Archive for the 'PopSci' Category
In Asteroid’s Aftermath, a Sigh of Relief – NYTimes.com
March 26, 2013The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Sequel – NYTimes.com
March 24, 2013Some quotes that I thought interesting:
“That is private family information,” said Jeri Lacks-Whye, Lacks’s granddaughter. “It shouldn’t have been published without our consent.” Some scientists agree: Jonathan Eisen, a genomics researcher at the University of California, Davis, tweeted, “A bit stunned that the people publishing the HeLa genome appear to not have gotten consent from the family.” Another said this was going to further damage public trust in science. A few argued that the cells had changed so much over time, they couldn’t accurately tell us anything about Lacks (to which a geneticist replied, “Your claim is so wrong that I don’t know where to start”).
…
After hearing from the Lacks family, the European team apologized, revised the news release and quietly took the data off-line. (At least 15 people had already downloaded it.) They also pointed to other databases that had published portions of Henrietta Lacks’s genetic data (also without consent). They hope to talk with the Lacks family to determine how to handle the HeLa genome while working toward creating international standards for handling these issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-the-sequel.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print http://www.g3journal.org/content/early/2013/03/11/g3.113.005777.abstract
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Sequel – NYTimes.com
March 24, 2013Some quotes that I thought interesting:
“That is private family information,” said Jeri Lacks-Whye, Lacks’s granddaughter. “It shouldn’t have been published without our consent.” Some scientists agree: Jonathan Eisen, a genomics researcher at the University of California, Davis, tweeted, “A bit stunned that the people publishing the HeLa genome appear to not have gotten consent from the family.” Another said this was going to further damage public trust in science. A few argued that the cells had changed so much over time, they couldn’t accurately tell us anything about Lacks (to which a geneticist replied, “Your claim is so wrong that I don’t know where to start”).
…
After hearing from the Lacks family, the European team apologized, revised the news release and quietly took the data off-line. (At least 15 people had already downloaded it.) They also pointed to other databases that had published portions of Henrietta Lacks’s genetic data (also without consent). They hope to talk with the Lacks family to determine how to handle the HeLa genome while working toward creating international standards for handling these issues.
You Have 46 Chromosomes. This Pond Creature Has 15,600 – Phenomena: Not Exactly Rocket Science
March 24, 2013non-coding elements removed from “active” genome !
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/you-have-46-chromsomes-this-pond-creature-has-15600/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130210ph-chromopond&utm_campaign=Content
NYer Science of Sleeplessness – the benefit of #sleeping alone, discovery of REM & sleepless rats dying in 2 wks
March 17, 2013Elizabeth Kolbert: The Science of Sleeplessness : The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/11/130311fa_fact_kolbert
genetics in the arts – of nature and nurture
March 15, 2013Identity Theft: Nature and Nurture in Art and Science
By Christina Agapakis | March 12, 2013
”
Art and science address the question of what makes us who we are in different, difficult, often contradictory ways. Since the phrase “nature and nurture” was first used in the late 19th century, trying to separate the contributions of inborn heredity and external environment to our unique individuality, there have been people who argue for the supremacy of our genome, epigenome, connectome, our individual historical moment and social milieux, or all of the above. ”
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/oscillator/2013/03/12/identity-theft-nature-and-nurture-in-art-and-science/
regulatory cancer drivers
March 11, 2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/science/new-mutations-discovered-in-melanomas.html
Two papers in Science talking about recurrent mutations in TERT promoter in melanoma.
1) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6122/957.full
Highly Recurrent TERT Promoter Mutations in Human Melanoma
Franklin W. Huang1,2,3,* Eran Hodis1,3,4,*,Mary Jue Xu1,3,4,Gregory V. Kryukov1,Lynda Chin5,6,Levi A. Garraway1,2,3,†
2) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6122/959.full
TERT Promoter Mutations in Familial and Sporadic Melanoma
Susanne Horn1,2,Adina Figl1,2,P. Sivaramakrishna Rachakonda1,Christine Fischer3,Antje Sucker2,Andreas Gast1,2,Stephanie Kadel1,2,Iris Moll2,Eduardo Nagore4,Kari Hemminki1,5,Dirk Schadendorf2,*,†,Rajiv Kumar1,*,†
The Hilbert Hotel – NYTimes.com
March 11, 2013The Rise of Purell, New Yorker: from Semmelweis’s #antiseptics to present via Gojo grease remover
March 10, 2013David Owen: The Rise of Purell : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/04/130304fa_fact_owen
Study Points to Declining Life Span for Some U.S. Women – WSJ.com
March 5, 201376 v 81 but gap narrowing
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323494504578340732591601900.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet
linkstream2 microblog 