphabet soup of human-rights groups — and between those groups themselves on technical issues — is long overdue.
Another welcome initiative is due in January 2009. Many learned societies, as well as academic groups such as Scholars at Risk, have a long history in upholding human rights and academic freedom — for example, defending scientists under threat from oppressive governments, using satellite imagery to expose human-rights abuses and speaking out on abuse wherever it occurs. To put such efforts on a firmer footing, American organizations are to launch the US Science and Human Rights Coalition, a forum in which scientific bodies and human-rights groups can share experiences and best practice. Given the US presidential election, the timing could not be better. For the past eight years, American human-rights groups have seen their international influence undermined by the US administration's diminishing moral authority and standing in the world. Scientists can, and should, help reinstate the fundamental principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Sign up, learn more and become a volunteer for On-call scientists here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 27, 2008
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The Salk Institute, Nature, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology and the Fondation IPSEN are holding Processes of Aging, the third annual Symposium on Biological Complexity, from 8 to 10 January 2009, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California. The organizers are: Yves Christen (Fondation IPSEN); Sue Deeley (Nature Publishing Group); Andrew Dillin (Salk Institute); Ron Evans (Salk Institute) Marie-Therese Heemels (Nature); Arianne Heinrichs (Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology); Fred Gage (Salk Institute); and Inder Verma (Salk Institute) - Chair.
The aging process is a multi-faceted process, where cellular aging, metabolism, the DNA damage machinery and stem cell dynamics interact to influence aging of an entire organism. Single genes can greatly alter the aging process in organisms as diverse as yeast and mice. Furthermore, it has become increasingly clear that distinct activities — which act on dividing and nondividing cells alike — protect organisms from age-related deterioration and decline. The focus of this meeting will be to decipher the mechanistic details that surround age onset, disease onset and perturbation within the aging population.
For more information and to register, please see the conference website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 25, 2008
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The UCSD-Nature Signaling Gateway has recently published HB-EGF, its 500th Molecule Page. Each week, the gateway publishes several of these concise, free review articles on a diverse range of signalling molecules, from transcription factors to membrane receptors. In addition to these published pages, the Molecule Pages database also includes key information about the biological, biochemical and functional activities of thousands of signalling molecules. There is now a new 'getting started guide' for a quick overview of the anatomy of a Molecule Page.

Sign up for the Signaling Update e-alert, a one-stop overview of current cell signalling research for specialists and interested non-specialists.
All published Molecule Pages.
Archive by date of Signaling Updates.
Signaling Gateway research library (organized by subject).

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 24, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group has just published its second free access custom publication, A World of Science in the Developing World. Published on behalf of TWAS (the academy of sciences for the developing world) to celebrate their 25th anniversary, this publication is a reflection of the insights and expertise of TWAS members and scientists who have been closely associated with the academy and is part of a broader effort to explore the rapidly changing state of science and technology in the developing world.
You can view the supplement online as well as an accompanying editorial in Nature (455, 1149-1150; 2008). If you would like your own printed copy of the collection, please request a free copy here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 06, 2008
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The first in a series of Nature debates, Enhancing the Brain, takes place at King's Place in London on Monday 13 October. Experts in science, science policy and science ethics selected by Nature, the leading weekly international journal of science, will discuss the risks, benefits and extent of how far research can extend our mental and physical abilities. The first of two panel events focuses on research underway that is extending the human brain: from intelligence and emotional tolerance, to sleep needs, memory power and more. What are the risks and benefits to the individual and to society of these developments? Would you boost your brain power? Why, when and why not? Should doctors, scientists, students, teachers or soldiers use such aids? Come along and take part in this mind-stretching evening. Tickets are £11.50.
Chair: Ehsan Masood, acting Chief Commissioning Editor of Nature.
Panel:
• Prof Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.
• Prof John Harris, Lord Alliance Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester.
• Prof Nick Bostrom, Director of the Oxford University Future of Humanity Institute.
Booking enquiries can be made by email. To check ticket availability please use the King's Place online booking service.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 07, 2008
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In its October 2008 issue, Nature Reviews Genetics presents a Supplement on Genomic Medicine in Developing Countries. At the point when the theory is about to be translated into practice in genomic medicine, this collection of five Perspective articles describes human genome variation studies taking place in Mexico, India, Thailand, and South Africa. The articles in the Supplement discuss the challenges and opportunities facing these and other countries in the developing world as they begin to harness genomics for the benefit of their populations, and highlights areas in which the international human genomics community needs to take a more forward-thinking approach. The Supplement is free to access online.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on September 29, 2008
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Last week, Matt Day announced Nature Publishing Group (NPG)'s latest website: the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI)-Nature Structural Genomics Knowledgebase. Matt writes that the new addition to NPG's existing collection of gateways and databases is "a collaboration with the Protein Structure Initiative, a large scale NIH-funded consortium to develop and apply high-throughput techniques for protein structure determination. They've been highly successful in generating new technologies that are available for others to use, and they've shown that structure determination work can be scaled up significantly.
Now that the site is launched, we'll be providing monthly editorial updates that put developments in structural work into context for a wide range of biomedical researchers....The website is hosted at Rutgers University by the same team that hosts one of most significant and long-established databases, the Protein Data Bank".
The Structural Genomics Knowledgebase (SGKB) offers researchers and others an easy way of keeping abreast of developments both by the PSI and more generally in the fields of structural genomics and structural biology. It is a regularly updated portal to research data and other resources from the PSI, with NPG providing a monthly update with synopses of important research advances, recent additions to a categorized library of research articles, as well as news and events in structural biology. You can register to receive a monthly email newsletter and subscribe to RSS feeds. NPG resources and publications relevant to the Protein Structure Initiative can be accessed here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on September 23, 2008
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On Monday 22 September, the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology will be running their first consultation session, A Vision for Science and Society, in the virtual world of Second Life, at Second Nature Island. (Time: 1850 – 2000 GMT/1050 – 1200 PDT.) The UK Government has issued a new consultation document entitled A Vision for Science and Society. The resource centre for woman is keen to ensure that issues of gender equality are part of the agenda and are holding a series of focus groups to discuss the topic. Monday’s event will be held entirely in Second Life and all are very welcome to attend. It will be just over an hour long and will involve informal discussion in small groups on some of the issues. You do not have to have read the report, and men and women are equally welcome. The event is free, but you are asked to book in advance to give them an idea of numbers. You can book by email or telephone. See the UK Resources for Women website for further details.

Another event next week is taking place in the real world (first life) and simultaneously in Second Life. Scientific researchers and web2.0: social notworking? at the British Library in London on Wednesday 24 September from 1800 to 2030 GMT, and is organized by Sarah Kemmitt. This free event is the second in the BL’s quarterly café scientifique exploring varied topical issues in science. Timo Hannay, the Publishing Director of nature.com, will introduce the subject followed by a discussion with the audience. This provocative title aims to stimulate discussion on the following questions: is Web 2.0 all about attitudes or technologies?; what can Web 2.0 do for your research?; as a scientist, are there good reasons for getting involved beyond social ‘notworking’?; and web 3.0: another buzzword or a semantic revolution for science on the web? There is a lively discussion group on Nature Network in which aspects of these topics have been debated in the run-up to the evening. This event is free but pre-registration is required. For those interested who cannot attend in person, details of the Second Life parallel alternative are here.

Several further scientific events are scheduled in Second Life in the next few weeks. Some highlights include:
Sunday 10 February: Darwin Day Monkey Parade
Tueesday 11 February: “Nano-science and the Quantum World” talk on Nanotech Island.
Monday 18 February: “Manatee conservation and classification” talk on Second Nature
Thursday 21 February: George Monbiot talk on climate change on Second Nature.
Friday 22 February: talk by Dr David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist from the Denver Museum of Science & Nature.
Further details and links to the calendar of events can be found here.

See the website Second Nature for more information about Nature's island in Second Life, where there is a video introduction and tutorial for first-time users, and much other information about Second Nature and the events there. If you are familiar with Second Life, you can go directly to Second Nature by visiting this link.
There is a Nature Network Second Life group for those interested in using this virtual world for scientific activities.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on September 18, 2008
Categories: Author benefits, Communication, Conferences, Partners, Public and media | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature Precedings has recently had a makeover, incuding a Flash-based viewer for presentations (see it in action here); the addition of pages allowing one to view only manuscripts, posters or presentations; and a list of recently updated documents (documents with new revisions posted on Precedings or with newly-added links to later published versions) on the homepage. The homepage itself features two new collections of documents: the Allen Brain Atlas Reports and the Second Nature lecture series.
Hilary Spencer provides some more details on the Flash-based viewer for browsing presentation slides. The viewer can be embedded in the author’s homepage, blogs or other webpages, which we hope will help facilitate viewing, sharing and discussion. It has a full-screen mode, which can be activated using the button in the top right. The same button will also exit full screen mode, or one can press the “ESC” key. The two buttons below the full screen button control the zoom level (for when you can’t read a piece of text or want a better view of an image). Clicking and dragging (or “grabbing”) will pan the image.Embedding the slideshow in your own webpage or blog is easy. Just copy the HTML code for the embed (found to the right of the viewer) into your page. Let us know what you think!

Posted by Maxine Clarke on August 12, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group has several partners, highlighted in this post as most are relevant to authors and so of potential interest to readers of this blog. I have provided a direct link to each partner organization for those who wish to find out more details.
The AGORA programme, set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to an outstanding digital library collection in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA provides a collection of 845 journals to institutions in 113 countries.
The HINARI programme, set up by WHO together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health literature.
OARE, Online Access to Research in the Environment, an international public-private consortium coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University, and leading science and technology publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of environmental science research.
INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) is a development charity that has been working to enhance worldwide access to information since 1992. As part of the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI) INASP works with publishers and networks of libraries to enable access to scholarly information using information and communications technologies within developing and emerging countries.
CrossRef is an independent membership association, founded and directed by publishers. CrossRef’s mandate is to connect users to primary research content, by enabling publishers to do collectively what they can’t do individually.
Counter. The use of online information resources is growing rapidly. It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being accessed. An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed international set of standards and protocols governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. The COUNTER Codes of Practice provide these standards and protocols and are published in full on this website.
Darwin200 is a collaboration of organizations across the United Kingdom that are celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday in February 2009 with an exciting programme of activities.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 30, 2008
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The NatureJobs Source Event career fair will be taking place in London on 26 September 2008. This dedicated science career fair combines a dynamic exhibition with conference and workshop sessions. The event will promote the UK and the rest of Europe as a great place to pursue a career in science, be it in industrial research, research organizations or academia. It will present the best opportunities from the best organizations: public, private, national and international.
Jobseekers will be able to meet with potential employers who are offering hundreds of vacancies. The plenary and workshop sessions will provide a unique opportunity to meet high-profile scientists and gain careers information and advice.
Several of the invited speakers have kindly agreed to answer career-related questions in advance of the meeting, at Nature Network. The Nature Network Question & Answer session with some of the meeting’s speakers is now "live". The NatureJobs team invites you to ask the speakers about their backgrounds, career paths, advice for getting in to a particular field or sector, relevant or important skill sets, and so on. The relevant speaker(s) will post responses, and factor the questions into their presentations at the event.

The following speakers have kindly agreed to participate:
• Jim Loftus, Research Recruitment Manager, Pfizer
• Matthais Haury, Coordinating Manager, EMBL International Centre for Advanced Training
• Zonya Jeffrey, Biomedical Scientist, Central Manchester and University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Stijn Oomes, Assistant Professor in Human–Computer Interaction, Delft University of Technology
• George Schlich, Chartered and European Patent Attorney & founder of Schlich & Co
• Jonathan Yearsley, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne.

Already in the Nature Network Source Event forum there are questions and answers about moving from academia to industry, what participants hope to gain from the event, which recruitment and other companies will be exhibiting, how to upload your CV, and more.
Please join this free Nature Network group to ask your questions and to obtain further careers advice from the panel of experts.
The Question and Answer sessions are here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 25, 2008
Categories: Careers, Partners | 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
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Frontiers of cellular, developmental and molecular biology, Nice; 30 August – 2 September 2008.
The seventh international congress of the European Life Scientist Organization (ELSO) returns this year to Nice on the French Cote d’Azur. Promoted for the first time in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the ELSO meeting offers a broad palette of top-notch international molecular life science mixed with informative and practical events to promote the career development of young researchers.
From the conference information pages: Plenary session speakers this year include: systems biologist Ursula Klingmueller; cell biologist Graham Warren; stem cell biologist Andreas Trumpp; developmental biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz; tissue engineer Donald Ingber, and proteomics expert Matthias Mann. The 21 minisymposia and the poster sessions cover topics ranging from entry of pathogens into cells, through epigenetics to computational biology and all stops en route. Around 180 speakers, 600 posters and 80 commercial exhibitors will provide four full days of exciting and topical life science. Abstract submission deadline is 15 June.
If you are looking for advice on what to do next, whether it be a postdoc or a junior group leader position in another country or a move into a career outside academia, ELSO’s career development events can give you the inspiration to try something new and challenging and the practical help to put your plans into practice. At this year’s meeting there will be mentoring and mobility sessions, first-hand accounts of careers outside academia, as well as a new career enhancement workshop looking at your own personality, CV, interview techniques, and so on. Not to be missed if you are planning a career move soon!

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 09, 2008
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The USCD-Nature Signaling Gateway would like to apply for continued funding from the US National Institutes of Health. If you are a researcher in this field, or if you are interested in this area and have been reading the articles and other content on the Gateway, please show your support by writing a letter to the team via this web form, before 30 May. Your response will help keep the content on the site freely available for all users.
The UCSD-Nature Signaling Gateway is a comprehensive and up-to-the-minute resource for anyone interested in signal transduction. The gateway represents a unique collaboration between the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Nature Publishing Group, and is designed to facilitate navigation of the complex world of research into cellular signalling. Information and data presented here are freely available to all. It is powered by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). It has won the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Award for Publishing Innovation for ‘a significantly innovative approach to any aspect of publication’.
The Signaling Gateway site has three main components: a data centre (repository and toolkits); Molecule Pages (structured data on key proteins); and Signaling Update (news and comment). The Signaling Gateway is an example of a pioneering business model that allows the scientific community free access to the wealth of cell signaling information through sponsorship, described in an article by Electronic Publishing Services as ‘the door to the future’

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 07, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group's biomedical journals are being made available to more than 20 additional countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America via INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). The high impact journals in this collection include Nature, the Nature Clinical Practice series, the Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals in the life sciences and medicine. The collection also includes more than 40 journals published by NPG on behalf of societies. For further details, please visit the INASP website.
Through PERI, INASP cooperates with publishers in the developed world to facilitate access to their publications within developing and emerging countries. INASP seeks to take a holistic approach to enhancing worldwide access to information and PERI is complemented by programmes at all stages of the communication cycle including library development, and working with local editors and researchers.
NPG journals are already widely available via the AGORA, HINARI and OARE programmes of the United Nations.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 05, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has announced five new co-publishing agreements for 2009 in Japan and China. NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, has partnered in China with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to co-publish Acta Pharmacologica Sinica and the Asian Journal of Andrology (which is also sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University) from January 2009. Together with an existing publishing partnership for the journal Cell Research with the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, this means that from next year NPG will publish three of mainland China’s most prestigious journals in life sciences and chemistry.
In Japan, NPG Nature Asia-Pacific has finalised agreements with the Japan Antibiotics Research Association, the Japan Society for Human Genetics and the Japan Society of Hypertension to publish the Journal of Antibiotics, the Journal of Human Genetics and Hypertension Research.
David Swinbanks, of NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, said: “By building on the reputations of these five international journals and by launching the NPG Asia Materials website we can publish and highlight some of the best research from the region in the life, medical, chemical and physical sciences and communicate it to the relevant communities around the world.” NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, set up to serve the growing needs of the scientific, engineering and medical communities in the region, and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi and Melbourne. More about its publishing partnerships can be found here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 29, 2008
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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
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Nature Publishing Group has launched an Asia Materials website, featuring highlights of some of the best research from all fields of materials research published in the Asia-Pacific region. A substantial share of the world’s materials research output comes from Asian countries, and the Asia-Pacific region is making rapidly increasing contributions to global scientific research. In response to these developments, scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology (members of the Global-Center of Excellence programme on materials science), together with NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, the Asia-Pacific wing of Nature Publishing Group, have launched NPG Asia Materials in preparation for establishing a new research journal devoted to materials research. Each month, NPG Asia Materials will be updated with short, easy-to-understand highlights of research articles recently published by scientists of the region in leading journals covering all fields of materials science. An Editorial Committee manages the site and selects research highlights from the papers recommended by the site's Advisory Board. You can register for regular e-mail alerts for NPG Asia Materials.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 02, 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)

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)

Multiple Sclerosis: From Pathogenesis to Therapy, 6 June 2008, Espace Charles-Louis-Havas, Paris.
Organizers: Eva Chmielnicki (Nature Medicine, USA), Laurie Dempsey (Nature Immunology, USA) and Yves Christen (Fondation IPSEN, France).
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory autoimmune disease targeting the central nervous system, leading to demyelination and axon degeneration and to severe disability as the disease progresses. It presents as a clinically heterogeneous disease, which has been problematic for efforts to develop appropriate animal models. Many environmental and genetic factors have been identified that may initiate disease. Various immune and neural cells have been found to play key roles in disease pathogenesis and progression. An Emergence & Convergence mini-symposium organised by Fondation IPSEN, Nature Medicine and Nature Immunology will address open questions in multiple sclerosis research, with the goal of identifying future directions that may lead to therapy. The application deadline is 31 March 2008. Attendance at this meeting is free on acceptance of application (register here); a free conference poster is available here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 17, 2008
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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
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The mission of the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) is to provide both the European and the international science communities with an open platform for debate and communication. It presents and profiles Europe's leading research trends in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is an opportunity to discuss and influence the future of research and innovation in Europe. The scientific programme for ESOF08, "Science for a better life", to be held in Barcelona from 18 to 22 July, has just been finalized, and is made up of 83 scientific sessions from 10 scientific themes, 10 career sessions and 70 outreach activities, with the participation of more than 450 speakers and session organizers from 30 countries. The final scientific programme schedule and list of speakers is available at the ESOF website or can be downloaded here as a 97KB PDF. Among the speakers and organisers of the sessions are Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief of Nature publications and Editor of Nature, who will be talking in the session "Sharing scientific data: who benefits?"; Alison Abbott, Nature's senior European correspondent, who is organizing a session "Looking inside your brain"; and Karl Ziemelis, Nature's chief physical sciences editor, who is organizing the session "An organic revolution".
You can register for the conference here. There is a reduced fee for participants who register before 15 March (tomorrow).

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

Starting this month (March 2008), Nature Methods strongly recommends deposition of proteomics data to public repositories before manuscript submission. From the Editorial in the March issue of the journal (Nat. Meth. 5, 209; 2008):
"Several proteomics data repositories are now available that differ in terms of their goals, structure and the formats they accept. They include PRIDE, PeptideAtlas, Global Proteome Machine Database (gpmDB) and the file distribution system Tranche. The newest addition, Human Proteinpedia, is a community-based annotation tool that hosts experimental data (Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 164; 2008).
Importantly, the major database administrators have shown their willingness to work with users and with each other to facilitate data deposition. At this stage, the process can still be labor-intensive, but a repository like PRIDE provides extensive technical assistance. Under the umbrella of the ProteomExchange consortium, the major repositories are also devising ways to share their data in a collaborative fashion, capitalizing on their complementarities to minimize submission hassle while maximizing benefits.
We support these efforts and consider it premature to recommend a particular repository. Rather we will rely on community experience to determine which database or combination of databases emerges as the most useful. However, there are specific features that editors favor. In particular, we like the possibility currently offered by PRIDE and Human Proteinpedia to provide peer reviewers with access to datasets associated with a manuscript before public release, in an anonymous fashion, and to coordinate public release of the data with publication. "

Nature Methods welcomes comments on this Editorial, and the recommendations it makes, at the journal's blog Methagora.
The Nature journals' policies on data and materials availability, including links to editorials on these policies, can be found at the author and reviewers' website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 10, 2008
Categories: Data availability, Disciplines, Partners, Policies | Permalink | Comments (0)

The International Society for Nephrology (ISN) Nephrology Gateway is being completely redesigned this month (March 2008), with many new interactive features. Since its initial launch in 2005, the gateway has become an important online resource for nephrologists worldwide, including many educational projects, and providing links to news and literature, ISN contact information and membership highlights, a conference centre with announcements, and career resource links. The ISN is one of Nature Publishing Group’s valued society partners, with more than 8,000 members worldwide. The gateway also supports the ISN's membership service activities, connecting nephrologists with information and each other to improve patient care.
The latest addition to the site is the ISN Network, where nephrologists can log in, create a profile, set up discussion groups and participate in online forums. There is already a special discussion group on the ISN Network for all those involved in editing and publishing the journal Kidney International.
More enhanced search features within the gateway will soon follow these initial features.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 03, 2008
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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 you.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 29, 2008
Categories: Communication, Partners | Permalink | Comments (1)

At Nature Publishing Group, we are often in a position of celebrating birthdays across a full range of ages, from Nature itself (139 on 4 November this year) to our youngest anniversarian, Nature Network, one year old today. In its brief span, the network has become host to a huge range of forums, groups, blogs and event notifications, some created by staff but the vast majority by users -- scientists, students, and (to quote the Editor Emeritus of Nature, Sir John Maddox) camp-followers.
Today, my shapshot shows me that the most vibrant discussions are on the role of money in Indian science; the quality of writing as a factor in the peer-review process; and nanotechnology trends predicted for this year. Tomorrow, these will be different, but equally stimulating. And fun -- check out Stripped Science, the blog of PhD student Viktor Poór, for a regular dose of science cartoons, this week with a birthday theme. Anyone can join the network, it is all free, so please do visit and meet others in a similar field, or with similar interests, to yourself.
Nature Network shares anniversaries of various kinds with the element Lawrencium, Dolly the sheep, Alexander Graham Bell, James Cook and, of course, St Valentine. The network almost, but not quite, shares a birthday with a person very closely connected with Nature in its earliest days -- Charles Darwin (who would have been 199 on Tuesday of this week, 12 February). In celebration of that anniversary, and of Nature Network's own much younger achievement, I reproduce a small part here of Matt Brown's lovely blog article about a walk through Darwin's London (complete with Google map):

"Walking up Lower Regent Street you might want to take a detour into Leicester Square. In Darwin’s day, No. 28—on the eastern side of the square—was the headquarters of the Zoological Society of London and the site of a zoological museum. On 4 January 1837, Darwin handed over 80 mammals and 450 birds collected during his Beagle trip. These included the now-famous Galapagos finches, specimens that ornithologist, artist and taxonomist John Gould was quick to describe as 'an entirely new group, containing 12 species.' "

I highly recommend reading the whole of this delightful combination of essay and guided tour. Happy birthday, indeed, Nature Network. I look forward to 199 (or more) lively years of your existence.

Update: See this posting at Nature Network for a brief history and some highlights of the first year.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 14, 2008
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From Nature 451, 619 (2008):
African researchers have just been connected by a high-speed Internet link to Europe's research network, GÉANT2. The deal has been struck between GÉANT2 and UbuntuNet, an alliance of African national research networks created in 2005. It will speed up communications and data transfer not only between African scientists and the estimated 30 million GÉANT2 users in 34 European countries, but also with scientists worldwide — through GÉANT2's connections with the United States and other research networks around the world.
UbuntuNet is not related to Ubuntu, the popular free version of the Linux operating system. But both namesakes help bring affordable quality information technology to African scientists.

The science and development network Scidev.net reports the formation of a new network, Scientists Without Borders, an initiative of the New York Academy of Sciences, which will "integrate the efforts of the scientific and health community to address global health, agriculture and energy challenges in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals." Ghana will be the first country in the scheme, from where a range of information is being collected to create a collaborative database and website, followed by others in the African continent.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 11, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group is now publishing the American Journal of Hypertension (AJH). The journal publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles in the fields of hypertension and related cardiovascular disease under the editorship of Michael Alderman, MD, and now has a new look, both in print and online. In celebration of the move to NPG, the online content of the journal is free site is free until 31 January. AJ H provides a forum for scientific inquiry of the highest standard and publishes articles on basic sciences, molecular biology, clinical and experimental hypertension, cardiology, neurophysiology and more. Visit AJH online to read the full aims and scope of the journal, including the guidelines for authors and for peer-reviewers.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 31, 2008
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In another partnership initiative, Goettingen University Library, the German National Library of Science and Technology and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) have announced that all universities, government institutions and publicly funded research institutions in Germany will obtain access to the complete Nature online archive, from 1869 to 2007. The national licence is financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) as part of its national licensing project.
For more about the Nature archive and links to history resources available online, see this Nautilus post from 8 January 2008.
See here for the NPG press release (PDF) announcing the partnership.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 21, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has announced a partnership with an online, knowledge-sharing community called Sermo, a website that is freely available to all licensed physicians in the United States, to facilitate the discussion and interpretation of content in NPG's medical journals. NPG will add ‘Discuss on Sermo’ links to the online versions of articles in 12 of its medical journals, including Nature Medicine, Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine , Nature Reviews Cancer and Leukemia. These links will allow physicians reading the journals to create or join discussions of the articles with Sermo's 50,000 members. NPG will make the full text of these selected articles freely available to registered users of Sermo. Physicians use the site to aggregate their observations from their daily practice, then challenge or corroborate each others' opinions. The goal is to accelerate the emergence of trends and insights on medicines, devices and treatments, together resulting in better outcomes for patients.
See here for NPG's press release (PDF) announcing this partnership. More information about Sermo is available here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 21, 2008
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The Neuroscience Gateway has moved to a new URL, www.neuroscience-gateway.org. Building on the success of the gateway, developed in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Nature Publishing Group is now expanding the gateway in new directions. Please update your bookmarks to the Allen Brain Atlas.
The site will continue to provide updates about the latest research, news and events, and will soon be including new features reflecting recent trends in neuroscience research. We hope you'll continue to find the Gateway a useful tool to track progress in neuroscience, and we'll provide more news about the site's development in the coming months.
We welcome suggestions and feedback from the neuroscience community, both at the Neuroscience Gateway and at Action Potential, NPG's neuroscience blog. We also encourage neuroscientists and others interested in the field to join the free neuroscience group on Nature Network, in which editors Noah Gray and Kathryn Devaney run an interactive journal club and host other discussions on what’s new in neuroscience research and publishing.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 11, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and BioCentury Publications, Inc announce a new electronic publication, SciBX, that will distill and analyse newly published life-science research to help the translation of academic science into commercial products. The preview edition of SciBX (for Science-Business eXchange) is available from the organisation's website: the publication will be distributed to subscribers every Thursday, starting on 31 January 2008.
SciBX will evaluate hundreds of high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific articles every week and select the most commercially relevant findings that merit deeper analysis. This multidisciplinary approach will provide scientific context, identify potential commercial impact and describe the next steps required to translate the newest laboratory developments into innovative healthcare solutions.
According to Medline, more than 600,000 articles were added to its database in 2006 alone. SciBX will filter this flood of scientific data, and analyse key findings within the most current scientific and business context. It will be an indispensable resource for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, business development specialists, drug discovery and development teams, venture capitalists and other investment professionals who wish to identify new projects and potential new partners, to find enabling technology, and to be aware of competitive advances.
Please download the free preview edition of SciBX , which contains sample articles, including:
- Analysis – Providing in-depth review of new research findings and an essential understanding of the next steps required to transform these developments into commercial value.
- The Distillery – Filtering and classifying the important current research papers in biotechnology, life science and chemistry, the Distillery goes beyond the abstract to explain the science, its commercial relevance, licensing status and identify companies known to be working in the area.
Further information about the publication, the team producing it and the companies supporting it can be found at the SciBX website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 09, 2008
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Nature conferences are aimed at the international scientific community, with the goal of fostering and facilitating communication and collaboration between scientists. They are distinguished by: high-quality, international facult; close involvement of Nature Publishing Group’s editorial staff; and a focus on the most timely topics
Details of some upcoming conferences (please see NPG's conference website for further details of these and other future conferences):

A Symposium on Biological Complexity: Genes, Circuits and Behavior
Organized by the Salk Institute, Fondation IPSEN and Nature Neuroscience
10-13 January 2008 • La Jolla, CA
Highlighting recent advances in interdisciplinary neuroscience. The meeting covers multiple fields, from sensory and motor function to emotions to learning.

Miami 2008 Winter Symposium: Regulatory RNA in Biology and Human Health
Organized by the University of Miami, Nature Publishing Group and Scripps Florida
2-6 February 2008 • Miami Beach, FL
Looking at our current understanding of the mechanisms of action and biogenesis of small regulatory RNAs and how this is being applied to create a new generation of therapeutics and diagnostics.

A Ringberg Colloquium: Determinism and Plasticity of T Lymphocytes
Organized by the Max Planck Society and Nature Immunology
10-13 February 2008 • Tegernsee‚ Germany
The aim is to stimulate conceptual breakthroughs leading to advancement in the fields of chronic inflammation and control of infection mediated by T lymphocytes.

Nature Chemical Biology Symposium: Chemical Neurobiology
Organized by Nature Publishing Group and The New York Academy of Sciences
22-23 February 2008 • New York‚ NY‚ USA
The two-day meeting will comprise a series of four scientific sessions that look at distinct molecular functions of a neuron and concludes with a keynote session featuring Linda Buck‚ a pioneer in the field of neuroscience.

Emergence & Convergence mini-symposium: Epigenetics and Behavior
Organized by Fondation IPSEN, Nature Neuroscience and Nature Genetics
31 March 2008 • Houston‚ TX
Speakers will address the role of epigenetics in memory‚ drug addiction‚ maternal care and stress reactivity‚ the effects of endocrine disruption and human disorders such as Rett and Angelman syndromes.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 03, 2008
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Bali has not been the only island that has just hosted a climate-change conference. The BBC World Service's Digital Planet today runs a short feature and podcast about Nature Publishing Group's Second Nature, an archipelago of islands in Second Life, in which climate scientists – or their representational avatars – have been hosting talks and discussions. Timo Hannay, publishing director at Nature Publishing Group, describes how we went about achieving this series of virtual talks in a podcast which is available for one week only (until Tuesday 25 December) via the Digital Planet site.
Full reports of the Second Nature conference are at Joanna Scott's Nature Network blog. A brief description of the virtual conference's aims is here, with full presentations, Q/As and slides of the first two talks, by Tara LaForce of Imperial College London and Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway College London.
You can follow our coverage of the real UN climate change conference at Climate Feedback blog -- just keep scrolling, there are many excellent posts from Olive Heffernan, Editor of Nature Reports Climate Change, who was in Bali for the duration.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on December 18, 2007
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Plus has teamed up with Nature to bring maths to the Nature Network. Plus's blog calls Nature Network a "stage for science discussion, allowing scientists to meet, interact, comment on the latest news, debate current topics or exchange information. Members can create groups for their own labs or organisations, or for their own subject area. The mathematics forum is now brought to you by Plus. We're aiming to provide a platform for anyone who wants to discuss maths, whether it's actual maths, maths teaching, the portrayal of maths in the media, or good and bad maths content elsewhere on the internet." Plus is also organising a science writing competition, open to new writers who can explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world needs to know about. The winning entries will be published in the June 2008 issue of Plus, and the winners will receive an iPod and signed copies of popular maths books. Closing date 31 March 2008.

About Plus: "Plus is an internet magazine which aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics. Plus provides feature articles, which describe applications of maths to real-world problems, games, and puzzles; reviews of popular maths books and events; a news section, showing how recent news stories were often based on some underlying piece of maths that never made it to the newspapers; a puzzle for you to sharpen your wits against; a lucky dip of mathematical curiosities; and opinions on various maths-related topics and news stories. We have a regular interview with someone in a maths-related career, showing the wide range of uses maths gets put to in the real world. And all past issues remain available online, which besides making for good browsing is, we hope, a useful resource for maths school students and teachers."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 08, 2007
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The Importance of Patents to Scientists is the title of today's talk at Second Nature island in Second Life. Sue Scott, a patent attorney, will talk about patents in science, why they exist and are controversial, explain the basic things all scientists need to know about patents, and attempt to dispel some of the most common misconceptions. Please see this Nascent posting for more details: Jo Scott writes that "Voice will be used, so if you need any help setting up, come along a few minutes early."
Date: Monday 5 November
Time: 11am SLT/PDT, 7pm GMT
Location: Second Nature Island
Contact: Joanna Wombat

Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 05, 2007
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The Council of Science Editors has organized journals around the globe to participate in its 2007 Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. Hundreds of journals are publishing articles related to the scientific and medical issues that surround this theme. The Nature journals are pleased to contribute the content highlighted on this page, all of which is free. We have also created a supporting archive comprising previously published content from the Nature Publishing Group that is relevant to this theme.
See here for the nature.com Poverty and Human Development index page.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 25, 2007
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A presentation and press briefing by Nature Publishing Group (NPG) was held at a high-technology fair in Shenzhen China on Friday 12 October, to announce and distribute the 20-page Spotlight and Regions advertising feature on Shenzhen published in Nature in the 27 September issue. NPG staff gave presentations on publishing activities in China to a packed audience of about 100 from academia, government, industry and the media. A reprint of the Spotlight translated into Chinese was released at the event.
Nature Publishing Group's Shenzhen Spotlight project has involved about 25 NPG staff and freelancers from around the world. David Swinbanks, NPG's publishing director in Tokyo, writes; "After three years of discussion, we were finally given the green light by the Shenzhen local government in early August and had to pull the 20-page feature together by 21 September for the 27 September issue so that copies could be made available at the China High Tech Fair on Friday." As the supplement is also fully online, this was a considerable achievement for all the writers, editors and project-managers involved.
Part of the Spotlight supplement includes a video of a self-pollinating orchid, which can be seen here in all its beauty, showing in a stunning way the incredible power of plant adaptation and evolution.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 23, 2007
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Milestones in DNA Technologies (October 2007) is a collaboration from Nature, Nature Methods and Nature Reviews Genetics, focusing on ground-breaking technologies and advances in the analysis of DNA. Developments in the last 50 years range from the first Sanger sequences to the latest next-generation chemistry, and from the earliest methods of DNA separation to transgenic organisms and specific gene replacement in human cells.
You can request a free print copy here. In addition, the full content of DNA Technologies, plus further articles and features, is freely available online from October 2007 for six months. The table of contents listing is here. You can also see here for a timeline of milestones in DNA technologies.
Index of all Nature Publishing Group's Milestones publications.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 19, 2007
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Outsourcing has been relatively rare in academia until now, but is that beginning to change? So ask Franz B. Pichler and Susan J. Turner of the University of Aukland in their Commentary in this month's Nature Biotechnology (25, 1093-1096; 2007). They write: "The rapid development of ever more complex and expensive technology coupled with the increasingly competitive environment in the life sciences is changing both how we access technology and how we conduct research. It is no longer possible to expect every technology to be readily available within a research institution, let alone a laboratory, yet access to such technology is often the difference between success and failure within today's competitive funding models. To fully embrace emerging technologies, scientists are increasingly reliant on outsourcing to contract technology providers (CTPs). In this context, CTPs are companies or institutes that conduct partial or entire experiments on a commercial basis."
The Commentary addresses the pros and cons of going out of house, and some of the strategies needed to make sure this novel form of collaboration works. On what side of the fence sit the authors? "Ultimately, science is more about the conceptualization of the experiment, its design, analysis and interpretation than the actuality of conducting an experiment. Provided that the experiment is performed to the required specifications, it should not matter that some or all of the work has been outsourced. As outsourcing can achieve significant efficiencies in research, we predict that it will become an increasingly common component of research programs, even in academia."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on October 12, 2007
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Did you know that Postgenomic, NPG's website that collects posts from hundreds of science blogs and then does useful and interesting things with that data, also tracks books about science? I've made a bookmark to this page: Postgenomic - Books lists books by "popularity", but you can also sort by publication date or date added to Postgenomic (the date of the blog post about the book). Each book listed on the Postgenomic page comes with a set of keywords, which are also searchable, either within the books category or within scientific papers. (There are some handy tabs across the top of the Postgenomic page to allow easy switching between these different types of publication.)
At time of writing this post (a few days before it appears on Nautilus, as I'm away for a couple of days), the most blogged about books are about religion and climate -- but not both together. Use RSS to subscribe to Postgenomic (books, papers, blogs or any combination, by your own keywords) to track the trends for yourself, according to your own interests.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on September 21, 2007
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Nature Publishing Group and The New York Academy of Sciences announce the second Nature Chemical Biology Symposium: Chemical Neurobiology, on February 22-23, 2008 at The New York Academy of Sciences. (See here for location and accommodation details.) The 2008 symposium will explore how chemists and biologists are using the tools and philosophy of chemical biology to understand the molecular basis of neuronal function. The two-day meeting will comprise a series of four scientific sessions that look at distinct molecular functions of a neuron (chemical sensing, synapses and signalling, synthetic neurobiology and brain matters) and will conclude with a keynote session featuring Linda Buck, a pioneer in the field of neuroscience.
The meeting organisers are Terry Sheppard, Chief Editor of Nature Chemical Biology, together with his colleagues Joanne Kotz, Mirella Bucci and Catherine Goodman, as well as Stacie Bloom of the New York Academy of Sciences. See here for registration details.
See here for more about Nature Conferences.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on September 03, 2007
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What do Eric Lander, Frank Wilczek, James Randi and Martha Stewart have in common? Answer: they were all attendees at the second Science Foo Camp from 3 to 5 August, co-organized by Nature Publishing Group, O'Reilly Media and Google, and hosted at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.
The 'Foo Camp' format has been pioneered by O'Reilly, a publisher of computing books and organizer of technology conferences, as an antidote to the often overly restrictive nature of formal conferences, where most of the best conversations seem to happen in hallways and during coffee breaks rather than at the main sessions. Foo is self-organizing, unpredictable and rather anarchic - but also quite wonderful.
For fuller accounts, see Henry Gee's End of the Pier Show blog on Nature Network, this Edge essay by George Dyson and Timo Hannay's account on Nascent. There is lots of other blog coverage which can be accessed from this summary page .

Posted by Maxine Clarke on August 13, 2007
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Chemist Jean-Claude Bradley, a friend of Nautilus's comments section, writes a post on Useful Chemistry blog about indexing molecules in Second Life

He writes: "As I've recently commented, there has been media interest in the use of the virtual online world Second Life for chemistry. We also recently demonstrated on Drexel Island that it was possible to visualize molecular docking using the molecular rezzer developed by Andrew Lang.
Nature Island [Second Nature is Nature's island in Second Life] also hosts several common molecules, including buckyballs. As more people start to experiment with representing chemicals and chemistry research in Second Life it would be nice if such examples were discovered by a simple Google search."

Check out the rest of the post, contribute to Prof Bradley's collaborative wiki "molecule indexing" project if you can (which seems to be working, from the comments to the Useful Chemistry post) --- and maybe even take a trip to Second Life.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 20, 2007
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Lovelybooks is a new, free online initiative to get people talking and thinking about books. Developed by Nature Publishing Group's owners Holtzbrinck, in Stuttgart, an English-language version has just been launched as a beta version. We encourage you to sign up and help develop the site.
Lovelybooks lets you create a virtual bookshelf by adding books from Lovelybooks' database or from Amazon (USA or UK site), rate and review books, recommend books and meet other readers with similar tastes. So far, there are no subject tags for "science" (see the site's tag cloud here), so do take the opportunity to rectify this omission by recommending your favourite science-related books.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 16, 2007
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As outlined on her Mind the Gap blog at Nature Network, Jennifer Rohn and her partner in design Wynn Abbott have devised a competition to challenge fashion designers, from students all the way up to celebs, to reinterpret lab coats for the twenty-first century. The brief: the coats must still discharge a protective function, but they must also be fun, fresh, sexy and original in design.
Further details of this LabLit/SciCult competition to reinvent the humble lab uinform are provided here, together with a nice sketch by Vera Bravo to get people's creativity started.
Jennifer writes: "We will make a formal call for designs within the next few months and our panel of judges will make a decision on the shortlist in autumn. If all goes to plan, we will coordinate with London Fashion Week in Spring 2008 and host a gala catwalk event at which the overall winner will announced. In addition to the main prize, we will also give out awards for the best accessories, such as gloves, masks and safety goggles. If anyone’s interested in getting involved or needs more information, let Wynn or me know! So come on, people, pimp my coat! I’m tired of putting on the same old stained, shapeless one every morning."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 13, 2007
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More than 100 STM publishers, including Nature Publishing Group, and three UN organizations (WHO, FAO and UNEP) have announced the extension of programmes that provide free, or almost free, access to online peer-reviewed journals to several developing nations that lack access to information and training. Microsoft has also announced its support of technical assistance to enhance access to online research for scientists, policymakers, and librarians in these countries.
The three sister programmes – HINARI (research on health), AGORA (research on agriculture) and OARE (research in the environment) - provide online research access to more than one hundred of the world’s poorest countries. All three programmes have official commitment from their partners until 2015, marking the target for reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
In a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey conducted in 2000, researchers and academics in developing countries ranked access to subscription based journals as one of their most pressing problems. In countries with per capita income of less than $1000 per annum, 56 per cent of academic institutions surveyed had no current subscriptions to international journals. These three programmes aim to solve this problem and make research as easily accessible in countries such as Sierra Leone as it is in the United States.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on July 12, 2007
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The Society for Mucosal Immunology (SMI) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) are very pleased to announce a new publishing partnership. In January 2008, NPG and SMI will launch a new publication, Mucosal Immunology. Mucosal Immunology is now accepting submissions of papers discussing all aspects of immunity and inflammation involving mucosal tissues. The guide to authors is here and you can submit here.
Mucosal Immunology is the official publication of the SMI. It will provide a forum for both basic and clinical scientists to discuss all aspects of immunity and inflammation involving mucosal tissues. The journal reflects the interests of scientists studying gastrointestinal, pulmonary, nasopharyngeal, oral, ocular and genitourinary immunology through the publication of original research articles, scholarly reviews and timely commentaries, editorials and letters. Publication of basic, translational and clinical studies will all be given equal consideration. In addition, Mucosal Immunology aims to provide a primary method of communication for the SMI governing board and its members through the publication of society news, announcements of planned meetings and conferences, discussions of policy concerns, and advertisements for job and training opportunities.
The Editor-in-Chief is Brian Kelsall, MD, of the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
General editorial inquiries and correspondence regarding manuscripts and peer review should be addressed to:
Taylor Bowen, Managing Editor.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 28, 2007
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The Functional Glycomics gateway is updated today (20 June) -- a one-stop online resource designed to keep readers in touch with the latest and hottest research in glycobiology, in collaboration with the Consortium for Functional Glycomics. Each month we showcase two exciting new glycobiology articles from the current literature. Nature Publishing Group papers are available free for 3 months and the Editor's Reviews are free indefinitely. This month's two featured articles are: Glycosylation effects: core contributions, which describes how distant carbohydrate substitutions at the N-glycan core alter glycan lectin affinity, glycoprotein-mediated cell binding and serum clearance; and Tumor Growth: at the end of a snake bite in which it is described how the C-type lectins lebectin and lebecetin isolated from the venom of the blunt-nosed viper (Macrovipera lebetina) inhibit tumor angiogenesis through a direct interaction with epithelial cell integrins.
Also in the Functional Glycomics gateway are Research Highlights (short summaries of research papers); the Research Library; and the Consortium Quaterly, the latest news and findings from the Consortium for Functional Glycomics.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 20, 2007
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Nature Precedings, as its title implies, enables researchers to share, discuss and cite their early findings on the web -- all free access. It provides a lightly moderated and relatively informal channel for scientists to disseminate information, especially recent experimental results and emerging conclusions. In this sense, it is designed to complement traditional peer-reviewed journals, allowing researchers to make informal communications such as conference papers or presentations more widely available and enabling them to be formally cited. This, in turn, allows them to solicit community feedback and establish priority over their results or ideas.
Covering biology, medicine, chemistry and the Earth sciences, the site will host a wide range of research documents, including preprints, unpublished manuscripts, white papers, technical reports, supplementary findings, posters and presentations. All submissions are reviewed by staff curators and accepted only if they are considered to be legitimate scientific contributions. No judgement is to be made about the quality or uniqueness of the work, and submissions are not subjected to peer review before they are released. Because of this, accepted submissions will usually be published within one working day, and no charge is made to either authors or readers.
Nature Precedings makes use of social features such as tagging, voting and commenting to facilitate the discovery of especially interesting and relevant content. As well as an RSS feed for recent submissions, there are separate RSS feeds available for 13 broad subject categories, so scientists can keep an eye on newly uploaded content in their own fields.
We anticipate that the content will be mirrored by academic partner organizations, several of whom have been involved with Nature Publishing Group in developing this service. As well as allowing it to become incorporated into the substantial information hubs already provided by these organizations, this federated approach will also help to ensure the long-term availability of the content — and act as a practical guarantee of the Nature Publishing Group's pledge not to charge readers for access.
Find out more about Nature Precedings here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 18, 2007
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The ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project has set out to identify all the functional elements in the human genome. Detailed in a Nature web focus, a pilot project on 1% of the genome reveals new insights about how the information coded in the DNA blueprint is turned into functioning systems in the living cell. You can download a free poster at the Nature web focus, read the free-access article by the ENCODE project team (Nature 447, 799-816; 2007), and read related news stories, articles and information about the project.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 14, 2007
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Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Nature Medicine present Translational Approaches to Cardiovascular Research, from 14 to 16 October 2007, in Capri, Italy. This conference will focus on new genetic and molecular mechanisms that underlie cardiovascular disease, as well as on new diagnostic tools and innovative therapies. The goal of the meeting is to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration between academic and clinical researchers in the area.
See the conference website for more details of the programme, accommodation details and to download a free poster.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 11, 2007
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The IPSEN Foundation, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and Nature Immunology are pleased to announce the first Emergence & Convergence mini-symposium, which will focus on small RNAs in development, immunology and cancer, on 3 October 2007 at the New York Academy of Sciences, New York.
The mini-symposium will address what we know and what we have yet to understand about the molecular intricacies of the processing and production of these small non-coding RNAs, as well as the mechanistic basis underlying their physiological functions.
Speakers at this one-day meeting work in a broad array of scientific fields but share a common interest in small RNAs. The aim is to facilitate discussion and collaboration among diverse scientific disciplines to further our understanding of the function of these enigmatic RNAs.
More information is available at the conference website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 07, 2007
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Molecular Systems Biology is the journal partner of the International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB), Long Beach, California, from 1 to 8 October 2007. Authors of the best abstracts from the conference will be invited to submit full research articles to Molecular Systems Biology. If accepted, articles will be featured in a special online issue of the journal devoted to ICSB 2007. You can submit your abstract online now.
From the conference website: cells, tissues, organs, organisms and ecological niches are systems of components whose interactions have been defined and refined by evolution. There is a resurgence of interest in achieving a systems-level understanding of biology. Systems biology seeks answers to the following key questions by integrating experimental and computational approaches: (1) What are the basic structures and properties of biological networks? (2) How do biological systems behave over time under various conditions? (3) How does a biological system maintain its robustness and stability? (4) How can we modify or construct biological systems to achieve desired properties?
Answers to these questions require breakthroughs in fields as varied as biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering and mathematics, together with an evolution of our social and educational structures so that members of different disciplines can effectively bridge conceptual, and experimental boundaries. The International Conference on Systems Biology is the premier annual meeting for everyone interested in pursuing these goals.

Molecular Systems Biology journal homepage.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 06, 2007
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EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences
Call for entries: DEADLINE 30 JUNE 2007
The award is for scientists who have, while remaining active in laboratory research, risen to the challenge of communicating science to a non-scientific audience. The winners of the EMBO Award are nominated for the EU Descartes Prize for science communication. The prize is Euro 5,000, accompanied by a silver and gold medal inscribed with the winner's name.
Eligibility. Scientists working in Europe or Israel at the time of application, who have made an outstanding contribution to the public communication of science via any medium or activity. Candidates must be working in active research at the time of application, and should have done most of their communication work in Europe or Israel. Scientists who are already widely regarded as professional communicators will not be considered for the award. Applications must be written in English.
See the EMBO website for further details and official application forms.
Nature Publishing Group publishes the EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports, journals of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 05, 2007
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Oncogenes and Human Cancer: The Next 25 Years. Nature and Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncolgicas (the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre) are pleased to announce a conference focusing on the future of cancer research on the 25th anniversary of the isolation of oncogenes from human tumours, from 3 to 6 October 2007, in Madrid. The isolation of cancer genes from human tumours represented a landmark in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for human neoplasia. We now have a more detailed understanding of the molecular changes within transformed cells and how these and the tumour microenvironment influence cancer development. Oncogenes and Human Cancer: The Next 25 Years will emphasize future directions for cancer research and treatment.
For organisers, venue and further details, visit the conference website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 01, 2007
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If you are in striking distance of London on the evening of Tuesday 19 June and want to find out more about this Second Nature in Second Life that you keep reading and hearing about, then please attend a free event, "Science in Virtual Worlds", in association with the Royal Institution and Nature Network.

It’s when you’re flying next to a Saturn V rocket or climbing around a protein molecule that you realise the potential for science in virtual worlds. In an online place like Second Life, you can do things that are dangerous, expensive or downright impossible in real life (or ‘meatspace’). That’s why scientists have begun using such places to conference, teach, build and experiment, in fields from astrophysics to neuroscience, chemistry to psychology. Fancy a stroll through a four-dimensional house? Log on and do it in Second Life.

Online worlds are social spaces too, and that makes them attractive to social scientists. How do we develop meaningful relationships with people we’ve never seen or heard? How do those with autism or schizophrenia fare? Do gender roles or moral codes alter? How does information travel and how can there be economies, uprisings and fads? What are the ethics of studying the denizens of these worlds — are they different from real world citizens? Join Aleks Krotoski , Dave Taylor and Nature Publishing Group's Joanna Scott at the Apple Store on Regent Street for a free event on how science is expanding into virtual life.

Venue: The Apple Store, 235 Regent Street, London W1B 2ET: See the Royal Institution website for more details.
See this previous Nautlius post about opportunities to present your work virtually on the Second Nature island.
This previous Nautlius post describes more about Second Nature and Second Life.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 29, 2007
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The Clinical Investigation Institute of the University of California, San Diego and Nature Medicine present Aging: From bench to bedside, part of the frontiers of clinical investigation series of conferences, on 18-20 October 2007, in La Jolla, California.

This year's symposium explores innovative approaches to bridge laboratory investigation to clinical research in aging. The topic stands at the crossroads of many disciplines, including endocrinology and cardiology as well as neurodegenerative and musculoskeletal diseases. Multidisciplinary sessions will include basic, translational and clinical presentations of cuttingedge research to provide an integrated approach to understanding the science of healthy aging. This symposium will provide unique insights and tools for optimizing and streamlining clinical investigation from discovery to drug development.

More information about the symposium is available at this link.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 29, 2007
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Tickets are now on sale for the Royal Institution evening public lecture series on polymathy and science, chaired by Oliver Morton, Chief News and Features Editor of Nature. The programme is run by Sara Abdulla, Editor of Nature Networks and publisher of Macmillan Science books. All are welcome.
Two lectures on great polymaths in March and April will be followed by a debate in May about whether interdisciplinarity is alive, dead, possible, desirable, vice or virtue.

March 21: Andrew Robinson on Thomas Young: ‘The last man who knew everything’
April 18: John Whitfield on D’ Arcy Wentworth Thompson: ‘The last man who read everything’
May 16: Panel debate: What happened to the polymaths

Venue: The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE, UK.
Tickets: www.rigb.org ; (+44) 0 20 7409 2992
Details: 7-8.30 p.m. Price £8 (£5 for Ri Members, RCS Fellows/Members and concessions). You can book for all three of the Polymaths Series events at the special price of £20 (£12 Ri Members, RCS Fellows/Members and concessions).

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 02, 2007
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Nature Publishing Group has joined with other leading science publishers to develop a web portal called OARE (online access to research in the environment). The project provides countries in the developing world with free or reduced cost access to the scholarly environmental record, and is modelled on the HINARI and AGORA projects for health and agricultural communities, respectively, in which NPG is already a partner.

The United Nations Environment Programme, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization , Cornell and Yale universities are developing the OARE portal with the publishers. Yale university, for example, is contributing grants of $500,000. Its OARE activities are directed by Oswald Schmitz, professor of population and community ecology and associate dean of academic affairs for the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Ann Okerson, associate university librarian for collections and international programs. As with HINARI and AGORA, Yale University library will provide much of the infrastructure for the OARE portal, via its collection of journals

OARE will use information and communication technologies, digitized global scientific information, and a creative public-private partnership to fulfill the information needs of environmental scientists in the developing world.

Further information can be found in this article by Maurice Long, publisher coordinator of these three projects.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on December 13, 2006
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