Online Editorials
A Critical Deposit
(January 27th, 2012) King’s College London brings the prospect of stem cell therapies one step closer to reality. In the making of a new stem cell line absolutely no animals were harmed.
more...How to Reply to Reviewers: A Short Guide
(January 24th, 2012) The long wait is over. The 2011 top ten razor sharp comments from reviewers of the journal Environmental Microbiology are here. Enjoy reading and learn!
more...Darwin not a Liar!
(January 20th, 2012) Did he or did he not, copy his theory of evolution from fellow scientist Alfred Russel Wallace? Researchers at Singapore University delved into decade-old archives to solve the riddle for good.
more...More Diversity
(January 17th, 2012) Eighty years ago, Alexander Fleming revolutionised medicine by accidentally discovering the world's first bacteria killer. But recent studies show that there is more to the fungus that launched the antibiotic revolution than initially thought.
more...A European Biohazard
(January 13th, 2012) A team of researchers from Spain and the USA has reported the first instance of a filovirus in Europe. Fortunately, the virus doesn’t seem to be as fatal as its family members, Marburgvirus and Ebolavirus, at least not to us humans; bats are not so lucky...
more...Graduate Life Comes to the Big Screen
(January 10th, 2012) Famous as a comic strip, Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD) has now been brought to life through Piled Higher and Deeper: the Movie. Grad school stories told from a humorous perspective.
more...Alzheimer's Gets the Red Light (and some Green Tea)
(January 6th, 2012) The current treatment options for neurodegenerative diseases have still much room for improvement. Why not try to combine Eastern and Western medicine to tackle the problem? German researchers did just that.
more...Current Issue
From the Content
Analysis: Antibiotic Resistance ‘Miracle drugs’ become less effective as the enemy grows stronger
Use of antibiotics in the last 70 years has transformed human health. With them we can survive bacterial infections that routinely killed and disabled our ancestors. But without new antibiotics, we may soon be exposed once more. Jeremy Garwood reports on the inexorable rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria, some of which may already be resistant to everything we have. February 12th, 1941, a police constable, Albert Alexander, was the first person to be clinically treated with the antibiotic
drug, penicillin... moreObservations of The Owl -
Ranting About Granting
Aahhh, what a night! First a squirrel, then a shrew and – finally – that one particular wood mouse. For more than a week now this furry little critter had been fooling me. Every single night I had spotted him; always scrabbling about under the same dogwood bush. And every night, this little creature suddenly dashed off at a sprint to reach the elder bush on the other side of the meadow. Each time I immediately took off from my branch, shooting through the dark like an arrow... morePublication Analysis 1998-2009: Eye and Vision Research in Europe
England and Germany rank far ahead the remaining European countries by total citations. Nevertheless, The Netherlands, Finland and Austria achieve the highest average citation rates in European “eye and vision research”. We see with our eyes. Really? Well, of course we don’t see anything without eyes. For decades, however, it has definitely been no secret that the images of what we see are indeed not formed in our eyes but in the visual cortexes deep in our brains....moreTips and tricks of the trade: Guidelines to avoid peptide losses
Many researchers don’t give enough consideration to the material of their tubes and containers they use for handling and storage of peptides. This may have dire consequences. This is a laboratory tragedy – a tale of loss and deception, a fatal attraction and a ruined career. No, I’m not talking about the latest episode of your favourite medical drama. I am talking, of course, about peptide losses caused by surface adsorption. Here is the problem: you are trying to measure concentrations of peptides accurately, however, the stuff is sticky... more