Meeting in Hinxton

On my way to a meeting at the Sanger Institute in Hinxton, near _Cambridge_. Promissing to be a great meeting with a lot of interesting talks. This is the last trip with people from my old lab (as my ex-boss retired) and all 4(!) of us are going - #cool.

Will present a poster in the evolution of #sex and also give a talk on the evolutionary origin of nematodes (the ur-nematode).

Arrived...

 

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Summer is finally here

First really, really hot day of the year. Real nice - although spent the most of it working and watching #GameOfThrones season 3 at the side.

 

Need to do some #sports tomorrow, as I guess the #NZLvsENG #rugger this morning doesn't really count...

 

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Teaching #Genomology and #Unix

So the last week (and part of the week before) I have been teaching in my first own Master module. With my students I am delving into computational analysis of evolutionary biology. Therefore most of the students had first to get accustomed with Linux/Unix based computer system. I am very surprised (and pleased to see) how much effort they are putting into this, some virtually starting at zero. In between we do have talks and discussions about evolutionary biology, which are also a lot of fun. Have to say: I like teaching this motivated group.

However, now that it is the weeking, I am also happy to take a break. As there is a holiday next week, I can use the time to get on with some paper writing, poster designing, talk preparations, ah, well and science...

To get my head clear for that, I just watched Riddick. ;-)

 

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Amzon Prime Instant Video - wo liegt der Sinn???

Ein Brief an Amazon:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ich verstehe nicht, warum ich trotz Mitgliedschaft bei Amazon Prime im Instant Video Angebot viele Serien und Filme nicht umsonst streamen kann. Als Beispiel die 1. Staffel von Game of Thrones. Dazu scheint es mir, dass Filme und Serien in der OV generell nicht kostenfrei sind.
Dies scheint mir dem Sinn von Prime Instant Video zu widersprechen, ich zahle ja eine (jetzt höhere!) Jahresgebühr, eben damit ich die Filme und Serien kostenfrei sehen kann. Sonst kann ich mir die Medien auch wieder bei iTunes kaufen.

Mit freunlichen Grüßen

Philipp Schiffer

Moved to a new #lab; #Opera #Wagner #Lohengrin

Although I am cetainly not an expert (actually far from that) the thing with Wagner is, he is out there to kill. I mean I think Mozart is a playful geneious kind of and Verdi has some sweet pieces, but music like in #Lohengrin just explodes on the inside of your head. There is no kidding with Wagner.



On an un-related note, I am in a different lab now. Joined Thomas Wiehe's group, which is working on population genetics using bioinformatics approaches. While my work will still center on broad evolutionary questions and #genomology, I do hope to learn a lot about #popgen.

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Email from a Nobel Laureate - Randy Schekman @eLife

#eLife #nobelprize #publishing #science #Facebook

Yesterday I got a (second) email from Randy Schekman, who will be awarded with the Nobel today. Please find below his mail and my reply:

Hello Philipp –

When I accept the Nobel Prize tomorrow with Jim Rothman and Tom Südhof it will be a proud moment to mark three decades of work in cellular transport, and the contributions of the numerous colleagues who we have been fortunate enough to work with over those years. It will also be an opportunity to highlight the work we’re all doing to improve and advance the conduct of science itself.

Access to public higher education and the published outputs of science are two issues that I care very deeply about so, while I have this unique opportunity, I'd like to invite you to share your views on these and other key topics in science. Do you agree that the cost of education has become an impediment in the U.S.? Do you agree that traditional publishing processes need to change? How and why?

Join me in an online conversation throughout the week, and help me ask as many brilliant minds as possible to participate.

http://www.elifesciences.org/crm/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=817&qid=422177

Share this graphic on Facebook to encourage your fellow scientists to join the discussion about the most important issues in scientific research:

And, be sure to follow eLife on Facebook and Twitter for updates from tomorrow’s ceremony.

Randy

Randy Schekman

HHMI Investigator

Editor-in-Chief, eLife

Dept. of Mol. and Cell Biology

Li Ka Shing Center

UC Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-3370

Hello Randy,

many thanks for your email. I would think that saying what you wrote in your article published in the Guardian is just about right. That hits the point. Still, I’d also say that prizes like the Nobel are a big part of the problem - at least for life sciences. This is not saying anything about your great research, I am sure you deserve the prize (of one can deserve a prize actually, but I am lacking the right word just now), but there are a whole lot of e.g. Biologists who will never be able to get any award/prize just by the fact that their research is not “sexy” enough (or has no direct merit to human health or something). Also in quite a few cases prizes are given to the lab head, when it is a team of many many people that should be awarded (and in this context see the discussion around who should be merited for the “Higgs” - and I am surely not the one to judge this, but I like what Peter says in his interviews). In this way any of these huge publicly announced awards (another one would e.g. be the German Leibnitz Preis) are part of the problem.

One remark though at the end: Sharing on Facebook‽‽‽ Randy, come on, that is about the same as Cell, Nature and Science.

All the best and have fun today!

Philipp

Intro and Methods done! Thanks #Aspirin #ThesisWriting

Oh, and got a postcard from Iran yesterday. Love getting #postcards - especially from far away places not many people visit.

 

 

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