Weekly Round-up 19th May 2014

It's been a busy few weeks in science with Royal Society appointments, paper retractions and merger deals. Here's a few of the links, stories and posts from around the internet that have caught my eye.

1. Statin Safety
   
   It seems like there are a lot of studies being refuted and withdrawn at the moment. This week, portions of a paper claiming that statins maybe a high risk treatment have been withdrawn from the British Medical Journal. But is it too little too late? The paper questioning the safety of the drugs has caused confusion and worry for many patients. In many ways this situation highlights the importance of transparent research practices, rigorous review and the way the media represents research to the public. 
2. The Royal Society and Women in Science
   There has been a lot of talk over the recent wave of new appointments to the Royal Society and how the number of female members of the UK's most prestigious scientific society trails the equivalent society in the US. Prof. Athene Donald tackles the difficult subject of how we might be able to increase female membership, without resorting to tokenism. 
3. ITER Begins to Take Shape
   The question of how we're going to power our world in the future is still hanging over us and a project to help us solve that problem is finally beginning to take shape. The ITER project is aiming to meet our energy needs through nuclear fusion, the process which happens in the sun where energy is released by sticking atoms together,  which produces helium (a useful resource) and other common atoms in the process. Now, after a rather long and drawn out start up phase, some of the more complex and important parts of ITER are beginning to take shape. Although there are still substantial delays going forward, fingers crossed this international project will get a handle on how we can harness fusion power on Earth. 
4. Pfizer + AstraZeneca = ??
   After a few weeks of uncertainty it seems like the saga of whether Pfizer will take over UK based AstraZeneca and how this will effect UK science, is finally reaching a conclusion. Pfizer have faced large opposition, as there is a significant fear that Pfizer might simply take Astra's drugs portfolio and scale down drug research in the UK. However, after Pfizer's final bid for Astra was rejected this morning it looks like UK jobs and science will be protected for the foreseeable future.

And finally here's Smeagol Sings 'Empire State of Mind' for your viewing pleasure.

What is open access and why are people talking about it?

There's an ongoing debate in the scientific community about how scientific research should be disseminated to other scientists and the general public at large. At first glance, I can imagine that this sounds very much like an internal issue, but is that really the case? So much of the work universities do is funded by research councils, who award government funds to projects deemed to be worth investing in. Therefore, the general public as tax payers have a stake in the research performed under such grants. So don't we have a right to have access to the research performed with our money? The answer to that question is a resounding yes.

In many ways traditional publishing is still king in science. Scientists submit work to a journal, it is peer reviewed (a process with certain level of controversy in itself), it is published as an article of some form on paper or on line and a payment is made by or on behalf of an individual to access the work. However, change is coming in the form of Green and Gold Open Access. UK Research councils now have a policy that states that work done using grants from them must be published via either the Green or Gold Open Access pathways. But what does that mean?

A research article that has Gold Open Access is simply a peer-reviewed journal article which is free to view by anyone on the day of release. Therefore, anyone anywhere in the world can read it without having to pay. But how can journals make money from this? The answer is the levying article processing charges from authors, typically of the order of thousands of pounds to publish the article. In the UK these charges are often paid from a central university pot provided by the government. The alternative to this is known as Green Open Access. Under Green Open Access an article is initially published behind a pay wall, but it is it is made freely available after a period of 6-12 months (depending on field and research council). Therefore, under this form of open access only subscribers or those able to pay will have access to the most up to date research. The positive is a university doesn't have to pay article processing charges to go down this route so arguably its a cheaper alternative in the short term. 

Which model is best for the future is debatable; part of the problem is we live in an insincerely large global community with scientists collaborating from all over the world, and not everyone is going open access. So while the UK's universities are starting to pay to publish, they are also still paying to read articles from the rest of the world (and research funded by non governmental organisations) often helping to produce huge profits for giants like Elsevier (see last week's roundup). Is that fair? Its hard to say. Someone has to foot the bill for peer review and editorial costs. But is it worth paying for open access in a journal where vast amounts of content is sealed behind a pay wall by default? This is the very essence of the debate, and its hard to see which is the right way to turn. The Times Higher Education Supplement published an article in 2012 detailing the arguments between Green and Gold, which is well worth a read. 

The other part of the open access landscape is the arXiv (pronounced archive) or pre-print servers. These open pages are where scientists upload their work primarily for comment and discussion with other members of the scientific community in the same field before going for publication. However, this isn't without its own problems. Certain journals won't publish material that's been uploaded to the arXiv and papers submitted are not peer reviewed so they don't have a true 'stamp of approval' against them.

What is the publishing community doing in response to the open access movement? Some publishers are creating new fully open access journals, where all content is free from day one. Some like the new journals from Nature Publishing Group have flat publishing fees, but some publishers are doing something a bit more interesting. The Public Library of Sciences (PLoS) is a not for profit publisher that has a range of journals with a tiered payment system, with one price for first world countries, along with reduced fees and free publishing for those from less well off countries. This is an interesting effort as it's trying to encourage open access to become normal and accessible on a global scale, not just on a country wide scale. 

In time I think open access will become a global standard, as well as a national one, but first the question of who pays and how needs to be fully ironed out into a single policy.

Link Roundup 5th May 2014

Happy May Day bank holiday! I hope everyone is enjoying a well earned break from work today. While you relax, here's my selection of interesting links from around the internet for your viewing pleasure.

1. Cambridge's Vice Chancellor Talks Scientific Publishing and Open Access 
   The VC at Cambridge has been talking about scientific publishing and how he's not very happy with the amount the university are spending with scientific publishing giant Elsevier. In addition he's also been talking about how easy it would be to go open access, in view of the large number of journals which charge for publishing and whether pushing to publish in free open access journals would hurt a researcher's career prospects. I think this is a really interesting debate as a lot of the research with the most impact is either published behind a pay wall, or open access at a rather large expense to the university. Going forward there is no doubt that the free open access vs. paid open access vs. subscription debate is going to be rattling on for a long time.
2. 5 Things Successful PhD Students Don't Do
   I came across this interesting article via Athene Donald's twitter feed and it's definitely an interesting read for any aspiring/current PhD students. There's definitely a few things in there that I for one really need to remember! 
3. Flipping the Women in Science Debate
   As well as talking about the lack of women in science, shouldn't we also be talking about the lack of men in nursing, teaching and other caring professions? I would definitely say yes! Equality is a two way street; men need to feel welcome and be encouraged into the more 'care focussed' professions just as much as women should be encouraged and accepted into 'technical' careers. This interesting article provides a spot light onto the disparities in the number of men and women in different profession and wonders if we need a pipeline into the caring professions for men, just like the one being put into place to help women into science and technology. Thank you to the Women In Science, Engineering and Technology Group at the University of Leeds for dropping this into my inbox this week.
4. From Adult to Embryonic Through Cloning
   After recent controversies in stem cell research, I came across some good news for the field this week! A team of researchers have cloned skin cells into a donated egg to create insulin producing cells as a possible future cure for diabetes. This form of creating stem cells, while being bundled up in ethical issues, allows for the production of stem cells without genetic reprogramming, which will hopefully avoid the produced cells  being a cancer risk. Fingers crossed this could be a step in the right direction for research into stem cell production.

And finally here's former Doctor Who companion Arthur Darvill singing his own special version of 'Let It Go' from Frozen.

How did I find physics?

I suppose my story starts with the most cliché influence a physicist could have. Star Trek. One afternoon my parents sat me down to watch the Voyage Home filled with whales and nuclear wessles and that was it. That evening I started watching Voyager (when it was back on BBC2 ) and thus began the three appointments a week I had with the crews of the Enterprise, Deep Space 9 and Voyager. Needless to say, I began to really think about whether there was life on other planets, what could nanotechnology do and what was real space travel like. Luckily my parents were more than happy to facilitate my interest in science and trips to the science museum, nuclear power stations, nuclear bunkers I suppose in many ways my continued fascination with space and all things nuclear spurred me on to do triple science at GCSE so I could (hopefully) study science in a bit more detail. 

However, when I started my GCSEs I'd had another 2 influences actting on my life; the internet and the Lord of the Rings. The combined effect was that I thought I wanted to go into computer science and specialise in computer generated graphics for games and films which was further fuelled by the contrast between my not so good physics teacher (I did a lot of sticking the syllabus into my book over those two years) and my fantastic IT teacher. However, things began to change when I saw a documentary on BBC4, Dr. Michio Kaku's Time (currently available on youtube here). Time was a revelation, it introduced me to the ideas of general relativity and told me that time travel and worm hole's might just be possible within the theoretical limits of the universe. What more would you need to hear to inspire a Whovian or Trekkie to give physics another look? Soon after Time aired I prepared for my end of year 10 exams, and suddenly realised from reading the text book the material I had been taught in physics classes was actually interesting. It described how things moved and how we powered our homes along with so many other things. And I wanted to explore and find out more. I wanted to know how nuclear fission worked, I wanted to know why cells keep us alive, I wanted to know more about the atom. So it became obvious, I needed to do A-level physics. Don't get me wrong I still loved IT and originally thought I'd do A-level computing too, but in the end I was guided into further maths with promises of improved chances of entry to Computer Science at university.

I'm happy to say it was the right choice. At college I had 2 fantastic physics teachers who not only made sure we learnt the material, but also gave us the feeling of how wonderful it was to use physics to describe the world. But I still had my eye on what I wanted to do after university. Should I do engineering, should I do computer science or should I do physics? The more I read, the more I realised that doing physics wouldn't box me in like computer science or engineering might, it would leave my options open. I don't know exactly when I decided, but I came to the conclusion that physics was the subject for me. It was during my UCAS prep that I really began to fall in love with physics. I read 'In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat' by John Gribbin, I attempted to read 'The Road to Reality' by Roger Penrose which was mostly over my head but introduced me to some really cool concepts in cosmology and I devoured QED by Richard Feynman. These books showed me that you didn't have to look into deep space to find the extraordinary; the extraordinary was around us every day. We live in a crazy quantum world filled with beauty and contradiction and I needed to understand it. 

The rest, as they say, is history. I applied to universities with strong focusses on quantum technologies and nanotechnology, got my degree and as I write this, I'm sitting at a desk in the experimental quantum information office. It was a long road to get here, but I found my way in time. I suppose it’s true that inspiration can be found in the strangest of places, so always keep an open mind and you never know where you may end up!

Weekly Round-Up 21st April 2014

It may be a bank holiday, but its still a Monday, so its time for a bank holiday round-up of things that have caught my eye over the past week.

1. Europe's Sentinel Satellite Has Begun to Produce Images
   
   The European Space Agency's first satellite of the Sentinel project has beamed its first pictures back to earth. This marks the start of the project to provide detailed Earth observation of things as diverse as sea ice, oil spills and forests across the world. It's extremely exciting to see the ESA heading up this project and I hope it is a huge success.
2. Stem Cell Misconduct
   On a less inspiring note it has been reported that Haruko Obokata, the author of a seemingly ground breaking paper showing an easy method to make adult stem cells behave more like 'true' stem cells, has been found guilty of misconduct by her home institution. Obokata maintains that the underlying science of the paper is still sound, but at time of writing no external researcher has replicated the results of the paper.
3. The LHC Finds a New Form of Matter
   On a more positive note on 9th April CERN announced that the LHCb experiment had found a new form of matter, the Z(4430) particle. Z(4430), which has been predicted, observed and disputed, has been measured by the LHC in a paper available on the archive here (warning, not for the faint hearted!). The race is now on to determine is Z(4430) is the previously predicted tetraquark, a postulated particle formed of 4 quarks (where quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons).
4. Kepler Finds New Earth-like Planet
   Finally, we have some great news! NASAs space telescope Kepler has spied a new planet around the size of Earth orbiting a star in the Goldilocks region, described as an earth cousin. This means the planet is not too hot or not too cold, so it could have water present on the surface. While the orbit of the planet doesn't automatically mean that we will find life there it's the first recorded Earth cousin and hopefully we'll find an earth twin sometime soon.

And finally, as a follow up to floppy disc drives playing Tainted Love, I give you The Doctor Who Theme on 8 Floppy Drives. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

Unfortunately, it’s a short-ish post from me today as things have been a bit on the hectic side. I don't have a big Easter holiday on the horizon so it's PhD business as usual for me! At the moment I have lots of different things that are demanding my time and attention which, while important, don’t do much to advance my project on the surface.

Firstly, conference season is on the way, so abstracts (short summaries of your work) need to be written, posters produced, presentations practised and travel arrangements made. I've been lucky enough to have an abstract accepted as a talk at a conference this summer and while I'm not writing my presentation for it just yet, it’s in Italy, so  there are lots of things for me to sort out before I even get started. I need to register for the conference before the price goes up (check), make sure I have my travel documents in order (nope), book flights (nope), transfers (nope) and a hotel (nope). All easier said than done when you have to claim everything back on expenses.

I'm also preparing a presentation to give to my physics research group in Leeds. I'm actually quite nervous about it as I've not had to present to a physics audience before. So, that means I'm well practised in skimming over the detail of the mechanisms that under pin my work and I know that this is what the other physicists will be really interested in. Even if it doesn't work out it’ll give me a trail run for the future, but if possible I’d much rather not crash and burn.

As much as I try not to, part of my brain is tied up playing the waiting game, something which I'm not very good at. I've currently got a paper on submission to a journal and I've submitted an abstract for another conference. When it comes to the abstract I should know before the end of the month if it has been accepted, but it could be a while before I hear anything back from the journal. Apparently 3 months is considered a quick turn around and I'm just reaching a month in, so I've got a while to wait yet. The worst thing about it is the uncertainty, there's no standard information system for journals so they can tell you as much or as little as they want about how your submission is progressing. I know I should just let it go and not think about it, but it’s really hard not to look for news when I'm checking my e-mail on a morning.

Finally, alongside these 'side' bits there is some ‘real’ work for me to do. I'm currently coding a program to help me process data more quickly than my current manual methods. I'm really enjoying this bit as I'm learning to use python and although it can be frustrating at times I really like coding and I get a real sense of achievement out of it.

It seems that sometimes in a PhD you have to be a bit of a juggler, keeping lots of balls in the air whilst on a unicycle (at least that's what it feels like). On the upside, it looks like I should be able to confidently say I have ‘good time management’ and ‘multitasking skills’ on my CV at the end of it all!

My advice on how to keep everything going? Don't think about it too much, make to-do lists for each week (I find I don't stick to daily ones) and ask for help sooner rather than later!

Link Round-up 7th April 2014

Here's my this weeks round-up of things on the net that have caught my eye:

1. The world's first trial of human suspended animation has been green lit in the US.
   It seems like science fiction my soon become science fact as the FDA approve the first human trials of cryopreservation. In the trial 10 patients with serious knife or gunshot wounds will be placed in suspended animation, hanging between life and death, in an attempt to create more time for doctors to save their lives. This incredible technology has been previously trialled successfully in pigs and, if successful, could revolutionise surgical treatment. 
2. The Guardian highlights some famous 'secret scientists'.
   It's a little known fact that scientists can been seen in all areas of public life as directors, sports people, actors and musicians. This article in the guardian highlights some famous faces with strong scientific acumen who left the lab for pastures new.
3. NASA releases a video of a recent solar flare.
   Scientists at NASA have captured a solar flare in ultraviolet light on the 2nd April. It's been re-colourised and uploaded to youtube so everyone can watch this incredible phenomenon.

And finally, it's a week of new beginnings as Game of Thrones returns, filming on Star Wars Episode VII has begun and the second series of The Musketeers goes into production for BBC 1 today. But what should you do while waiting a full year to get season 4 of Game of Thrones on DVD (come on HBO, a year? no wonder its the most pirated show ever)? Or to help beat the no Musketeer's blues? Watch Radio 1's Game of Moans and Wolverine the Musical of course. Then go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier, because its awesome!