Monthly Archives: April 2013

A quantitative map of immune cells in mosquitoes

Inside insects there is an open cavity called the hemocoel, in which fluid and cells known as hemocytes circulate due to the pumping of a heart. The hemocytes  have a primary role in immune defense, killing pathogens by phagocytosis and via the production of anti-microbial factors. A study by Jonas King and Julian Hillyer published… Read more »

Biology

How can you tell if an arrow is polarized?

This was the opening question Lewis Wolpert posed at the Royal Society’s conference on Cell Polarity in London on April 15. If you think the answer is obvious, check the end of this blog. The conference, organized by Human Frontier Science Program collaborators Rafael Edgardo Carazo Salas, Attila Csikasz-Nagy and Masamitsu Sato, focused on what… Read more »

Biology

Biotechnology for Biofuels at 35th SBFC

Portland_and_Mt_Hood

Biotechnology for Biofuels will be exhibiting at 35th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals next week (29th April – 1st May). As a special conference of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB), this year’s symposium will be held in Portland, Oregon, hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The conference will span… Read more »

Biology

Diamonds in the rough: DNA60 in Genome Biology

dna xray small

One of the most wonderful things about science, to my mind, is the way its fundamental principles are simultaneously both universal and personal. Quantum physics helps to explain the nature of grandiose concepts such as time and space, but it also applies to the insignificant particles that make up my own cells. Equally, within these… Read more »

Biology
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Genome Biology at Non-coding RNA, epigenetics and transgenerational inheritance 2013

Genome Biology

This year's Abcam conference on 'non-coding RNAs, epigenetics and transgenerational inheritance' had a distinct Lamarckian flavor with conference Chair and 2013 Hooke medal recipient, Eric Miska, recommending Arthur Koestler's 'The case of the midwife toad' as extracurricular reading. In addition to his literary recommendations Miska discussed his recently published observations on the ability of piRNA… Read more »

Biology

Celebrating Agriculture & Food Security’s first birthday

Agriculture & Food Security

  Last Friday marked the first anniversary of the launch of Agriculture & Food Security. To celebrate this important milestone in the journal’s history, an anniversary editorial has been published, describing the achievements of the last year, and reiterating the importance of research on this significant global issue.   Following a highly successful launch event… Read more »

Biology

A wolf can change his coat but not his character

I do not know how popular is the English version of the Latin motto Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem, in Italian, however, it is very frequently used and even with a negative or a positive meaning. The negative component is emphasized for vices, which cannot be easily abandoned; the positive component is a strong determination,… Read more »

Biology

The Genome Biology special DNA60 Bioinformatics Challenge is nearly upon us: starts Monday!

gblogo_small

Stand by for an important update on Genome Biology's highly anticipated, ultra-tricky, ultra-cool, *supreme* DNA60 Bioinformatics Challenge with a truly amazing prize… Recently, we excited informatics enthusiasts with the prospect of a special Genome Biology Bioinformatics Challenge in honor of DNA60, but we were lamentably low on the detail. Here, we are putting that right…. Read more »

Biology
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