The Tragedy of Lander
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by Michael Eisen
2y ago
Given my previous history of harsh criticism of Eric Lander’s actions character, people seem to expect me to be gloating at the news that his tenure as President Biden’s chief science advisor ended in ignominy after barely a year following an investigation that found he had bullied and belittled staffers. I am utterly unsurprised. I might even have “I tried to warn you….” on the tip of my tongue. But I am not gloating. The truth is that despite loathing him, I desperately wanted Lander to succeed. And his failure is a tragedy. Not for him – he personally got exactly what his actions warranted ..read more
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The abysmal response of the Salk Institute to accounts of gender discrimination in its midst
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
Last week news broke of a pair of lawsuits filed by two prominent female scientists alleging they had been subject to persistent gender discrimination by The Salk Institute, the storied independent research center in La Jolla, California, where they both work. Wow: NAS member Vicki Lundblad and Professor Katherine Jones are suing @salkinstitute for gender discrimination.https://t.co/PtdVfh7LMH — Jason Sheltzer (@JSheltzer) July 14, 2017 I obviously can’t speak to the validity of these specific charges – it’s not a trivial task to dissect the basis for the successes and failures of small numb ..read more
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Patents are destroying the soul of academic science
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
The soul of academic science is being destroyed, one patent at a time. Nowhere is this more evident than in the acrimonious battle between the University of California and The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT over who owns the rights to commercialize gene and genome editing systems based on the CRISPR  immune system of bacteria. There are a dizzying number of patents involved in this dispute, and many more players staking claims to what has the potential to be billions of dollars in royalties down the road. But the heart of the matter is rather simple. UC claims it should own ..read more
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Replace Francis Collins as NIH Director
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
For decades the NIH has been the premier funding agency in the world, fueling the rise of the US as the undisputed powerhouse of global science. But in his eight years in charge of federal efforts to understand, diagnose and cure disease, current NIH Director Francis Collins has systematically undermined the effectiveness of the institution and overseen a decline of American science. Biomedical research in the US has been driven by the creativity and industry of individual investigators and their trainees. Collins has systematically diverted funds from investigator initiated pro ..read more
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Exploring the relationship between gender and author order and composition in NIH-funded research
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
Last week there was a brief but interesting conversation on Twitter about the practice of “co-first” authors on scientific papers that led me to do some research on the relationship between author order and gender using data from the NIH’s Public Access Policy. I want to note at the outset that this is my first foray into analyzing this kind of data, so I would love feedback on the data, analyses and finding, especially links to other work on the subject, as I know some of these issues have been addressed elsewhere. A long post follows, but here are some main things I found: The num ..read more
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What population genetics has to say about Olympic success of West African sprinters
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
..read more
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Publishers are routinely stealing content from American citizens
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
President Obama published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association today discussing the current state of his health care reform initiatives. Fortunately, the article is not behind a paywall. But JAMA nonetheless asserts their ownership and right to control the article’s use, as they do on all articles they publish, by attaching the following to the article’s PDF. Unfortunately for JAMA, they have no right to do this. Section 105 of US Copyright law makes clear that works of the US government – and POTUS is a government employee last time I checked – are not eligible for c ..read more
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Elsevier is tricking authors into surrendering their rights
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
A recent post on the GOAL mailing list by Heather Morrison alerted me to the following sneaky aspect of Elsevier’s “open access” publishing practices. To put it simply, Elsevier have distorted the widely recognized concept of open access, in which authors retain copyright in their work and give others permission to reuse it, and where publishers are a vehicle authors use to distribute their work, into “Elsevier access” in which Elsevier, and not authors, retain all rights not granted by the license. As a result, despite highlighting the “fact” that authors retain copyright ..read more
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The Imprinter of All Maladies
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
Any sufficiently convoluted explanation for biological phenomena is indistinguishable from epigenetics. Use of the word “epigenetics” over time Epigenetics is everywhere. Nary a day goes by without some news story or press release telling us something it explains. Why does autism run in families?  Epigenetics. Why do you have trouble losing weight? Epigenetics. Why are vaccines dangerous? Epigenetics. Why is cancer so hard to fight? Epigenetics. Why a cure for cancer is around the corner? Epigenetics. Why your parenting choices might affect your great-grandchildre ..read more
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PLOS, open access and scientific societies
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by Michael Eisen
3y ago
Several people have noted that, in my previous post dealing with PLOS’s business, I didn’t address a point that came up in a number of threads regarding the relative virtues of PLOS and scientific societies – the basic point being that people should publish in society journals because they do good things with the money (run meetings, support fellowships and grants) and that PLOS is to be shunned because it “doesn’t give back to the community”.   I agree that many societies do good things to build and support their communities. But sponsoring meeting and fellowships is not t ..read more
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