a unicorn, a unicorn cave!

Wow, North Korea to discover a unicorn cave http://goo.gl/KYC2G. This is so exciting, if the archaeologists got a hint directly out of heaven from Kim Jong-il through their invisible mobile phones (http://goo.gl/VVwuJ)? And this the same day that Will and Kate announce the long awaited. Fairy tales come true...

Eine Einhornhöhle mitten in Nordkorea http://goo.gl/KYC2G - wow! Ob die Archaeologen einen Hinweis direkt von Kim Jong-il aus dem Himmel bekommen haben? Durch ihre unsichtbaren Handys (http://goo.gl/VVwuJ). Und das am gleichen Tag, an dem William und Kathryn die Schwangerschaft bekannt geben. Wie im Märchen.

Kimchi, eggs and scones - the ultimate breakfast

Presenting the all new best and tasty breakfast to keep a scientist up and running for a looong day - presumably healthy and nurishing as well:

Selfmade date scones (see previous post), Kimchi (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi ) and scrambled eggs (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(food) ). The extra bonus of Kimchi? It protects you from infection with a nasty nematode, see pic 1 for the paper and pics 2 and 3 for the worm. Yes, this is a 50cm parasite that might find it just warm and comfy in your gut. So, kimchi galore!

---

Und heute, das ultimativ beste Fr??hst??ck um einen Wissenschaftler in Gang zu bringen und Fit f??r den Tag zu machen: Selbstgemachte Date Scones (siehe vorherigen Eintrag), Kimchi (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi) und R??hrei (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H??hnerei). Das tolle an Kimchi ist, es h??lt einen frei von Ascaris (siehe Paper), einem ziemlich gro??en Wurm der gerne in den Darm einzieht (siehe Bilder).

 

https://joindiaspora.com/i/cddd661dd62e

yeah!

there is nothing quite like the feeling...

I turn the music up, I got my records on, I shut the world outside

...to when you found some nuggets of gold in your science

I turn the music up, I'm on a roll this time

this is what it is worth for...

sing a rebel song!

https://joindiaspora.com/i/cddd661dd62e

Danke! Thanks!

Danke an alle f??r die netten W??nsche heute. Grad noch leckere Date Scones f??r AG Fr??hst??ck morgen gezaubert...

Thanks for well wishing today. Really appreciate that. Just finished some date scones for lab meeting tomorrow...

https://joindiaspora.com/i/cddd661dd62e

Boy do I want one of those

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-piece-of-cardboard-shaped-a-bit-like-an-iPhone-5-USED-/160916451185

such a neat tool and soooo stylish!

 

Wenn es nur nicht so teuer w??r...

https://joindiaspora.com/i/cddd661dd62e

fantastic nature and wildlife pics

http://goo.gl/PFmN3

Tolle Photos!

Kettle Chips in Deutschland!

the original 5 a day. Noch dazu die "Sea Salt" Sorten. Fragt sich nur mit welchen man anfängt...

gesch??ttelt, nicht ger??hrt

New haircut, call it #Skyfall - fun must be! Okay, eh, back to work...

Neue Frisur, aus Indi wird James :D Kleiner Spass am Samstag. Eh, naja, ich mach dann mal weiter...

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

How to eat a Triceratops

Says it all, right there in the title: http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-eat-a-triceratops-1.11650

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

Easter Island heads walking

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/25/easter-island-statues-walked-in...

and I always thought Godzilla put them there...

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

Die Elite von heute...

Und ja, das wird dann bald ??berall so sein:

In diesem Artikel wird sch??n das gro??e ??bel der Exzellenzinitiative dargestellt. Heute sind es noch die Leuchtt??rme der Wissenschaft, aber in wenigen Jahren schon wird keine Uni mehr wissen wie sie die ganzen Stellen finanzieren soll. Dann sind auch schnell die (nun profilierten) K??pfe wieder weg. Hat auch mal jemand dran gedacht, dass die ganzen zus??tzlichen Stellen in den Verwaltungen vermutlich zum Gro??teil auf Lebenszeit sind?

Und wer hat die ganze Zeit dann nichts davon gehabt? Richtig (!), die Studenten.

http://www.zeit.de/campus/2012/06/universitaet-freiburg-elite/komplettansicht...

 

English version to follow... eventually

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

sleep it is...

psssss....

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

almost there, almost there

two figures and finish conclusions, almost there... . to sleep or not to sleep, that is the question?!? Music: Goo Goo Dolls "Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive".

So sleep and maybe loose the 'flow', but maybe find some even better ideas, or go on and drop tomorrow ... ?

 

 

a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com

Why is this?

You look at your watch and it's about 10min past 7 and you think: "well about time to pack up and go home". Next time you look at your watch when you are actually leaving the building and it's half past eight... .

"Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht, ist es wirklich schon so spät?" Ich versteh das nicht, du schaust auf die Uhr, 10 nach 7, denkst okay Zeit nach Hause zu gehen und dann schaust du wieder auf die Uhr wenn du das Gebäude verlässt und es ist plötzlich halb neun. Wie geht das?

#TinkerTaylorSoldierSpy

Now having seen the movie 3 1/2 times, I say it's one of the best spy movies ever, even better than Spy Game. It's really just about to reach the John le Carr?? novel as much as a movie can reach a book (condensed as it has to be).

Flying Austrich, #stratos, #LiveJump

So what if it goes 'tschaaadoing' in your garden tonight?

1. Keep calm
2. It's just a flying Austrich putting his had in the sand (it is habitual to the species)
3. Slowly tug it out by its feet, but beware, might be hot to the touch
4. Put it back upright again and feed it a can of RB...
5. it will fly home then...; normally they can't fly, apparently this one does.

Thus: no worries at all... :D

 

Posted with Blogsy

Ah, aaaah, killer viruses everywhere - run: If you see the hills, run the other way!!

There was this article: http://goo.gl/DC7Er on 'deadly viruses that threaten human survival', which is an edited extract from a new book called 'Spillover'. The book seems to feature on it's front page a male baboon in full facial colours, and I guess that tells it all. How can anybody, whith any sense for evolution proclaim that there is a threat to (whole) mankind by some 'killer virus'?

There is this interview with a German virologist who basically states that these killers are killing to fast to pose a major threath http://goo.gl/Eos4V. He also points to one very important thing, it might actually be possible to create vaccines against (most of) these 'killer bugs', but as with e.g. all the nematode inflicted illnesses, there is no market as African nations can't pay - and that's the big issue. 

In the end it comes down to this as well: do people need to travel to Africa (yes!) and then go and explore some remote caves (no?). Do people need to go and have a look at the last Gorillas? Wouldn't it be better to protect them but leave them alone? In the end what are we arguing to have Zoos for?

Whoever thinks he has to book a cruise (which is decadent) and then is confronted with a sinking ship, that's their problem. So whoever thinks there is need to crawl through some dark African cave... So, who is going to write that in a book? Advising people on what is sensible travelling, and what isn't? And in addition, if you have the time and money to go to Africa, maybe spend some extra time to get into the culture and some extra money to help peoples standard of living (in whatever way that could be achieved).

BLACKADDER: Run for your lives! Run for the hills!
BALDRICK: Er, My Lord, they're coming from the hills.
BLACKADDER: Oh, sorry. Run away from the hills! Run away from the hills! If you see the hills, run the other way!

 

Grad keine Zeit für ne Deutsche Übersetzung (der Post lag jetzt schon über ne Woche in Drafts), kommt aber noch...

#Poldi4Gunners :

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVspCUaRU70?wmode=transparent]

#PhilisIndi :Does this mean I should stop bringing my 'Indi hat' to work?

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-globetrotting-advent...

Which I indeed just started again. Might give a wrong expression. Oli, have a say!

Sollte ich vielleicht doch nicht meinen Indi Hut anziehen. Hab ihn doch grad erst wieder ausgegraben und mit zur Arbeit genommen. Oli, was denkst du?

#Science : US Americans fake it, Chinese, Indians and Others steal it and ...

... then the Chinese just publish it a second time. To put it at the front, Germany is apparently not doing much better when it comes to fraud. Just skimming the recent PNAS on scientific misconduct (and Chapeau! for them to bring this, given their top ranking in Table 1) and looking at Figure 2 it seems to be like just described. Also interesting Science and PNAS rank top in retractions, is this due to a superb monitoring system, or bad review in the first place? Astonishingly most articles that get retracted are apparently fraud, not 'just' bad research.

Letzte Woche gab es ein Paper in PNAS, wo die Rate and zurück gezogenen Artikeln im Verhältnis zum Rückzugsgrund gesetzt wurde. Während leider auch deutsche Wissenschaftler einen großen Anteil der Betrugsartikel beisteuern kann man alles plakativ auf einen Nenner bringen: US Amerikaner fälschen es, Chinesen, Inder und Andere schreiben dann ab und am Ende wird es in China noch ein weiteres mal veröffentlicht. Interessant ist auch, dass die beiden großen Journals Science und PNAS in der Tabelle 2 mit den aufgrund von Betrug zurück gezogenen Artikeln führen. Da stellt man sich die Frage: liegt das am guten (nach) Nachprüfsystem, oder an schlechten Referees zu Beginn? Weiterhin erstaunlich ist, dass die meisten Artikel tatsächlich aufgrund von Betrug zurück gezogen werden.

 

Fang (2012) Misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted scientific publications: 1–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.1212247109/-/DCSupplemental/st01.docx.

couldn't finish this paper for being on expeditions ..... for 30 years!

Palaeontologists, you have to love them! 30 years constantly going on expeditions - maybe I should swap branches back again after my thesis...

http://goo.gl/gjXN1

Wie cool, das Paper wurde nicht fertig weil der Autor 30 Jahre lang auf Expediditionen war. Vielleicht sollte ich nach meiner Diss. doch wieder zurück in die Paläontologie wechseln...

just got reminded that there is another paper to finish...

und da fällt mir grad ein, ich müsste da mal noch ein Paper fertig machen...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/oct/08/wild-goose-bar...

#TheTudors: and thus he went, the king of England

wondering who will be bragging around in the background next week while I am paper writing. Suggestions?

Und so geht er von uns, der König von England. Wer schimpft wohl nächste Woche im Hintergrund, während ich Paper schreibe? Jemand ne Idee?

The Tudors: why these leaps?

Finding that Sir Henry's hair has become grey since last Thursday I am a bit irritated.

Schon seltsam, Henry der 8. ist seit letztdem Donnerstag um Jahre gealtert. Wie kann das?

9.963373e-07

BAEM!

or is it?!? maybe a small 'baem' for now...

it's magic

Liza, war ist und bleibt der coolste Hund

auf dem Platz, bzw. jetzt auf seinem Board. Lizarazu, one of the greatest ever:

http://goo.gl/crIoE

"They didn't want more information that might spoil their story. WYSIATI"

The Guardian is running a series on Germany from a British point of view. Wondering: if the UK working week is about 1.3 hours longer than the German one http://goo.gl/U47hm, would I have to work about 62 hours as a post-doc in the UK, when I am now doing about 60? Also this: http://goo.gl/CnPV7 - Germans: Cool and laid back. Really? Wow! I mean cool, yeah sure (?????????;), but laid back?

The heading of this post is taken from the book I introduced a while back ("Thinking, Fast and Slow"). Only made it to page 105 although it's more than seven weeks since I bought it in Aberfeldy (and although it's a good book well worth reading). What the author is telling us is, that "what you see is all there is" (WYSIATI) for your brain; in many day to day situations our brains system 1 (see last post on the book) is intuitively just jumping to conclusions on a limited evidential basis. While I am wondering how often this happens in science (and sometimes maybe on purpose) I'd also like to point to this video http://goo.gl/8IstC which seems important coming back to the topic of intercultural understanding. :D

 

Der Guardian bringt derzeit eine Artikelserie über Deutschland, aus britischer Sicht. Ich frage mich nun: die britische Arbeitswoche ist 1,3 Stunden länger als die deutsche http://goo.gl/U47hm, müsste
ich dann als Post-Doc auf der Insel ca 62, statt 60 Stunden die Woche arbeiten? Dazu noch schreiben sie, dass wir Deutsche seit 2006 als "cool and laid back" gesehen werden http://goo.gl/CnPV7. Krass! Cool simma ja (((????????????), aber ausgelassen (und ruhig)?

Den Titel dieses Eintrag hab ich aus dem Buch "Thinking, Fast and Slow", dass ich schon vor einer Weile vorgestellt habe - um genau zu sein bin ich in den >7 Wochen seitdem ich es in Schottland gekauft hab bis Seite 105 gekommen (obwohl es ein sehr interessantes Buch ist). Der Autor beschreibt, dass das System 1 unseres Hirns (siehe den ersten Eintrag zu dem Buch) in vielen alltäglichen Situationen dafür sorgt, dass wir intuitiv und ohne wirkliche Grundlage zu Schlussfolgerungen springen: was du siehst ist alles was da ist. Ich frage mich wie oft das wohl in der Wissenschaft passiert (und wie oft mit "Absicht"). Um auf oben zurück zu kommen dann noch dieses Video http://goo.gl/CnPV7. Ja, ja, das hilft doch beim Verständnis anderer Kulturen. Ya, ya! :D

while all of Zimbabwe is flushing at the same time

http://goo.gl/ge0HH it was a nice day in Cologne. Bit windy on the bike, but a lot of fresh air. Meanwhile I figure that Creed had quite some cool songs back then...

 

Ganz Simbabwe spühlt derzeit zur gleichen Zeit das Klo ab: http://goo.gl/ge0HH. Derweil haben wir ja ein paar schöne Herbsttage in Köln, viel Wind und frische Luft. Schön. Und ich stelle fest, dass Creed damals ein paar coole Lieder hatte. Man glaubt es kaum... 

 

 

 

my little sister got her Hat today

proud! :D

interesting, they do a open to the public defence here in Münster and everybody is allowed to ask questions.

 

Meine (kleine) Schwester hat sich gestern ihren Hut verdient. Bin schon was stolz, muss ich sagen. ;-) Gut gemacht Mari-K. Interessant in Münster ist, hier ist die Verteidigung öffentlich für die ganz Öffentlichkeit und jeder darf Fragen stellen.

will I be banned for outposting to Facebook

about this article which describes how the New Yorker was banned for showing a picture of nude people, ..., 'Adam and Eve' by Rubens?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2012/sep/11/facebook-new-york...

 

Meanwhile (or until I am still not banned), have a look at Andrea's and Manuel's blog:

http://wirkommendannmalwieder.blogspot.de/

 

Zen of today:Thinking is the key to understanding. Thinking is the key to misunderstanding. Let the mind roam free...

 

Qua Masseur? http://goo.gl/7jGW0

Had a great seminar yesterday by a colleague from the genetics department. He gave an intro/overview on Tajima's D (basically a statistics test to check whether a given stretch of DNA is evolving neutrally or under some non-random form, e.g. by selection). One thing he showed was Tajima's D over all human Chromosomes (which can be loaded as a track in the UCSC Genome browser) and that made me think if this is not telling us that large parts of the genome simply can't be functional in the way the ENCODE press hype implied. Okay, it's agreed now, that the 80% are purely for the press, but even if it was less. 

So is it?  Tajima's D : ENCODE media hype

                      1        :         0

Wouldn't the Tajima's D value indicate much more regions selected upon? Or is the sliding window they used to large? Or am I thinking this wrong? Very happy for discussion. Actually very happy for explanations...

 

Zen of the day: Constant turning of pebbles is needed to find the truth. Ever so often it's pebbles in your own head. Kazing!!!

Cologne is slowly getting cold and grey

thinking (or is it dreaming) about Vanuatu (looks like mid twenties for the rest of the month), then maybe Melbourne for the winter

Zen of the day: Only who is true to him/her-self will lead a happy life

I recommend reading the post linked below for more on the ENCODE buzz. What's the news?

http://sandwalk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ed-yong-updates-his-post-on-encode.html

 

I turn the music up, I got my records on

I shut the world outside until the lights come one

Maybe the streets alight, maybe the tree are gone

I feel my heart start beeting to my favorite song

de-encode the jungle

what a hype around the ENCODE project today (http://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE/). I like it where he says that the human genome is a jungle:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3V2thsJ1Wc?wmode=transparent]

 

 

see this blog post for a well written critique of the whole project. makes some sense. who is in for reading 30 papers over the weekend?

http://sandwalk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-encode-data-dump-and-responsibilit...

 

how cool is this: somebody analysing scientist's weekly (over-) workload

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.2686v1.pdf

One could also interpret the data in a way that in some countries papers are constantly downloaded, while in other countries scientists take the time to actually read what they downloaded. Just a thought... . The thing is this, science is fun, that's why people do it (that's also why scientist don't go on strike).

 

Das ist mal was, die Analysieren die Wochenarbeitszeit und -zeiten von Wissenschaftlern. Fragt man sich, ob man die Daten auch so interpretieren kann, dass einige Leute immer weiter Paper runter laden, während Wissenschaftler in anderen Ländern die Paper auch lesen. Nur so ein Gedanke. Der Punkt ist halt, Wissenschaft macht Spass und nur darum macht man es für >60 Stunden in der Woche. Hat mal jemand von Wissenschaftlern gehört, die in den Arbeitskapf gehen? Hier noch ein Artikel aus der FAZ zu dem Paper:

http://faz-community.faz.net/blogs/planckton/archive/2012/09/01/wissenschaftl...

A paper on species numbers and why some taxa have more than others

Been reading this paper: Rabosky DL, Slater GJ, Alfaro ME (2012) Clade Age and Species Richness Are Decoupled Across the Eukaryotic Tree of Life. PLoS Biol 10: e1001381. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001381.t002.

In a way I like it because the result, basically the time a taxon is around does not say anything about the number of species in that taxon, fits into what I would have expected. However there are some general concerns with this work:

• Look at the time tree: where are the worms? Okay, that's asked from a wormy point of view, but it's a general thing. The evidence is based on a subset of taxa, where estimates about evolutionary age are at hand. Even more so in the data set four groups, Angiosperms (Flowering Plants), Mammalia, Aves (Birds, Dinosaurs?) and Coleoptera (Beetles) are featuring prominently (because they are species rich and wells studied). Out of 1,397 major clades 825 fall into these four.
• Figure 3 is weird in some way as well. The time scales in the plots seem to be wrong, why are Chondricthyes ('sharks') displayed with a bit more than 300 million years (Ma), while Actinopterygii (your 'normal fish') with more than 400 Ma? The former ones are at least 50 Ma older than the latter ones. The other thing, how is species richness measured in the past? Fossils of course, but then some organisms (like water living vertebrates) fossilise much better than e.g. land dwelling invertebrates (think of little flies).
• As mentioned by the authors themself 'we know very little about the consequences of [...] taxonomic ranking'.
• The closing sentence 'large-scale phylogenetic diversity patterns reflect constraints on species richness within clades rather than sustained diversity increases through time' is very interesting, as it raises the question: which constraints? 

 

scary: a way to track and profile all your friends on Facebook (and get your data out to even more companies)

Wolfram Alpha is apparently now offering a tool to datamine Facebook Timelines (http://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2012-09/wolfram-alpha-facebook). One gets not only profiles of own 'movements' but also extensive stats about friends (like everything!). Data is of course also transferred to and kept at Wolfram servers then...

Wolfram Alpha bietet jetzt eine Software an, mit der man Facebooks Timeline durchforsten kann (http://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2012-09/wolfram-alpha-facebook). Man bekommt nicht nur das eigene Profil, sondern auch alles wissenswerte über die eigenen Freunde (alles!). Die Daten werden auf Wolfram Servern gespeichert - für später mal...

a place to upload posters after meetings

Might http://figshare.com/ be a place to upload posters after meetings? They could be referenced then, which might be really nice. 

Könnte man nicht Poster nach den Meeting bei http://figshare.com/ eisntellen? Dort könnten die dann sogar als Referenz verwendet werden.

just 60 seconds and The Tudors

Wow, just learnt that the 60sec, 60min thing goes back to old Babylon. These guys calculated in a system based on the 60. Apparently also put 360 degrees into the circle. Watching ARTE while working... Oi and the fourth series of The Tudors will be on soon. Cool.

 

krass, grad gelerngt das die laten Babylonier ein 60-er Zahlensystem benutzten und darauf geht unsere Uhr zurück. Ebenso die Kreisteilung in 360 Grad, alles Babylon. ARTE, Leute schaut ARTE! Oh, und bald kommt die vierte Staffel der Tudors. Super.

 

 

These are the heroes of the free world then...

http://goo.gl/7dCrg

A report about the current state of parts of the US Army: nazis galore as it seems...

Dies ist ein Artike über ein Buch, dass Teil der US Armee beschreibt: Nazis und Irre...

Anybody ever been fiddling with evernote?

Is it worth it?

This is a very interesting article on Syria and how it is all interconnected

Sehr interessante Zusammenfassung der Zusammenhänge in Syrien und dem Nahen Osten

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/syria-point-of-no-return

Steve Jobs going 'thermonuclear war' on Jean-Luc Picard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAtje5weAU0&feature=player_embedded

 

Hey!

Don't listen to a word I say

Hey!

The screams all sound the same

Hey!

joindiaspora.com

Diaspora just about to get public; own your data! Join up today...

Diaspora wird jetzt ein Community Project. Behaltet eure Daten für euch und meldet euch an...

 

Though the truth may vary; This ship will carry on 

 

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Social-Network-Diaspora-wird-Community...

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Diaspora-social-network-to-be-a-commun...

who needs to go on the Everest anyway?!

The idea alone to take your 13 year old son to the top of Mount Everest should be under legal punishment. Americans...

Allein schon die Idee den 13 jährigen Sohn auf den Mount Everest nehmen zu wollen sollte unter Strage stehen. Amerikaner...

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/25/neil-armstrong-space

read somewhere, that he actually was supposed to be the 2nd.

irgendow hab ich mal gelesen, dass er eigentlich der zweite hätte sein sollen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAemDwDAZno

wie cool!

Syria: shouldn't we do something?

This is really getting un-bearable shouldn't the UN go in there and keep both sides apart - whatever this is, it's civilians dying. Germans could go, just want to hear Russia when we say we buy our gas elsewhere then thus winter...

Die Situation wird doch unertraglich. Sollte nicht die UN mit Truppen nach Syrien gehen und die Kämpfe stoppen. Werimmer für dies verantworlich ist, es sind Zivilisten die sterben. Deutschland könnte eingreifen, ich möchte mal die russischen Einwänder hören, wenn wir sagen wir kaufen unser Gas woanders diesen Winter...

 

Take care, these are really drastic pictures! Achtung sehr drastische Bilder!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/aug/26/syria-200-dead-daraya-video

Rugby today: go All Blacks go!

Once again have to listen to Rugby on the Internetradio instead of watching. Why is German Sport TV rather showing boring Road Cycling (that's not a sport anymore! who is going to win today, is it Rodrigo EPO, or good old Brad Salbutamol?), than All Blacks vs. Wallabies?!?!?

Da spielen die All Blacks gegen die Wallabies um den Bledisloe Cup 2012 und was kommt im Sportfernsehen, langweiliges Rennradfahren. Ha, das ist noch nicht mal ein Sport, wer gewinnt denn da heute, Rodrigro da EPO oder Brad Salbutamol? Wenigstens gibt es Internetradio direkt aus NZ.

Go All Blacks, go!

computer dead again

and just about one week later my computer harddisk that already cost me three days last time dies (this time for good as it seems). Called the service line to get my next day repair service. Obviously that is not on saturdays...

tja, und nur eine Woche später stirbt die Festplatte, die mich letzt Woche schon drei Tage gekostet hat, dann ganz und komplett. Direkt mal bei der Hotline angerufen (eher unfreundlicher Mensch) um meinen next day Reparatureservice in Anspruch zu nehmen. Natürlich gilt der nicht fürs Wochenende...

nepal-man-bite-snake-death

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/23/nepal-man-bite-snake-deathouch!

a worm! Paragordius obamai n. sp. from Kenya

A asexual horsehair worm from Kenya named after Obama: Paragordius obamai n. sp.

Ein asexueller Saitenwurm aus Kenya, nach Obama benannt: Paragordius obamai n. sp.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034472

not a Badger but a Hedgehog

there is no a badger in our Nematodes, but we got a hedgehog - a sonic hedgehog even(!) - somebody fancy a look?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/21/life-on-board-nuclear-submarine 

working in the flow...

I turn the music up, I got my records on

 I shut the world outside until the lights come on

Maybe the streets alight, maybe the trees are gone

I feel my heart start beating to my favourite song

 

....

I turn the music up

I'm on a roll this time...

ist es falsch f??r Lachbach zu sein?

Habe mich gestern Abend dabei ertappt für Gladbach zu sein. Spiel lief im Hintergrund und ich fand die habe eher unverdient verloren. Das muss man sich mal überlegen für Gladbach!!!

Facebook multiposts?

Have been told tod.. eh yesterday that my autoposts from here appear multiple times on Facebook. Don't actually know why and didn't notice, as I did not login there for quite a while (yaeh!). So SORRY if anybody felt spammed by Dolphins). Will try to find time (eh!!!) to check on that tomorrow and go to FB and check there (also strange as posts are only once at Twitter).
Heu... ??h gestern wurde mir erz??hlt, dass meine Autoposts hier manchmal mehrfach auf Facebook landen. Keine Ahnung warum; hatte es nicht bemerkt weil ich seit Wochen selbst nicht auf FB war (cool!). Auch seltsam, weil die Posts auf Twitter nur einmal sind. Also SORRy an alle, die von Delphinen gespammt wurden und ich versuch morgen die Zeit zu finden das mal zu pr??fen auf Facebook.

insomnia: who needs sleep anyhow? Schlaf - pfff..

just read what my department asks for to allow for 'dissertation through papers'... well, seems like sleep is no longer really an option. who needs that anyway?
somebody knowing someone in the US airforce per chance? just, these go/no-go pills start to appeal. :D what fun!

grad die neue Pr??fungsordnung zur kumulativen Promotion gelesen. Wer braucht eigentlich Schlaf? Vollkommen ??berbewertet... Ach was, alles schafbar. Nur, hey ihr Medizner, wo ihr euch doch eh grad selbst aus dem Schrank versorgt... :D Spass!

16:05, warm (better than cold!), and no lab frustration today

nearly 37 inside, 36 outside! fingers sticking to keyboard. getting time to go and get some sun...

fast 37 Grad drinnen, 36 draussen! Meine Finger kleben an der Tastatur. Wird Zeit raus in die Sonne zu gehen...

E.O. Wilsons vs. R. Dawkins (and all the others)

Wilson reminds us of other theories that sparked scientific disputes ultimately leading to advancements in the field. Besides DNA he picks string theory, isn't the latter one just having a very hard time, also in connection to Higgs mass fitting into the 'standard' theories (I am no physicist, but see: Not Even Wrong).

13:00

inside 32 / outside 32 Celsius

the heat is on :D

and todays firs experiment: will it be hotter in CsgBc (Cologne's glorious Biocenter) or out there?

as of 1020am: inside 25 outside 26.

 

erstes Experiment für heute: wird es im glorreichen Biozentrum Köln (gBK) oder draussen heißer?

um 1020 morgens wie folgt: drinne 25, draussen 26 Grad. 

sun, a breeze

a perfect day to do somehting outside, sailing maybe... (okay, well doing dna work and writing papers).

Sonne und leichter wind in Köln. Super eigentlich um was draussen zu unternehmen, naja... (also ich arbeite dann mal weiter :D)

a chimp post-doc!!!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/scientists-teach-chimpanzee-to-conduct-3year...

a notch signaling review reviewed

Just been reading a review on the Notch signaling pathway (The Notch signalling system: ..., Nat. Rev. Gen., Sept. 12, doi:10.1038/nrg3272). It is a nice and easy read (which is very good for a review) and explains many things in ample detail. 

Just wondering why almost everything to be published at this level these days seemingly has to be brought into connection with cancer? The review would be equally informative without that information (and I just guess every cell signaling pathway can be brought into connection with cancer, so what is it about that?). 

Further the statement that notch is special in having an 'exeptional sensivity [...] to gene dosage' stikes as a bit odd. For sure it is special in inducing defects when being in the genome just once, or thrice (instead of the diploid set up: twice). However, could one not say that morphogen forming genes are also acting via their dosage, in this case the dosage of protein at a certain point? Of course dosage is a defined term, but let's just look at the meaning. But maybe that's wrong? Please comment.

Finally suggesting that 'Notch should no longer be considered in isolation as a strictly linear pathway' is a bit, well maybe just weak as a final statement. Everything is just interconnected, isn't it? Which pathway is action on it's own?  

I very much like the advocation for 'multipronged approaches' and the interaction maps.

 

Ist das spannend genug jetzt Marike? :D

 

back in business

Took me only three days to finally figure what's wrong with my work computer. Finally found that it is a know error (to the vendor) for my harddisk to fail after 5184 hours and then go down once every hour. sweet! Anyway, back to work finally!!! Adding a photo of the left rear tire of the rental car second day of Highland trip...

Hat auch nur drei Tage gedauert, bis ich heraus fand, dass meine Festplatte einen Fehler hat, den der Hersteller schon kannte. Das Ding setzt einfach nach 5184 Stunden aus und geht ab dann einmal die Stunde aus. Super! Naja, endlich wieder am Arbeiten!!! Dazu ein Photo des linken Hinterrads am Leihwagen vom zweiten Tag des Highlandurblaubs...

Aspirin a scientist true best friend

Coming back to Cologne after more than five weeks the first thing to come up was my allergy - the air is just to stuffy here in summer (well, even Cologne can't be perfect). Did I tell how I liked the air in Edinburgh?!? Anyway, thanks to Aspirin I can work and already feel like adapting to the glorious Biocenter climate (which is even more stuffy).

Yesterday also marked the day of having survived three weeks without emails (and 4 weeks no FB login). YES! And only bit more than 250 in my inbox.

Well, now, I would say back to work... However my workstation is having some serious problems and thus I am once again fixing a computer (which means googleing like mad and askind the experts actually) instead of paper writing - Yeah!

 

 

 

thinking...

In the beautiful town of Aberfeldy, where Robert Burns wrote "The Birks of Aberfeldy", I bought a book in a nice bookshop located in an old water mill. It's called Thinking, Fast and Slow, written by Daniel Kahneman. The author describes how our brain is governed by two systems - an excellent read (though I am interested to hear what my sister has to say on this).

 

Im Städchen Aberfeldy, kaufte ich mir in einer kultigen Buchhandlung in einer alten Wassermühle das Buch Thinking, Fast and Slow von Daniel Kahneman. Er beschreibt darin, wie unser Gehirn von zwei Systemen gesteuert wird, ein sehr interessantes Thema und sehr gut geschrieben.

DOLPHINS!!! (a reason to go online)

just have to break my self-imposed vow not to go online this holiday for this (and well i am not checking emails, so i guess i can be okay with me self). ;-) A whole Dolphin school just outside Ullapool Harbour on a 2 hour cruise (on the Summer Queen) taken to get some bird pics. And these are just some of the photos:

für das hier muss ich einfach meine für diesen Urlaub selbst auferlegte Internetabstinenz unterbrechen (und da ich ja keine Emails lese denke ich es ist ja okay). ;-) Also auf einer Bootstour (auf der Summer Queen) vom Hafen von Ullapool aus - unternommen um ein paar Vögel zu photographieren - tauchte eine Delphinschule auf:

 

I'am on holidays; fighting with the Scots somewhere in the Highlands:

...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on

any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for

glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom –

for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

 

Enjoy summer everybody...

introgression and sympatric speciation?

suggest reading this paper:

Nature(2012): 1–5. Butterfly genome reveals... .doi:10.1038/nature11041.1.

It is brilliant for elegantly showing that gene flow in/between hybrid species might lead to adaptive advantages. I think it might really be indicating that sympatric speciation is much more common than generally thought.

Also the paper demonstrates what kind of biological questions can be adressed by modern high throughput sequencing technique - it's far more than just massive data juggling, it's about solving questions (in Evolutionary Biology - whohohoo!). 

 

In addition I suggest Ashes & Fire from Ryan Adams, great music!

running, eye evolution and cutting reads

It has been the birgthest and sunniest morning in Edinburgh since I arrived today. Virtually cloud- less! So I went for a run in the morning (guessing to rue it tomorrow) and later on accompanied my friend Sujai to buy some stuff. He also insisted of putting me in a photo - which I normally don't see the point of, why have yourself in front of places? Anyway he said later generations might want to see it and I thus dutifully post it here. The rest of the day was spent learning about eye evolution and genes involved; that's what I love about doing evolutionary science, one thing leads to the other and you never know where you end up. What fun! Maybe I found something really interesting in our worm, but then it's not sure yet... . Thrilled. Then on the other hand I have been trying to make use of a new (for me) programm to filter some of the data for a side project, and man it fails every second time. Argh! And partly because I am to stupid I guess. Two days on that now... 

So, one more day to work tomorrow and then holidays from Monday - I guess my hair on the photo shows my workload for the last two weeks. But fun! ;-)

Was ein schöner Morgen in Edinburgh, praktisch keine Wolke am Himmel. Bin dann heute morgen erstmal Laufen gegangen (und vermute, das werd ich morgen bereuen). Später war ich dann noch mit Sujai einkaufen und er hat auch das Photo von mir gemacht. Normalerweise sehe ich ja keine Sinn darin sich selbst vor irgendwas zu knipsen, aber er meine später Generationen könnten Interesse daran haben. Naja, gut... . Ab Mittags zogen dann Wolken auf und ich konnte also guten Gewissens weiter über die Evolution von Augen und daran beteiligten Genen lernen. Sehr spannend, weil da vielleicht etwas für unser Projekt zu finden ist. Das ist das coole an Evolutionsbiologie, man kommte immer von Hölzchen auf Stöckchen - macht einfach Spass. Naja nicht so cool ist, dass ich seit vorgestern an einem Programm hänge, das mal läuft und mal nicht und ich grad nicht verstehe wann und warum und zwischendurch starte ich es falsch - aaaah, eigene Dummheit.

Watt solls, noch ein Tag Arbeit und dann Urlaub (ich vermute meine Haare auf dem Bild sind ein Hinweis auf meine Arbeitszeiten zuletzt). Spass muss sein! ;-) 

Crusaders of Christchurch 28 - Bulls 13

yes! semi-finals.

sunshine in Edinburgh yesterday

we had a nice and sunny day in Edinburgh yesterday and it seems to stay at least dry for the next days - which is quite nice. anyway, also saw an offer for an impressive three bedroom apartment, have a look: 

Gestern war der erste richtig sonnige Tag hier in Edinburgh, und das coole ist, es soll zumindest trocken bleiben jetzt. Dazu habe ich dann noch ein Angebot zur Vermietung eines 'eindrucksvollen' Apartments mit drei Schlafzimmern gesehen, schaut es euch selbst an: 

running with the army?

this morning when taking a run i saw some people in numbered shirts running on the command of somebody in military outfit. was wondering: what's that? later found this article on the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/14/our-curious-love-affair-military

I think that is a bit scary... Don't people see: being a soldier does not mean being a hero, it means you take the decision (and all due respect for that) to potentielly die in some muddy hole in some totally foreign place.

 

als ich heute morgen im Park joggen war fielen mir ein paar Leute auf, die nummerierte, bunte Hemden an hatten und von jemaden in Uniform herumkommandiert wurden. Seltsam. Später habe ich dann einen Artikel im Guardian gefunden, der erklärt, dass es wohl in GB gerade in Mode ist sich von der Arme fit machen zu lassen. Ganz generell schein es einen Militär Hype zu geben: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/14/our-curious-love-affair-military

Ist das nicht etwas beängstigend? Warum verstehen die Leute nicht, dass Soldaten erstmal keine Helden sind, sondern die Entscheidung treffen (und Respekt dafür) eventuell irgendwo in der Fremde in einem Drecksloch zu sterben?   

 

facebook reading member's messages

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/privatsphaere-im-netz-facebook-durchsucht-...

(http://a-normal-scientist-life.posterous.com/)

more fun today: lothian busses

today when going back from work the bus stopped in front of a small shop (there was a bus stop of course), driver got out of his cabin, waved, mumbled 'scuse me' and bought something to drink before driving on. then later on in one of the smaller streets a bus from the same line came from ahead. both stopped, drivers lowerd their windows and had a chat... blocking the whole street of course. :D

 

auf dem heimweg heute hielt mein bus an einer haltestelle vor einem kleinen laden, der fahrer stieg aus, winkte kurz, sagte entschuldigungund kaufte sich was zu trinken bevor er weiter fuhr. etwas später fuhren wir durch eine von den kleineren straßen und es kam uns ein bus der selben linie entgegen. beide busse hielten an, die fahrer machten ihre fenster auf und unterhielten sich kurz - was ein spass.

die sonne scheint in edinburgh

wow! I'm Alive and I'm utterly amused. people, really...

journal club yesterday

yesterday John, a postdoc of Mark's, gave a cool journal club on this paper:

Koren, Schatz, Walens: Hybrid error correction and de novo assembly of single-molecule sequencing reads. doi:10.1038/nbt.2280 

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.2280.html

They try to improve PacBio long DNA sequencing reads which have a massive error rare of ~15% with short Illumina (and possibly 454) reads. And yes, that seems to work. However, there are some crucial data missing from their analysis. Then some parts of the paper are a strange accumulation of we did this, that, and that, and yes this as well - and nobody quite gets why. Well and in the very end, it's not really cheap and also not very fast. Although PacBio is fast, one has to generate the Illumina data anyway, which cost time. Then the PacBio throughput is still very low and consequently to do this for a reasonable sized eucaryotic genome should easily get you into regions above EUR 30K or so. All in all, it's pretty much a good commercial trying to rescue PacBio.

 

so good to know: everywhere around the world Universities are all the same

when I was last here, there was some drilling on the roof of the older part of this building. Apparently the company doing that offered the University to cover everything with some tarpulin or tent construction or whatever you use for that at some extra cost. Obviously the University rejected, why spent extra money, right? Well it does rain every now and then in Scotland.... To keep it short, the roof might cave in and evertyhing has to be supported by scaffolding and water drips in everywhere, and parts of the building are actually 'no go' now and it will cost a lot of money to repair all that (it's still raining btw.). It's so good to know that this is not just happening at our Univ. :D

 

 

doch ueberall das gleiche:

Das letzte mal, als ich hier war wurde am älteren Teil des Gebäudes auf dem Dach gearbeitet - irgendwelche Bohrungen. Die Firma, die die Arbeiten durchführte hat der Uni wohl angeboten alles mit einer Plane oder Zeltkonstruktion abzudecken, als Regenschutz, für etwas Aufpreis natuerlich. Nun, wie Unis so sind, ist darauf verzichtet worden, hätte ja etwas mehr Geld gekostet. Nun, wie es in Schottland so ist - regnet halt mal. Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn, das Dach droht einzustürzen, alles muss abgestützt werden und überall tropft es aus der Decke, in manche Bereiche darf keiner mehr rein. Wird dann jetzt auch was teurer... Regnet auch immer noch. Aber irgendwie schön zu sehen, dass das kein rein Kölner Ding ist. :-) 

Sunday afternoon Ashworth lab

great beeing back at Ashworth lab, where you here the sea birds while working. starting to do some RNA screens in our genome and looking at some other bits and pieces before going back to writing.

wow! Murray started with a break of service.

 

zurück im Büro in den Ashworth Laboratories freue ich mich beim Arbeiten wieder Seevögel hören zu können. beginne damit un unserem Genom nach RNAs zu suchen und werde dann noch ein paar andere Puzzleteile suchen bevor ich mich ans schreiben mache.

krass! Murray gewann direkt ein Break.

 

it's constantly raining for hours now in Edinburgh

much to early this morning I woke for rain drumming on my window sill - since then it has been raining on end, but it's actually nice to sit here, work and watch the rain fall outside. 

back in beautiful Edinburgh

and once again i am back in Edinburgh to work on some stuff with good friends at the local University. it's kind of mid summer, but i am still happy for bringing my down jacket. soon of for a couple of beer with my friends and then from tomorrow morning it will be work, work, work...

second post

and yes well on general life as well

first post

this might develop into a place where i post about evolution and science in general. we'll see...