Mike the Mad Biologist

On Avalanches and Publishing

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:38:56 -0500

Others have commented on this ridiculous Chronicle of Higher Education article about the "avalanche" of publishing (seriously, how hard is it to use Web of Science or PubMed?), but I wanted to address the authors' three suggestions. First:

First, limit the number of papers to the best three, four, or five that a job or promotion candidate can submit. That would encourage more comprehensive and focused publishing.

This completely ignores the reality that publications have purposes other than tenure, namely grants. To get research funding, one typically has to show that one has done some work in the area, that previous data (ideally, yours) suggest the proposed work will be fruitful, and that one has been a productive researcher. This, for better and for worse, is assessed by publications.

Moving on to their second suggestion:

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GOP Candidate Angle on Anti-Drug Program: It's Not Scientology, but Homeopathy

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:40:54 -0500

Well thank goodness for that. It must be perfectly fine then, I suppose. Nevada Republican Senate candidate, Sharron Angle supported a prison anti-drug program that raised some controversy due to its ties to Scientology. Angle, in an interview, replied (italics mine):

Seeking to "clear the record," Angle told us "I am not even sure that the Church of Scientology fits into it at all. You have to make some quantum leaps here."
She noted "the program itself is a multifaceted program, and it had two protocols: one in the area of withdrawals, and it was a natural withdrawal system. As s you know, that can have some severe physical side effects and the cramping that was involved there required that other people be taught how to relieve the cramping. So that is where it said that people were being massaged."

"The second protocol was what they called the 'disintoxification,' which was actually sweating the drug out of one's system so that there were no longer any cravings for the drug. This is a very intense potassium, calcium, vitamin, mineral regimen, with a hot rock sauna that sweats the toxins out. Those two protocols were developed by [the late Church of Scientology founder] L. Ron Hubbard, and they had to give him credit. But it is not Scientology, but rather natural homeopathic medicine."

At No More Mister Nice Blog, Steve M. quips:

Oh. So, it's, um, not linked to Scientology, but it was devised by the guy who founded Scientology. And it's homeopathic! That's good, right? The Framers were homeopathic, weren't they?

I realize that "Republican/movement conservative opens mouth, and crazy shit falls out" really isn't news, but there are two serious points to be made here.

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Links 6/21/10

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:33:12 -0500

Monday. Bleech. Maybe some links will fix things? Science:

Nighttime Beach Cleanup Will Be Deadly for Sea Turtle Hatchlings
Cousteau Says Technology Can Clean Gulf Oil Now
C. Diff and how dentists overuse antibiotics

Other:

On the Curious and Misguided Defenses of BP
McCaskill says she has votes to end Senate practice of secret holds

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Some Doubts About Unregulated Human Genome Sequencing

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:06:49 -0500

This post might put me at odds with much of the science bloggysphere, but I think a lot of the concern over congressional and FDA hearings over whether 'over-the-counter' genetic screening and genome sequencing should be regulated is overblown. Maybe my feelings are influenced by my concerns about the misuse of antibiotics--in the case of cefquinome, the FDA did the right thing (and I only wish they had acted sooner).

Consider this article which was recommended by a ScienceBloging, the crux of which is:

The controversy here rests on a single assumption: That the typical Walgreen's customer, and by proxy the typical American, isn't prepared to learn about their DNA. Unless a physician guides us, the argument goes, we can't handle the truth. We'll quit our jobs, we'll divorce our spouses, we'll panic. Without a doctor, we're told, information can be more than mystifying -- it can be downright dangerous.

Now let's examine the source of this article:

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Links 6/20/10

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:33:05 -0500

It's a stormy Sunday. Might as well read links. Science:

Legionnaires' Disease Linked with Wiper Fluid
The Human Genome Project: Hype meets reality
Reebok inoculates workers after at least 1 gets measles (but VAKSEENZ R EVUL!!!)
Pan-resistant?? The rise of Acinetobacter
In which I have seen the future of science, and it is female

Other:

Memo to the President: No one is asking you to be Superman
The numbers game and education
Merit pay for teachers
Old Writers
Before the Sierra Club's New Director Invites Guests Over, He Needs to Clean House
Psychoanalyzing the Tea Partiers
What Would It Take to Fully Invest in the Northeast Corridor?

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Economic 'Irrationality' Versus Willful Ignorance

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:10:45 -0500

One of the problems with the rise of behavioral economics is that too often behavior is defined as irrational, the result of cognitive screwups. I've dealt with this issue before, but James Kwak convincingly argues that the BP oil disaster is not due to a cognitive failure to assess risk:

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Links 6/19/10

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:19:41 -0500

Are you shomer shabbos? If not, here are some links. Science:

Science is sufficient for any inference
Genetics & the Jews (it's still complicated)
News break: Developing-world drug resistance

Other:

More Dirty Details From My BP Mole
Grace Slick. Marty Balin. Paul Kanta. Jorma. . . Something. These are the members of the Airplane

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Note to BP Shareholders About Your Dividends

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:03:10 -0500

The reason your dividends were (past tense) higher than U.S. Treasury yields is because there was risk involved in this investment, even if you pretended otherwise. That's why you get more money back--because you're holding more risk. Privately held companies are not back by the full faith and credit of sovereign states. Welcome to the Downside.

And you are in a risky investment: poking holes in the earth. There's good stuff in the earth, but sometimes the earth pokes back. That confers risk.

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Links 6/18/10

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:08:43 -0500

It's quittin' time! Links for you. Science:

Multiple vaccines in infants are harmful, a theory disproved
Ozzy Osborne. Now genomics is getting somewhere.
Sperm whale poo offsets carbon by fertilising the oceans with iron
Nature's Bubble Business Model

Other:

Medicare cuts will strengthen doctors' negotiating position
Tea Partiers Have No Use For Emergency Services
Rebranding the Inner Potential that Is the Best You for the Industry's Future
So Much Space

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With Rube Goldberg 'Progressives' Like This, Who Needs Deficit Hawks?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:50:07 -0500

By way Atrios, I stumble across a list of ways to combat unemployment put together by progressive wonks--and it explains why the so-called left is so politically impotent (I've removed the elaborative paragraphs):

1) Offer bonuses for long-term unemployed persons who find work. 2) Offer bolstered work-search help for the long-term unemployed. 3) Expand retraining programs and increase outreach. 4) Expand relocation allowances. 5) Encourage self-employment. 6) Expand work-sharing programs, and include incentives for employers to hire the long-term unemployed. 7) Provide generous tax incentives for employers to hire the long-term unemployed.

You'll note that none of these things directly create jobs--that is, stimulate demand.

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A Question for Doctors and Public Health Experts: Why Don't Patients Take Their Medication?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:02:59 -0500

Or more precisely, why do some patients not follow their doctors' orders even when it is blindingly obvious that they should do so? In Monday's NY Times there was an interesting article about patients who are being paid to take their medicine in a reliable manner. I was going to write about the payment issue as it raises all sorts of questions, but I've become fixated on something in the article: ignoring obvious incentives to take care of yourself.

For example, once a juvenile diabetic (someone who can't manufacture his or her own insulin) takes a lot of insulin before eating a meal, there are relatively quick and immediate consequences from not eating food shortly thereafter: dizziness, followed by incoherence and disorientation, unconsciousness, and, if still not dealt with, brain damage. This tends to focus one's attention. On the other hand, consider something like dental hygiene. If you miss flossing once in a while, your teeth won't immediately fall out of your head. But if you don't take regular care of your teeth, eventually they will fall out of your head*. In this case, there isn't an immediate link between poor behavior and poor health, which can lead to the occasional bout of harmful behavior.

Which leads me to the part of the NY Times story that I'm hung up on (italics mine):

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More on the Public Garden's Swan Wars

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:33:14 -0500

Last week, I described how the pair of swans living on Boston's Public Garden's Lagoon* have a predilection for attacking ducklings. Last night, the swans were at it again. But last night, this took a very sinister turn: I think Juliet got a duckling. I could have counted wrong, but I think the Lagoon now has n - 1 ducklings. No idea if this was Juliet I or Juliet II (LESBIAN SWANZ!! AAAIIEEE!!).

Oh, the... avianity?!?

*Why the pond is called a lagoon when it is not a lagoon has always puzzled me.

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Links 6/17/10

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:12:17 -0500

Have you heard about this great thing called the Internet? I found some links on it. Science:

Bad news: From MRSA to LRSA
Vaccine against 2009 pandemic flu also protects mice against 1918 strain
A line in Clark Hoyt's final column bothers me

Other:

For today's active man
GABRIEL GETS IT RIGHT
The problem never gets mentioned
The Bad Logic Of Fiscal Austerity
Amish Farming Draws Rare Government Scrutiny
Bill Maher goes there: "f*ck your jobs" to oil (& coal) workers
Jail for Unpaid Debt a Reality in Six States (Strategic Default Pushback Watch)
The Case for Calling Them Nitwits

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Oil Regulation and Why Obama and Many Progressives Need to Appreciate the Value of Losing

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:58:14 -0500

President Obama has been arguing that if he had tried to regulate the oil industry before the BP disaster, it would have gone nowhere and Republicans would have pissed and moaned about oppressive regulations:

In an interview with POLITICO, the president said: "I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending."

Steve Benen agrees:

And can anyone seriously disagree with his analysis? Imagine if, before the April 20 explosion, the White House had announced its desire to expand government regulation of the oil industry, impose new safety and emergency mandates, and spend taxpayer money on equipment and technology. Is there any doubt what we'd hear from Republicans, their lobbyist allies, and the media that's been trained to be on the lookout for "big government"?

But these comments illustrate perfectly why the Democrats and 'progressives' are always playing catch up, why they are always one step behind.

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Looking Back on Professor Gates' Arrest-Using Data

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:01:39 -0500

Remember last year, when Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by the Cambridge Police (charges were dropped). We all sat around, had a beer, and discussed race. Well, there's been a review of the Cambridge police's arrest behavior from 2004 to 2009.

At the time, I thought it had nothing to do with race, but challenging police authority, and an atypical response based on Gates' class:

But I actually don't think this is about race, but a challenge to police authority. Basically, once Gates' challenged the officer's authority--and mind you, he had already shown the officer his identification--by asking the officer to identify himself, which is Gates' right to do, the officer viewed this as a threat. Police officers do this all the time--in 'bad' neighborhoods. Talk to people who live across the river in Roxbury or Dot, and this isn't unusual behavior. More than one police officer would describe these neighborhoods in language that isn't that different from the way U.S. soldiers describe Basra. With that mindset comes a strong belief that an individual situation must be strictly controlled. 'Mouthing off'--that is, exercising your rights--is an attempt by the potential perpetrator to gain control. If you've been around long enough, you have probably experienced this in one form or another.

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