All:
A summary of Science, June 2008.
You can find all the Science summaries in web format at:
Unlike the JCBFM journal club, ONLY RELEVANT ARTICLES are
listed. My relevance assessment is entirely implicit and is
designated with regard to work we are doing or contemplating RIGHT NOW.
In Jun 2008, I found only three items of immediate interest:
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*1. Subdiffraction Multicolor Imaging of the Nuclear Periphery with 3D Structured Illumination Microscopy. Schermelleh, et al. Science 6 June 2008: 1332-1336.
The authors present a new microscopy technique, 3D subdiffraction multicolor imaging, or 3-SMI, that dramatically increases resolution in three dimensions. The images accompanying this report are striking. Many cellular structures and macromolecular complexes, including the nuclear envelope and its pores, fall just below the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy. By increasing imaging to a resolution approaching 100 nm, the authors were able to resolve individual nuclear pores, detect and measure the exclusion of chromatin and the nuclear lamina from nuclear pores,and accurately image invaginations of the nuclear envelope caused by the formation of the mitotic spindle. Not directly relevant, but 3-DMI is definitely a technique to watch. Most impressive.
Link (PDF): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/320/5881/1332.pdf
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*2. Changes in Peer Review. A news item that you should all look at. Another casualty of the Iraq War, the NIH is sucking wind and changing the way it works. Bottom line: resources are scant, that won't change anytime soon, and first-time submission successes are way down in the single digits. Resubmission is the key. Pass it on.
Link (PDF): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/320/5882/1404.pdf
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*3. Growing Pains for fMRI. Greg Miller. Science 6 June 2008: 1412-1414.
Again, not directly relevant to our work,
but an interesting and enlightening read. The article shines a light on
the entire field of fMRI and reveals it as a sort of high-tech phrenology,
awash with unwarranted cultural and political ramifications, sloppy reverse
associations, and...well, just bullshit. The field is
finally starting to call for some rigor. An excellent illustration of how a new
technique or a new field--or even an individual investigator--can't get a
little too excited and lose scientific perspective.
Link (PDF): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/320/5882/1412.pdf
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END SUMMARY.