Comments for Bench Marks

Comment on Praise for Sydney Brenner: A Biography by martin d. packer

martin d. packer — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:07:13 +0000

The book is seemingly riddled with errors such as referring to “the Cavendish Laboratories” and even “Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories” (sic), both are singular of course and definately not plural! Jack D. Dunitz, a British-born scientist is (according to a footnote) a ‘foreigner’ when it comes to being a member of the (British) Royal Society. The description of a pivotal moment in Brenner’s life in April 1953 when visiting Cambridge is a very poor piece of writing. There is little or nothing on Brenner’s associate Leslie Barnett. (Any future edition of this book requires a lot of corrections.)

Comment on High Yield Recombinant Protein Production by David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:27:57 +0000

The protocol linked above deals with bacterial systems for protein production. Systems for the production of recombinant proteins in algae have seen great development in recent years, and perhaps this review will lead you to the answers you seek.

Comment on High Yield Recombinant Protein Production by M Kishore

M Kishore — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:12:02 +0000

Good evening Sir,
What is the general processed followed in Production of large amounts of protein in algae. Because my protein i need it with high structural activity.

Comment on Link Roundup 9-26-2008 by Paul Marston

Paul Marston — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:16:07 +0000

“nothing more terryfing than be alone with one own thoughts” is a quote I remember from decades ago, was trying to search for it, doubt it included a reference to Web 2.0. Do you remember the original author. I see dozens of hits referencing the phrase “alone…”, but not ” one of the most terrifying”. Thanks!!

Paul Marston

Comment on Web 2.0 for Biologists–Are any of the current tools worth using? by The RIN Report on Researchers and Web 2.0: If You Build It . . . Well, You Know the Rest « The Scholarly Kitchen

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:25:38 +0000

[...] with everything we’ve seen for the last few years (see previous columns here, here, here, and here). Predictions that new online technologies will revolutionize the way scientists and other [...]

Comment on Plant RNAi method updated by David Crotty

David Crotty — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:20:39 +0000

Thanks for the comment Jonny. I think you're right, in that what I've written above is a bit ambiguous. The use of TRV is the most efficient of VIGS vectors, not necessarily the most efficient means of gene silencing altogether, sorry if I was unclear. Please do take a look at the actual protocol (it's one of our featured articles and is freely accessible to subscribers and non-subscribers alike). The authors make a more eloquent case for VIGS than I can, given their higher level of expertise. Each protocol has space for comments (see Update/Discuss This Protocol in the info box at top right). If you have suggestions for readers of alternative techniques, I'm sure they would be greatly appreciated (and of course we'd welcome submission of alternate protocols as well).

Comment on Plant RNAi method updated by Jonny Dalzell

Jonny Dalzell — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:58:49 +0000

Having talked about the utility of VIGS with many individuals using it, the feeling seems to be that is an extremely ineffcient way of triggering RNAi in plants, mostly because of the mosaic nature of dsRNA expression (which follows viral spread). I think the comments above are slightly misleading…let’s
not forget, one of our best guesses for the origin of ‘classical’ RNAi is as an anti-viral response. Loading plant cells with viral RNA just leads
to expression peaks in RNAi inhibitors, and a reduction in efficacy.

Comment on Information overload is NOT filture failure by Nathan Zeldes

Nathan Zeldes — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:03:09 +0000

Glad to see I’m not alone in being uneasy with the “filter failure” meme. You come from a different angle – mine’s more enterprise oriented, yours academic – but I agree the issue isn’t that “there’s more interesting stuff out there than I could ever handle if I tried to read all of it”.

I share my take at http://bit.ly/bDUDuB .

Comment on Why Web 2.0 is failing in Biology by Do You Believe in Social Networks for Researchers ? | Open Your Innovation

Do You Believe in Social Networks for Researchers ? | Open Your Innovation — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:00:40 +0000

[...] David Crotty’s blog [...]

Comment on Digital intimacy by Science in the Open » Blog Archive » Convergent evolution of scientist behaviour on Web 2.0 sites?

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:48:34 +0000

[...] thought sparked off by a comment from Maxine Clarke at Nature Networks where she posted a link to a post by David Crotty. The thing that got me thinking was Maxine’ statement: I would add that in my [...]