Monthly Archives: August 2013

Evaluating Fukushima: fallout from a butterfly controversy

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Research conducted in the area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the months following the devastating tsunami and nuclear meltdown suggested that the radioactive fallout had substantial effects on a local butterfly species. After their research attracted both considerable attention and considerable criticism, the authors have responded to their critics and the controversy surrounding… Read more »

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BMC Medical Education at AMEE

BMC Medical Education is excited to be attending the 40th anniversary conference held by The Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) in Prague, Czech Republic, from 24-28 August. The theme of AMEE 2013 is “Colouring Outside the Lines,” which places an emphasis on new, innovative approaches to Medical Education. If you are attending the… Read more »

#INT13 day 3 – when the superstars of ecology came out

In the final blog covering the ecological conference INTECOL, BMC Ecology looks back at a day of conservation, policy, and “ecological rockstars” Yesterday’s post highlighted the problems of space in ecology, and via a rather tenuous link to Milton Mendonca’s (UFRGS) afternoon talk asking whether metapopulation theory can be be used to inform a new… Read more »

BMC Biochemistry wants your Chemical Biology research

    As you may be aware, the BMC-series journal BMC Chemical Biology was recently integrated into BMC Biochemistry and, in order to accommodate it, a brand new Chemical Biology section was created in the journal, headed up by Dr Sabato D’Auria from the Institute of Protein Biochemistry, Naples. The scope of the section encompasses… Read more »

#INT13 day 2 – the problem with space and the problem with publishing in the developing world

Some thoughts from BMC Ecology on the second day of INTECOL 2013, a joint conference organized by the International Association for Ecology and the British Ecological Society (BES) “Students should read the classics” seemed like sound advice from plenary speaker IllKa Hanski, as he reflected on a career investigating how populations are spatially structured. The… Read more »

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Teaching computational biology is as easy as Pi

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The low cost computing hardware Raspberry Pi is now being used to train the next generation of computational biologists, and is proving to be a low-cost alternative to more traditional methods of learning. “Bioinformatics is great and shouldn’t be limited to one small module” was the reaction of one enthusiastic undergraduate at the University of… Read more »

Highlights of the BMC-series: July 2013

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Are the qualities of a good teacher universal? • Consultations get a ticking off • Evolution in isolation • Top of the Hox • Thermal analysis of the Lammergeier • Biomarkers from breast fluid  • Parasites change honeybee brains • Progress toward reduced maternal mortality Medical education: Are the qualities of a good teacher universal? Compared… Read more »

Understanding physiological responses at IUPS

July signaled the 37th International Congress of Physiological Sciences, organized in conjunction with the Physiological Society and many other society partners, and BMC Physiology was lucky enough to attend. The conference covered every aspect of physiological research but it was clear that obesity, and the huge number of downstream effects this can cause, was a… Read more »