Monthly Archives: June 2015

Guest blog by Dr Stephanie Suhr, Project Manager of BioMed-Bridges – a project coordinated by EMBL-EBI on behalf of ELIXIR say you are studying a disease in human patients, such as diabetes and obesity, and you are looking at the human DNA sequence to try and find out whether specific mutations could be contributing to it. As all mammals shared a common ancestor approximately 80 million years ago, their genomes show great similarities. This means that non-human mammals can be used as experimental models for human disease. BioMedBridges is a […]

Oxford Nanopore Technologies invented the MinION device – a pocket-sized DNA/RNA sequencer that is based on protein nanopores set in an electrically resistant polymer membrane. It works by passing an ionic current through the nanopores, creating a specific disruption pattern in the current that is used to identify the molecule. This is similar to the antennae of insects, and it fascinated me. So, I wrote to Oxford Nanopore expressing my wish to join its MinION Access Programme (MAP). Minions is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated comedy film and a prequel/spin-off […]

The World Health Organization’s Margaret Chan published a statement this week decrying the health situation in Yemen, in which conflict killed almost 2,000 people, and injured 8,000, according to the latest death and casualty tolls. Yemen was in serious trouble far before the most recent escalation, when a Saudi-led coalition began attacking the country from the air in late March. Houthi rebels overran the capital Sana’a last September, effectively putting an end to the presidency of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since then, the Houthis, who are allied with Hadi’s predecessor […]

A virtually connected team of Indian aerospace engineers — based in India, USA, UK and The Netherlands — have emerged champions in a global biennial innovation challenge organized by UNESCO and the passenger aircraft manufacturing company Airbus. Team Multifun from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, has been crowned champions of the fourth edition of Airbus Fly Your Ideas global student competition, organised in partnership with UNESCO to encourage the next generation of innovators and uncover future solutions for the future of flight. As well as receiving the coveted trophy, […]

BioSharing‘s Information Resources are curated and searchable web-based registries of linked information about content standards broadly including minimum information reporting requirements, terminologies and representation formats/models), databases, and (progressively) journal and policies in the life sciences. In the life of science there are over 600 content standards and thousands of databases. If you’ve worked on a data management plan for an NSF grant, or shoot, just worked on sharing data, you may have been confronted with a drought or deluge of policies, metadata standards and other considerations as you describe how […]

What is it about scientists and motorcycles? Is the idea of caning it helmet-free down the highway an antidote to the close analysis and hunched precision of the lab? Does the love of Harley-Davidsons on an open road somehow spring out of the exploratory dynamism of the scientific enterprise? Or is the boffin-bike nexus just down to the deep groove Easy Rider cut in our collective psyche? Tim Radford’s review of neuroscientist oliver Sack’s On the Move that  kickstarted my thinking about the connection. Let’s be honest, a bit of […]

Regular Futures author Alex Schwartzman this week presents a cautionary tale in the shape of Grains of wheat, which explores the world of pharmaceuticals. Alex has previously tackled a range of topics in Futures, from advertising to alien invasion and the perils of time travel. His first tale for Futures was Ravages of time, and the story the rumination on what isn’t appeared in the Futures 2 anthology. He also teamed up with Alvaro Zinos-Amaro to write about coffee. You can find out more about what Alex is up to […]