Blogs
We were delighted to welcome three new bloggers onto Nature Network this week. In no particular order…
Grrl Scientist is a molecular evolutionary biologist with a side-penchant for birds. Even her profile picture is of an ornithological nature. You know just from the name of her blog, Maniraptora:Tastes Like Chicken, that you’re in for something a little different. Her early entries include a report on gender-bending chickens, a salvo against embargoes, and the mating habits of pipefish (which presumably do not taste of chicken).
Kausik Datta, a postdoc at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, investigates host immune responses to pathogens. His first posts look at a molecular explanation for thalidomide deformities, and his own close encounter with a bacterial intruder.
Anthony Fejes is a genomics grad student at the University of British Columbia. Anthony begins with a ‘rant’ about polymporphism database, dbSNP.
Our established bloggers also contributed many excellent posts this week. Jennifer Rohn broaches a subject we all have views on: the use, abuse and ultimate necessity of scientific jargon.
Far from fettering science – and other diverse professions ranging from law and medicine to women’s studies and history – and probably more prosaic professions like plumbing (“Bob, could you pass me that longish metal tool with the ring-like structures on both ends, each of which is canted up at opposing seventy-degree angles?”) – jargon frees us gloriously from vague and roundabout descriptions whose meaning could easily be misunderstood.
Cath Ennis, meanwhile, stumbled across a very interesting paper while searching PubMed. Turns out the patent holders of gene sequences connected with breast cancer may have over-stretched their claim by including a 15-nucleotide sequence common throughout the genome.
Having sequenced my fair share of DNA as part of completely non-BRCA1-related projects, I’m probably in breach of this patent myself, and I’d be willing to bet that a fair percentage of the people reading this blog post are too.
Says Cath.
Forums
Those who are intrigued by the prospect of communicating science via virtual worlds may want to check out the Second Life forum. Recent topics include whether people have increased confidence when communicating in a virtual space, and notes about a recent virtual worlds conference.
The bioentrepreneur forum provides regular news from the sector as well as discussing jobs and ‘must read’ books.
And, as always, the Protocols forum is your place to ask questions about lab methods and troubleshoot other people’s experimental woes.
And finally…
Easter is coming and instead of chocolate, we thought you might like the chance to win an online Nature subscription. Watch this space next week for details of our egg-citing competition.