nodalpoint.org - Genetics - Comments

Reading of the human genome, backbone of the new technology

engineering — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:38:53 -0400

biotechnology it is described here like the use of biological functions as a technological tool, with a vocation to produce goods and services. For the authors of the report/ratio, the great danger consists in mixing the real potentialities which will offer, in the long term, biotechnologies with matérialisation of these prospects. While recognizing the importance of molecular biology and genetic engineering, the report/ratio insists basically on the possible repercussions in all the fields of agriculture, industry and the medical applications..........
...........if it is the data processing which allows, today, by its computing power, to decipher and to organize genetic information, the interdisciplinarity between chemists, biologists, physiologists, physicists and biologists cellular seems an absolute need to solve this complexity of alive . Machines are thus especially dedicated with this ambition, like these petaflop, two million times more powerful than the offices of the most powerful computers today . As the race shows it enters Celera Genomics and Human Genome Project, the private companies are in the foreground of deciphering and are carrying the gigantic potential market of the genetic trade ............
The biotechnological Revolution will affect all the aspects of our life: our way of eating, our sexual and marital life, our way of making children and of raising them, our way of working, of making the, political one, of expressing our faith, of perceiving the universe which surrounds us and the place that we occupy there - all individual and collective realities of our existence will be deeply upset by new technologies of the next century, the century of biotechnologies..............

Life in science

Neil — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:39:25 -0500

I've always thought that the lives of working scientists could make great material for a novel or film. Not in the sci-fi tradition, but with the focus on the people - their lives, feelings, problems. Yes, scientists have personal lives too! This is often forgotten, I think.

Anyone recommend a novel or movie that they feel comes close to an accurate portrayal of the "tortured complex scientist"? Curiously, one of my favourites is a cult B-movie titled "Darkman", about a guy who invents artificial skin.

User friendly is watching

chris — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 11:43:25 -0500

The debate, at least...

The slow pace of our own work

PedroBeltrao — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:39:44 -0500

Probably most of us have talked about this with friends and colleagues. One of the most frustrating things about working in science is how slow our own work moves. Specially when compared to the pace of science as seen in the journals every week. This is for me one of the big challenges, to keep interested with the work that I am doing even if moves along so slowly. It is so much easier to just start something new after getting all excited with something we just saw somewhere recently. This is specially true for me when trying to finish a project, to continue working after the initial effort to establish if the idea has potential or not.

I think this should be

Greg — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:24:40 -0500

I think this should be re-posted in the Announcements forum.

Re: Ear wax revisited

ejain — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:25:36 -0500

Check out the latest Protein Spotlight issue, which talks about this topic, too.

Agreed

chris — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 04:44:13 -0500

Enriching their environment is not, by default, an evil money-grabbing venture, is it? :-)

I'm inclined to agree with you - there is potential here. The stated purpose of discussing NG papers at greater length is also a nod in the direction of community peer review. There may also be an element of editor training involved. After all, there's a limited scope of opinions you can get from three referrees.

Positive reception over here...

Spitshine — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 08:35:52 -0500

Free Association could really become a successful blog with the many positive aspects about it. A name that sounds like blog to begin with, movable type, no adds - and they have been studying what's happening in science blogs (not much I would say) and many other blogs for a considerable amount of time. Unlike many other publishers that were trying to use blogs, FA could make it into noteworthy site.
It obv. is a move to enrich the Nature environment, not a scientist driven or even a personal blog. I see this rather positivly though.

Murky ownership

chris — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 05:44:46 -0500

At a certain antipodean university, complete lecture notes for some schools/faculties are available for purchase at the campus bookstore. The price tag suggests that more than the paper and spiral binding is being paid for, so I'm sure that this will also be a problem if transferring online. (That having been said, the same university operates a free, reg-only online student portal with a lot of available material. However, the material is not, I believe, available year-round due to storage restrictions).

MIT, on the other hand, has launched Open Course Ware where staff post their teaching materials. Although no credits or staff access is given, it's a very good resource both for students and for new academics designing courses for the first time.

A good thing right ? ....

PedroBeltrao — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:19:23 -0500

It looks like a positive thing. I don't know why I have this uneasy feeling about it. I have to admit that if it was another publisher starting to blog I would be more excited about it. Being Nature I can't help feeling that it might be a calculated move to build a sticky web environment around Nature content. I am probably just being paranoid :) Anyway .. they are trying. Good for them!

Quantity & Quality

Stewb — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 07:56:27 -0500

Well, its update frequency can't be much worse than the Scientific American (last updated July?) or Science Functional Genomics (January) blogs.

I like the fact that they point out that comments can be as critical or controversial as you like. Presumably the posts themselves won't be particularly critical or controversial as they could be taken to represent the views and opinions of Nature Genetics as a large, eminently sue-able entity (maybe I'm wrong).

Nice to see the effort, though, especially in conjunction with things like Connotea.

Edit: I take back what I said about the Scientific American. Stupidly enough I was just looking in the wrong place.

Content is all

Neil — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:39:19 -0500

I see this as A Good Thing but like any blog, it will stand or fall on its content - quantity, quality, update frequency and how much comment it provokes.

On a related note, Spitshine's post about the Science Commons project is of interest.

re ownership

e2holmes — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:19:32 -0500

MIT has a big open-course project, and they have lots of good courses online some with downloadable lectures http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/

Rice University also has an open course program that anyone can upload courses to: http://cnx.rice.edu/

E E Holmes

More avian flu resources, and a note on the Connotea resources

Declan Butler — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 05:12:05 -0500

Hi, I'm the keeper of the avian flu firehose on Connotea -- its meant to be used via its RSS feed as a sort of daily newswire. At Nature we also have an updated focus section on avian flu. I've also made some rough Google Earth maps of avian flu outbreaks, that will be refined when I get a moment.

Declan

thank you!

helgew — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 13:32:24 -0500

and kudos for nodalpoint!!