WHY IS IN OUR DNA

I posted this photo on Facebook yesterday. It shows a large sign on the side of Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) saying "WHY IS IN OUR DNA." (Click to embiggen.)

Similar signs are appearing all over Toronto, especially at bus stops and in the subway.

What the heck does it mean? The best response on Facebook was that they meant to say "Y is in our DNA" but I don't think that's what they meant. Maybe they are talking about genetic diseases? Maybe they're asking if 90% of our genome is junk? Are they questioning whether "it" is in our DNA (Why is it in our DNA?)? Are they talking about cancer? (The research wing of Princess Margaret Hospital studies cancer.)

As it turns out, none of the above. Here's the real story: Why is in Our DNA. It's straight from the The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation press release.

As The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation continues to raise funds for one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world, we’re asked often: Why is The Princess Margaret a world leader? There are many reasons the centre has achieved a world-class reputation, but this spring, in our communications with donors and the public, we are focusing on one reason—our scientists and researchers never stop asking why…

Why is the body’s immune system not able to fight off all cancers?
Why does cancer return in some patients?
Why did a particular cancer drug work for one patient but not any of the others?
Why did one patient’s tumour shrink dramatically with radiation, but another’s barely at all?

Starting in May, you’ll see on banners outside the cancer centre, the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower and in various media: WHY is in our DNA. This ‘Why gene’ that our team possesses in abundance has already helped to build The Princess Margaret’s rich history of discovery and innovation, ...

Now I get it. It's because scientists at PMH have a "why" gene.

I wonder what PR firm they hired and whether they thought this through? At the very least, this is a case where punctuation would help: "Why?" is in our DNA. Maybe they should have also put a disclaimer at the bottom: "But not in your DNA."

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Jerry Coyne on Lewontin and methodological naturalism

I'm working my way through Jerry Coyne's new book. There's lots of good stuff in there but I was particularly interested in his comment about his former Ph.D. supervisor, Richard Lewontin. The issue is whether science is confined to methodological naturalism leaving religion as the only way to investigate supernatural claims.

We've been over this many times in the past few decades but it's still worth reminding people of the only rational response to such a claim. This is from pages 91 and 92 of Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible.

... some scientists persist in claiming, wrongly, that naturalism is a set-in-stone rule of science. One of these is my Ph.D. advisor, Richard Lewontin. In a review of Carl Sagan's wonderful book The Demon Haunted World, Lewontin tried to explain the methods of science:

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

That quotation has been promulgated with delight by both creationists and theologians, for it seems to show the narrow-mindedness of scientists who refuse to even admit the possibility of the supernatural and immaterial. But Lewontin was mistaken. We can in principle allow a Divine Foot in the door; it's just that we've never seen the Foot. If, for example, supernatural phenomena like healing through prayer, accurate religious prophecies, and recollection of past lives surfaced with regularity and credibility, we might be forced to abandon our adherence to purely natural explanations. And in fact we've sometimes put naturalism aside by taking some of these claims seriously and trying to study them. Examples include ESP at other "paranormal phenomena" that lack any naturalistic explanation.

Sadly, arguments similar to Lewontin's—that naturalism is a unbreakable rule of science—are echoed by scientific organizations that want to avoid alienating religious people. Liberal believers can be useful allies fighting creationism, but accommodationists fear that those believers will be driven away by any claim that science can tackle the supernatural. Better to keep comity and pretend that science by definition can say nothing about the divine. This coddling of religious sentiments was demonstrated by Eugenie Scott, the former director of an otherwise admirable anti-creationist organization, the National Center for Science Education:

First, science is a limited way of knowing, in which practitioners attempt to explain the natural world using natural explanations. By definition, science cannot consider supernatural explanations: if there is an omnipotent deity, there is no way that a scientist can exclude or include it in a research design. This is especially clear in experimental research: an omnipotent deity cannot be "controlled" (as one wag commented, "you can't put God in a test tube, or keep them out of one"). So by definition, if an individual is attempting to explain some aspect of the natural world using science, he or she must act as if there were no supernatural forces operating on it. I think this methodological naturalism is well understood by evolutionists.

Note that Scott claims naturalism as part of the definition of science. But that's incorrect, for nothing in science prohibits us from considering supernatural explanations. Of course, if you define "supernatural" as "that which cannot be investigated by science," then Scott's claims become tautologically true. Otherwise, it's both glib and misleading to say that God is off-limits because he can't be "controlled" or "put in a test tube." Every study of spiritual healing or the efficacy of prayer (which, if done properly, includes controls) puts God into a test tube. It's the same for tests of non-divine supernatural phenomena like ESP, ghosts, and out-of-body experiences. If something is supposed to exist in a way that has tangible effects of the universe, it falls within the ambit of science. And supernatural beings and phenomena can have real-world effects.

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Café Scientifique

Last night was my first visit to the Café Scientifique in Streetsville (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada). I had a great time discussing "Replaying the tape of life," Stephen Jay Gould, adaptationism, contingency, random genetic drift and lots of other things. This is a great group and I'll definitely be attending the next meeting.

The venue is perfect. We met in a room above a pub (The Franklin House) on the main street in Streetsville. There was plenty of good food and good beer.

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The science behind Intelligent Design Creationism

I do not agree with those who dismiss Intelligent Design Creationism because it is not science. I prefer to think of it as an approach that superficially resembles the scientific approach but fails in various ways. In this sense, it's not much different from lots of other bad examples of science.

Let's look at the way Intelligent Design Creationists describe their attempt to be scientific. This is from a recent post by that well-known scientist,¹ Casy Luskin, on Eovlution News & Views (sic) [Does Intelligent Design Deserve Academic Freedom?]. In that post, Luskin lists four criteria proving that ID is a genuine scientific theory.

• Uses the scientific method to make its claims,
• Is backed by credible scientists,
• Is supported by credible peer-reviewed scientific publications,
• And uses arguments that stand up to scrutiny, and are backed by evidence.

It's the first point on the list that I want to discuss. The link takes you to a brief description of how Intelligent Design Creationism uses the scientific method to prove that gods played a role in the history of life. Here's how it works ...

Evolutionary algorithms are really adaptation algorithms

A recent article in Nature reminded me of the importance of definitions. The article discusses evolution and evolutionary algorithms in a special issue on machine learning (Eiben and Smith, 2015). I think we all know that "evolutionary" algorithms are based on natural selection and we all know that there's more to evolution than just adaptation. It's too late to change the name of these procedures in computer science but at the very least I expect computer scientists to be aware of the difference between their procedures and real evolution.

In this paper, there's a section on "how evolutionary computation compares with natural evolution." The authors consistently use "evolution" as a synonym for "selection" or "adaptation" and they seem to be unaware of any other mechanism of evolution.

In one sense, it's okay to conflate "evolution" and "adaptation" in computer science but if that error reflects and perpetuates a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of real biological evolution then perhaps it's time to rename these algorithms "adpatation algorithms."

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Eiben, A.E. and Smith, J. (2015) From evolutionary computation to the evolution of things. Nature 521: 476–482. [doi:10.1038/nature14544]

Stupid Harvard press release illustrates the importance of author responsibility

Bonnie Prescott is a Senior Science Writer at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. She has written a press release concerning pseudogenes and cancer: Evolutionary Relic: Pseudogenes in the human genome may lead to cancer development.

Here are the first five paragraphs ...

Pseudogenes, a subclass of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that developed from the human genome’s 20,000 protein-coding genes but has lost the ability to produce proteins, have long been considered nothing more than genomic "junk."

Yet the retention of these 20,000 mysterious remnants during evolution suggests that they may in fact possess biological functions and contribute to the development of disease.

Now, a team led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has provided some of the first evidence that one of these noncoding "evolutionary relics" actually has a role in causing cancer.

In a new study published in the journal Cell on April 2, the scientists report that, independent of any other mutations, abnormal amounts of the BRAF pseudogene led to the development of an aggressive lymphoma-like disease in a mouse model, a discovery suggesting that pseudogenes may play a primary role in a variety of diseases.

The new discovery also suggests that with the addition of this vast "dark matter" the functional genome could be tremendously larger than previously thought—three or four times its current known size.

There are many things wrong with that description but I'm not going to elaborate. If you don't know what's wrong you probably won't be interested in this post anyway.

I want to discuss two rules that should be enforced for every press release.

1. The press release must include the complete citation, including a link (doi). If This means delaying the press release for a day or two after the embargo is lifted then that's a small price to pay.
2. The press release should always include a notice from at least one author affirming, in writing, that the press release is a complete and accurate report of the results and conclusions that have been published in the peer reviewed literature.

This press release did not contain a citation. In this case, the paper has been published online but there's no volume number or page number because it hasn't appeared in the journal. Here's the citation ...

Florian A. Karreth, Markus Reschke, Anna Ruocco, Christopher Ng, Bjoern Chapuy, Valentine Léopold, Marcela Sjoberg, Thomas M. Keane, Akanksha Verma, Ugo Ala, Yvonne Tay, David Wu, Nina Seitzer, Martin Del Castillo Velasco-Herrera, Anne Bothmer, Jacqueline Fung, Fernanda Langellotto, Scott J. Rodig, Olivier Elemento, Margaret A. Shipp, David J. Adams, Roberto Chiarle, Pier Paolo Pandolfi (2015)The BRAF Pseudogene Functions as a Competitive Endogenous RNA and Induces Lymphoma In Vivo Cell published online April 2, 1015. [doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.043]

There. That wasn't so hard, was it?

I can't read the paper because it's behind a paywall but the abstract suggests that the authors really do think their work applies to most pseduogenes. The press release quotes the senior author, Pier Paolo Pandolfi, and while his views aren't nearly as idiotic as the beginning of the press release it does suggest that he isn't a fan of junk DNA.

In order to confirm that the views expressed by Bonnie Prescott are an accurate representation of the views in the peer-reviewed paper, it would be nice to see a note at the bottom of the press release signed by multiple authors. It would state that they stand by the press release and that the views in the press release represent those views that have passed peer review.

I call this "Author Responsibility" and I think it should be a requirement in all press releases.

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Hat Tip Dan Graur: Shouldn’t Press Releases from @Harvard be Less Asinine?

The President and Vice-President arrive in Boston

There's a shuttle bus that runs between my hotel in Boston and the convention center where Experimental Biology takes place. I went down to the hotel lobby this morning to catch the shuttle bus. The first clue that something was amiss was the four policemen in their yellow jackets sitting in the lounge. Their big bikes were parked just outside. The second clue was a larger than normal number of people waiting for cabs and shuttle buses.

All of a sudden, the cops left and so did all the taxis and shuttles without any passengers. That was also a clue.

The hotel informed us that there would be no shuttles to the conference center this morning, no shuttles to the airport, and no taxis because the President of the United States and the Vice-President were arriving.¹ This requires shutting down I90 for several hours.

I decided to eat breakfast in the restaurant and wait out the disruption. (There wasn't anything interesting going on at the meeting this morning anyway.) I watched the motorcade go by on the Interstate. There were about a dozen cars lit up like Christmas trees, including an ambulance with lights flashing. Most of the lights were blue but there was a pretty mixture of yellow, red, orange, and green.

Judging by the number of angry people in the lobby, I can understand why the President and Vice-President need so much protection.

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1. They are attending the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

Interdisciplinary Research

I'm at the Experimental Biology meetings in Boston and yesterday I dropped into a session on "Training the Mind of an Interdisciplinary Scientist." There were talks on how to resolve disputes among member of the interdisciplinary team, and on how to choose a problem that your customers want solved (from an engineer). There are was also a talk from the University of Missouri-Kansas City about their graduate program. Every single graduate student has to choose an interdisciplinary problem for their thesis topic and they have to take a half dozen courses in each of two disciplines (at least).

The only experience I've had with being interdisciplinary is when I tried to understand what computer scientists were interested in and whether we could work together on some problems. We couldn't. The gap was too large. So biochemists have just adopted the tools and techniques of computational sciences and moved on.

Very few of my colleagues are doing interdisciplinary research and they seem to be getting along just fine. Is this whole "interdisciplinary" thing just a fad? Do you know anyone whose main area of investigation spans two distinct disciplines?

I got the distinct impression from the session that there's pressure from university administrations and granting agencies to become interdisciplinary. Is this true?

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Learn to think like a scientist

There's a course at MIT (Boston, USA) called "7.00x Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life." It's a very popular MOOC (online course). Here's the trailer for the course. In it, Eric Lander tells you that if you take his introductory biology course you will learn to think like a scientist and you will be able to understand the latest breakthroughs.


Here are the week one lectures that focus on biochemistry. I don't have time to go through it all but check out the description of ATP beginning at 2:13. This is not how good teachers explain the importance of ATP in the 21st century but it is how it was taught 40 years ago.

How to promote science according to new AAAS CEO Rush D. Holt

As the name implies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a group of American scientists dedicated to "advancing" science. It was formed in 1848 and over the years it has evolved into a sophisticated lobby for advocating and defending science funding as well as an organization that promotes science to the general public. It publishes several journals, including Science and Science: Translational Medicine.

The new CEO and Executive Publisher of Science is Rush D. Holt, Jr.. He is the son of a former United States Senator (Rush D. Holt Sr.). Rush D. Holt Jr. obtained a Ph.D. in physics in 1981 and taught courses in physics, public policy, and religion at Swarthmore College from 1980 to 1986. He is a Quaker.

What counts as "evidence"?

This post is a response to a question posed by Vincent Torley, "Is Larry Moran a conspiracy theorist?"

A few weeks ago the Toronto Star (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) published a front page article on the dangers of Gardasil, a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) that's recommended for adolescent girls. The article highlighted a number of anecdotal stories about girls who had developed various illnesses and disabilities that they attributed to the vaccine. The reporters thought this was evidence that the vaccine had serious side effects that were being covered up by the pharmaceutical industry.

Almost every scientist who read the story recognized that correlation does not mean causation and that the "evidence" promoted by David Bruser and Jesse McLean was no different than the claims of Jenny McCarthy and her supporters about the MMR vaccine and autism. There were dozens of health professionals and scientists who criticized the article in the Toronto Star culminating in a op-ed article that clearly pointed out all the flaws in the original piece [Science shows HPV vaccine has no dark side]. That article was signed by 63 scientists and physicians.

How many scientists does it take to screw ... ?

This morning I was flipping through the pages of the week's issue of Nature to see if there was anything interesting. There was. I'll tell you about it later, maybe.

I kept flipping. I found a paper with an intriguing title "New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution" [doi:10.1038/nature14132]. The authors found 68 loci in the human genome that are statistically correlated with excess body fat. That's not very interesting because very few of these association studies pan out in the long run. Most of those 68 loci are probably genetic noise.

The end of the paper was somewhat interesting. There seemed to be a lot of authors and affiliations. Let's count the authors 1,2,3,...401! There are 401 authors on this paper and they work at 300 different institutes and universities. The list of authors and affiliations take up three pages in the print edition of the journal!

The next paper has a similar title, "Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology" [doi: 10.1038/nature14177]. The authors found 97 loci correlated with body mass index (BMI). These loci accounted for ~2.7% of BMI variation.

Not interesting.

There are a lot of authors on the second paper as well. Let's count them: 1,2,3,.....481! There are 481 authors from 347 institutes and universities. The list of authors and affiliations covers almost four pages (!) in the print edition of the journal. Is this a record?

It gets worse. In both lists of authors there are entries under "T" like "The PAGE Consortium" and others. They are marked with double daggers and the footnotes say "A list of authors and affiliations appears in Supplementary Information."

I checked it out. For the second paper there are about 800 additional scientists listed as members of the various consortia.

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?

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What did Judge Jones say in 2005? (Part III)

For those or you who are still interested in the debate over the nature of science and how it played out in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District back in 2005, I present to you ....

A Reading List
Science at the Bar—Cause for Concern by Larry Laudan

Is astrology science?

Many of you have heard stories about Micheal Behe's testimony in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. Some of you have even made fun of him for saying that astrology is science.

The transcript of Behe's testimony is here. The important bits are when the lawyer for the plaintiffs is discussing the definition of "theory."

Q But the way you are using it is synonymous with the definition of hypothesis?

A No, I would disagree. It can be used to cover hypotheses, but it can also include ideas that are in fact well substantiated and so on. So while it does include ideas that are synonymous or in fact are hypotheses, it also includes stronger senses of that term.

Q And using your definition, intelligent design is a scientific theory, correct?

A Yes.

Q Under that same definition astrology is a scientific theory under your definition, correct?

A Under my definition, a scientific theory is a proposed explanation which focuses or points to physical, observable data and logical inferences. There are many things throughout the history of science which we now think to be incorrect which nonetheless would fit that -- which would fit that definition. Yes, astrology is in fact one, and so is the ether theory of the propagation of light, and many other -- many other theories as well.

Q The ether theory of light has been discarded, correct?

A That is correct.

Q But you are clear, under your definition, the definition that sweeps in intelligent design, astrology is also a scientific theory, correct?

A Yes, that's correct. And let me explain under my definition of the word "theory," it is -- a sense of the word "theory" does not include the theory being true, it means a proposition based on physical evidence to explain some facts by logical inferences. There have been many theories throughout the history of science which looked good at the time which further progress has shown to be incorrect. Nonetheless, we can't go back and say that because they were incorrect they were not theories. So many many things that we now realized to be incorrect, incorrect theories, are nonetheless theories.

Q Has there ever been a time when astrology has been accepted as a correct or valid scientific theory, Professor Behe?

A Well, I am not a historian of science. And certainly nobody -- well, not nobody, but certainly the educated community has not accepted astrology as a science for a long long time. But if you go back, you know, Middle Ages and before that, when people were struggling to describe the natural world, some people might indeed think that it is not a priori -- a priori ruled out that what we -- that motions in the earth could affect things on the earth, or motions in the sky could affect things on the earth.

I've seen lots of people mock Michael Behe for saying that astrology is science but I doubt they have read the actual transcript. Even if they have, I doubt that they appreciate the difficulties in deciding whether something is science or not.

These days, there is general agreement that astrology, homeopathy, etc, are examples of pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is something that masquerades as science. The proponents claim that their "theory" is supported by evidence and the conclusions are arrived at by a process of rational thinking. The reason we dismiss these views as pseudoscience is because they have been subjected to the rigors of scientific investigation and found to be false. The overwhelming majority of the scientific community agrees with this conclusion.

Bad science doesn't always become pseudoscience. Most bad hypotheses just die a quiet death when they are discredited. The transition to pseudoscience only happens when the proponents refuse to give up and insist that their theory is still valid science.

The point is, bad science and pseudoscience are science or at least they were accepted as possible scientific explanations until they were discredited. If they weren't within the realm of science then they could never have been falsified by science.

If you think you know how to define science in a way that eliminates all those ideas that you don't like then read: Is Astrology a Science?

You might not be so inclined to make fun of Michael Behe after that.

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About half of all cancers are just bad luck. It's not your fault.

There's been a lot of talk recently about a paper claiming that two thirds of all cancers are due to bad luck [Bad Luck of Random Mutations Plays Predominant Role in Cancer, Study Shows]. The take-home message was that you could get cancer even if you ate "healthy," took lots of vitamins, didn't smoke, and went to the gym every day. That's not what people wanted to hear.

But scientists have known for decades that many cancers are due to random mutations that just happen. These cancers are not hereditary and are not caused by the environment. There's nothing new here.

That didn't stop a number of people from criticizing the article and some of the criticisms were justified. Nevertheless, what the article showed was that cancers tended to occur more often in tissues with lots of cell divisions (and DNA replications). That's exactly what you expect if random mutations due to replication errors are the cause of the cancer mutations.

David Gorski of Science-Based Medicine sorts it all out for us [Is cancer due mostly to “bad luck”?]. Please read his lengthy article if you want to understand the issues. David Gorski concludes ...

It’s understandable that humans crave explanation, particularly when it comes to causes of a group of diseases as frightening, deadly, and devastating as cancer. In fact, both PZ Myers and David Colquhoun have expressed puzzlement over why there is so much resistance is to the concept that random chance plays a major role in cancer development, with Colquhoun going so far as to liken it to ” the attitude of creationists to evolution.” Their puzzlement most likely derives from the fact that they are not clinicians and don’t have to deal with patients, particularly given that, presumably, they do have a pretty good idea why creationists object to attributing evolution to random chance acted on by natural selection and other forces.

Clinicians could easily have predicted that a finding consistent with the conclusion that, as a whole, probably significantly less than half of human cancers are due to environmental causes that can be altered in order to prevent them would not be a popular message. Human beings don’t want to hear that cancer is an unfortunately unavoidable consequence of being made of cells that replicate their DNA imperfectly over the course of our entire lives. There’s an inherent hostility to any results that conclude anything other than that we can prevent most, if not all, cancers if only we understood enough about cancer and tried hard enough. Worse, in the alternative medicine world there’s a concept that we can basically prevent or cure anything through various means (particularly cancer), most recently through the manipulation of epigenetics. Unfortunately, although risk can be reduced for many cancers in which environmental influences can increase the error rate in DNA replication significantly, the risk of cancer can never be completely eliminated. Fortunately, we have actually been making progress against cancer, with cancer death rates having fallen 22% since 1991, due to combined efforts involving smoking cessation (prevention), better detection, and better treatment. Better understanding the contribution of stochastic processes and stem cell biology to carcinogenesis could potentially help us do even better.

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Why fund basic science?

This video was the winner in the 2013 FASEB competition for "Stand Up for Science." The title was "Funding Basic Science to Revolutionize Medicine."

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place but I fear that videos like this are really just contributing to the problem. It makes the case that basic research should be funded because ultimately it will pay off in technologies to improve human health. If you buy into that logic then it's hard to see why you should fund research on black holes or studies of plate tectonics.

Don't we have a duty to stand up for ALL basic research and not just research that may become relevant to medicine? Besides, if the only important basic research that deserves funding is that which has the potential to contribute to medicine, then shouldn't funding be directed toward the kind of "basic research" that's most likely to pay off in the future? Is that what we want? I don't think evolutionary biologists would be happy but everyone working with cancer cells will be happy.

The best argument for basic research, in my opinion, is that it contributes to our knowledge of the natural world and knowledge is always better than ignorance. This argument works for black holes, music theory, and for research on the history of ancient India. We should not be promoting arguments that only apply to our kind of biological research to the exclusion of other kinds of basic research. And we should not be using arguments that reinforce the widespread belief that basic research is only valuable if it leads to something useful.

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Meet Joe Felsenstein

Here's some other little known facts about Joe Felsenstein. He doesn't like Tim Hortons. He likes beaver tails. He knows a lot about sex.

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Bruce Alberts awarded the National Medal of Science

The National Science Foundation (USA) selected this year's recipients of the National Medal of Science. President Obama made the announcement last Friday [President Obama Honors Nation’s Top Scientists and Innovators].

One of the winners is Bruce Alberts. Congratulations Bruce!

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The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Who are these people? I pride myself on being a generalist so I think I've heard of any important discoveries in biology. I may not always agree that they are ground-breaking discoveries but at least I know about them.

I think this is the very first time that I learned of an important discovery only when the Nobel Prizes are announced.

I must be getting too old for this game. From The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ...

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 was awarded with one half to John O'Keefe and the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain".

How do we know where we are? How can we find the way from one place to another? And how can we store this information in such a way that we can immediately find the way the next time we trace the same path? This year´s Nobel Laureates have discovered a positioning system, an “inner GPS” in the brain that makes it possible to orient ourselves in space, demonstrating a cellular basis for higher cognitive function.

In 1971, John O´Keefe discovered the first component of this positioning system. He found that a type of nerve cell in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that was always activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room. Other nerve cells were activated when the rat was at other places. O´Keefe concluded that these “place cells” formed a map of the room.

More than three decades later, in 2005, May-Britt and Edvard Moser discovered another key component of the brain’s positioning system. They identified another type of nerve cell, which they called “grid cells”, that generate a coordinate system and allow for precise positioning and pathfinding. Their subsequent research showed how place and grid cells make it possible to determine position and to navigate.

The discoveries of John O´Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser have solved a problem that has occupied philosophers and scientists for centuries – how does the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and how can we navigate our way through a complex environment?

Is this going to be controversial?

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Are "science" fairs really about science?

Another year, another "Science" Fair. The winners of the Google Science Fair 2014 have just been announced. Congratulations to all the winners.

It's time for my regular tirade about the difference between science and technology. Look at the list of projects (below). Most of these studies would be carried out in Engineering Faculties or in Clinical Departments at hospitals. Most of them are better described as engineering or technology and not science.

I think there should be two categories at most "science" fairs: one should be "science" and the other should be "engineering and technology."

What's amazing about the list is the tiny number of projects that are actually investigating the basics of how the universe works (naturalism). There's only one project on astronomy and none on geology. There's a couple that may count as chemistry. I don't see any that are looking at basic concepts in biochemistry. Most of physics isn't represented. There's hardly any mention of evolution.

I do understand why students are interested in the applications of scientific knowledge but I fear that we are not spending enough time teaching about the value of fundamental research (basic science). Is there something we can do to change this?

1. Efficient management and use of rain in the Tilacancha basin, Chachapoyas, Amazonas, Peru.
   
2. FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CARBON NANOTUBE DOPED ORGANIC SOLAR CELLS
   
3. The Synthesis of Oleic Acid Core Silica Nanoparticles for the Safe Delivery of Enzymes
   
4. Determining the ideal pendulum tuned mass damper length for optimal reduction of building earthquake resonance
   
5. UTILISATION OF SOLAR ENERGY BY MAKING SOLAR WATER SPRINKLER
   
6. Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Academic Institutions to Address Systemic Inefficiencies
   
7. Fruit Fly-Inspired Flying Robots
   
8. "Krishak": Empowering farmers for better agriculture outcomes!
   
9. Novel Artificial Neural Networks For 3D Chromosome Reconstruction Bias Correction
   
10. Using Measures of Diversity and Disturbance to Assess Eelgrass Restoration Sites
    
11. The ThereNIM: A Touchless Respiratory Monitor
    
12. The Effect of Water Salinity on the Vitamin C in Radishes
    
13. MASE – Selective Absorption Membrane
    
14. Device for Associating Colors with Sounds
    
15. Preparation of PS/PMMA Polymer Nanocomposites containing Ag Nanoparticles and their Physical Properties
    
16. Stopping the Sahara: Building a Barrier against Desertification
    
17. Developing Arginine as Inhibitor of alpha-synuclein aggregation- Innovative Therapy to Combat Parkinson's Disease
    
18. Caloric Content of Zoo Animal Food
    
19. The Effects Of Atmospheric Circulation On The Water Balance in Boulder, Colorado
    
20. Effect of UV and Infrared light irradiated chitosan on Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions performance adsorption
    
21. The SMART System - Stroke Management with Augmented Reality Technology
    
22. Acidic pH determines if Cryptococcus neoformans can survive in the environment and within the host
    
23. The great significance of small insects, or the impact of large earth bumblebees on tomato plants
    
24. Effect of Amylase on Different Grains
    
25. Development of TCO-less Dye Sensitized Solar cell: An approach to low cost solar cell
    
26. DETECTION AND VISUALIZATION OF THE QUANTIZED BEHAVIOR OF RESISTANCE AND CONDUCTIVITY IN GOLD WIRE
    
27. Ion Culture: Using Microbial Fuel Cells to Stimulate Plant Growth and Electricity with Kimchi
    
28. Cleaning the world with sunscreen & pencils!
    
29. Sustainable Electricity Generation and Water Purification
    
30. Improving Power Plant Efficiency by Recovering Waste Heat
    
31. The Olfactory Awakening
    
32. Photo-realistic 3D rendering using Path tracing with dynamic recursion depth
    
33. Study of children's fears.
    
34. Converting Breath to Speech for the Disabled
    
35. Smart Portable Interactive Whiteboard: A Novel HMI using 3D Vision, SVMs, and Kalman Filters
    
36. A Novel Approach for the Rapid Detection of Food-Borne Pathogens Using Cell Imprinted Polymers
    
37. Wheelchair Controlled by Eye Movements
    
38. NOS ∞ [computer operating system)
    
39. Wearable Sensors for Aging Society
    
40. One Cent Test for Toxicity
    
41. Rethink: Effectively Stopping Cyberbullying
    
42. Can Learning Vocabulary Words Be Made More Efficient?
    
43. Binaural Navigation for the Visually Impaired with a Smartphone
    
44. Harvesting Energy From Human Interactions The Future of Renewable Energy
    
45. Electricity Harvesting Footwear
    
46. Virtual jogging - interactive network with Google Streetview
    
47. Parking Pigeon: Application for Enhanced Localisation in Multi-Story Parking Lots
    
48. A Method for the Mobile Study of Fracking Sites
    
49. Predicting Alcohol Dependence Genetically
    
50. Lowering costs for algae biofuel
    
51. Computationally-Predicted Structure of Human DP Prostaglandin G-protein Coupled Receptor-Bound to Medications to Combat Cardiovascular Disease
    
52. Using Machine Learning to Create an Efficient Irrigation Controller
    
53. Ultrasonic burner
    
54. An Intelligent Power Switching Device with an Energy-Saving Protocol
    
55. A Real Time Map Based Approach to Emergency Management Systems
    
56. Server to User Energy Infrastructure for Wireless Microwave Power Transmission
    
57. Quiet Eye: A novel way to improve accuracy in badminton
    
58. Construction of a light sensor to measure the light level in the surroundings and the section of the sky being observed in the telescope
    
59. Dynamic Support Surface (Bed) for Effective Pressure Ulcer Prevention
    
60. Sustainable Future for Endangered Species? Predicting the Impacts of Wilmar's Policy on Bornean Orangutan Populations
    
61. The Correlation Between Highway Proximity and the Photosynthetic Rate of the Shinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian Pepper)
    
62. Development of a cash-free cashier system
    
63. Soil moisture sensor for plant watering
    
64. KL_AS_YOL [painting asphalt roads with chlorophyll]
    
65. An Enhanced Weather Forecast Model Based on Studies of Forecasted vs. Observed Weather
    
66. Superconducting Levitation and Propulsion Control System
    
67. A Modular House incorporating a MFC and a MEC to initiate efficient usage of resources
    
68. Inzeolation! How zeolite and cellulose make a perfect combination for ecological, recyclable, multi-efficient thermal insulation?
    
69. Predicting Cancer Drug Response Using Nuclear Norm Multi-Task Learning
    
70. Somnolence Detection And Aiding System For Better Driving Conditions
    
71. Effect of different organics on seed germination and growth of Indian economical seeds
    
72. Correlation Analysis and Smartphone Terminals to Monitor and Analyze Geographic Relevance the of PM2.5
    
73. The Accident Detection and Location System (ADLS)
    
74. Identification of Gravitationally Lensed Quasars
    
75. COMPLETE ORGANIC FARMING WITHOUT ANY MEDICINE OR HORMONE, WITH ONLY WASTE PROPOLIS
    
76. A Simple Method for Simultaneous Wastewater Treatment and Chemical Recovery Using Temperature and Pressure Changes
    
77. Kindling Cracker [an easy way to cut kindling]
    
78. Detection of gamma hydroxybutyrate in acidic and sugary drinks
    
79. Intellectual Device Capable of Diagnosing Cardiovascular Diseases
    
80. Cleaning Up Oil Sands Waste
    
81. Development of a Computer-Based Multi-Sensory System to Better Relay Pharmacotherapy Information
    
82. Braille E-Book
    
83. Enabling Situational Awareness: A Hat-Based Hands-Free Haptic Navigational Aid for the Visually Impaired
    
84. The Charging Pan [harvesting heat waste from a kitchen stove]
    
85. Natural Bacteria Combatting World Hunger {GRAND PRIZE WINNER!)
    
86. Multidecadal Changes in Warm Season Convective Storms over the Northeastern United States
    
87. Seeing Hands
    
88. Frictionless Pedal Power Electromagnetic Induction Generator (for USB charging devices)
    
89. Breaking the AGE Barrier! Inhibiting Advanced Glycation End-products to Combat Atherosclerosis, Cancer and Diabetic Disorders
    
90. Common dandelion, as an indicator of geomedium well-being
    
91. Analysis on the acute-toxicity of CeO2 nano particle
    
92. Non-invasive Search for Optimal Cancer Treatment
    
93. Two-hit Approach Blocking Alzheimer's β-amyloid Toxicity: Fibril Formation and Inhibition of newly characterized Oxygenase activity
    
94. Vehicle for disabled people
    
95. Novel Automated Next-Generation Multijunction Quantum Dot Solar Cell Designs Using Monte Carlo Modeling
    
96. P.E.ACE (Portable.Evasive.AssistanCE)
    
97. Haptic Feedback e-Reader for the Visually Impaired
    
98. A Microbial Fuel Cell for the Eco-Friendly Processing of Acid Whey and Power Generation
    
99. Jute-reinforced Polyester to Replace Steel Manhole Covers
    
100. Remote controlled school presentation microscope
     
101. Photovoltaic additive for paint and varnish
     
102. Possibility of removing oil products from the water surface by means of magnetic fields
     
103. A New Class of Pluripotent Stem Cell Cytotoxic Small Molecule
     
104. Detergents in the lakes of Zainsk municipal area and their impact on the buoyancy of the aquatic birds
     
105. Improving Raloxifene’s Affinity with ER-Beta Through Synergy with S-Equol as a Novel Chemopreventive Treatment
     
106. Using the Soapnut, Spaindus Mukorossi, to prevent mosquito breeding
     
107. Tomatricity - converged electricity
     
108. Enhancing Solar Hydrogen Generation via Computer-Aided Development of Novel Metal Nanostructures
     
109. Oil in the Soil
     
110. BIOTECHNOLOGICAL METHOD DEVELOPMENT BASED ON AFFINITY MEMBRANE SYSTEM FOR ANTIBODY RECOGNITION
     
111. Instant curd using Wrightia tinctoria plant latex as starter
     
112. Technology of processing foliage, plastic bottles and waste paper into paper
     
113. Advancing Cancer Research with an Integrated Repository and Search Engine for Gene Regulatory Networks
     
114. Automated Lip-Reading Technique For Speech Disabilities By Converting Identified Visemes Into Direct Speech
     
115. The effect of dormancy on poplar tree remediation of nitrates, phosphates, and fecal coliform
     

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