As I wrote in a recent post (been a while) we were charging toward a milestone in the development of the product I have been wedded too since I started this job. Now we have reached an passed that important point and we have a little (very little, unfortunately) breathing space while Manufacturing finishes their shake-down of the process. Once they are good to go they will start making product and we will move on to our next assignment.

However, during this time I have an opportunity to play around with some ideas I have been hatching these last many months. Finally some time to do ye olde fashioned research (enough of the development part for now). It has been during this “free-time” that I have been forced to remember something from my graduate student days: The law of first time success – loosely stated it is “hope that your experiment doesn’t work great the first time because it will be nearly impossible to repeat it without a lot of time and effort that is completely disproportional to the initial try”. (note: this contains the Friday-Monday Corollary: never try a new experiment on a Friday because if it works then you better keep working on it through the weekend or it won’t work on Monday).

Perhaps I am a bit superstitious (I have been reading SuperSense and highly recommend it) but I find that when I have initial success beyond what I hope, it is difficult to reconstruct that sucess. I don’t know if it has something to do with the freshness of the reagents, the freshness of thought and process or just dumb luck but I do know that it is frustrating as all get out. Oh, well back to the bench – please cross-your-fingers for me and wish me luck.

Cheers,

When possible several of our friends and their families gather at our local park on Friday nights for dinner. This affords the opportunity to let the kids run wild after a week at school and a chance to talk to our fellow parents over a Solo® cup of wine. Last week as I was watching my youngest and his friend examine the cause-and-effect relationship that sticks and people have I was chatting with a fellow parent. We were talking about our plans (or lack-there-of) for the Labor Day weekend. My friend indicated that rather than go on a trip they were going to take the whole of this week off and instead have a “Workcation”. There was just too much to do and the normal work week was too full of meetings to allow certain essential tasks to get done. So, this friend was opting to use precious vacation time instead to hide-out at a local establishment and finish several papers that were close to submission but needed that final time and attention.

Now, my friend is a successful researcher at a major university here in California. This person is funded, publishes and is respected by their peers – the dream of most early Ph.D. students. But the reality is that the drumbeat of publications, committee meetings, and other faculty obligations only gets louder and more distracting as one climbs the ladder. And so the only escape from the din of the day-to-day is to actually stay home for a week to do their job. What value are we placing on people’s time? What are all these committee’s functions? Have University’s become so unwieldy that everyone must spend so much time trying to steer them in the “right-direction”? Aren’t the exorbitant indirect contributions of research grants supposed to support the administration of the University so that the Researchers can, now what’s the phrase I am looking for……oh, yeah – do research?

I seldom talk about my job on this site. However, I wanted to take a few lines to talk about launching a product. While I can’t tell you what it is or when it will come out (don’t want to unnecessarily advertise) I can say that launch is almost imminent and it is exciting. We still have some unique challenges as we rush toward our newest target date (too many potential blog posts on deadlines), but the end is in sight.

Having been with a product from the decision to go forward, through the initial R&D, establishing intellectual property, alpha and beta-testing, and now to finalizing the transfer of the process from R&D to Manufacturing and eventually launch has been an amazing experience. I know as a former academic researcher that our grants to the NIH always contained the hope that our discoveries would be applicable to human health. However, we certainly didn’t conceptualize all the steps and time needed to actually launch a product (I am not even in a pharma company, so can only imagine the scale of the headaches they face!). I think that the process of product development could actually be applied to many of the decisions that are made by academic researchers of all experience levels. Certainly the concepts of team-work and multi-disciplinary interaction as used in a “industry setting” could be good teaching tools. Specifically, it is amazing how language plans such a central role in communicating between different groups (i.e. Marketing, Manufacturing, Engineering, etc). Even with highly educated people sitting together it is easy to talk past one another and end up with a lot of confusion and mis-direction and we aren’t even in competition with each other (in theory).

Anyway, I wish that every scientist had the opportunity to actually launch a product of some kind. It is an enlightening experience in terms of understanding the application side of science, problem solving, trouble-shooting and psychology.

Cheers

This is not referring to the sections of a magazine that are marked “special advertising section”. No, this is a much more nefarious beast. When journalists write a piece and knowingly, or otherwise, participate in product placement( or even endorsement). To be honest I would have a hard time believing that the incidneces where this occurs are by mistake. Afterall (unlike most bloggers) writting and wordsmithing are a journalists stock-in-trade.

I recently came across an article in Forbes Magazine that is a perfect illustration of this type of journalism. And even better it is an article dealing with Science (see earlier rant).

This article: Never Say Die (June, 8 2009 pg 22-23)is about some research conducted by Dr. David Sinclair on the compound Resveratrol. The article spends the first half talking about the discovery of the proposed mechanism of action and how this mechanism may relate to different diseases. Now my comment has nothing to do with the thoughts or research of Dr. Sinclair, it is with the following types of statements.

“Proving that sirtuin-boosting [a proposed mechanism of action of resveratrol] can treat human disease will be up to GlaxoSmithkline.”

“Glaxo has concocted sirtuin boosters far more potent than resveratrol”

“But preliminary lab experiments suggest that sirtuins could have a role in everything from Alzheimer’s disease to colon cancer.”

The whole second half of the article is basically on giant forward looking statement and/or advertisement for GSK. Unlike regular advertisements it doesn’t state in the article that these are forward looking statements (I know it would be easy to infer that they are, but I have my doubts how the average reader would read this). Nor is it marked Special Advertising Section (see pg.83-89 – Newark!). No I will elect to call this style – Adverjournalism. I fear that this may be a very common happenstance in magazines in particular – though I have no proof.

Living in the greater San Francisco Bay area we are bombarded with all sorts of Eco propaganda. Some of it is good some is not. There has been extensive talk about Smart Grids. In general I am not a fan of this idea – at least for more urban settings. The problem I have is that it still allows for the monopoly of the existing power generating companies and/in fact provides them with more detailed information about your energy usage. While it could be argued that the greater understanding of the use of energy may improve the ability of people to choose when to use power (i.e. cheapest) I don’t see people changing habits very easily. Likewise, it still doesn’t address some of the long-term issues of power generation.

One of my favorite tests going on at the moment is being conducted by the City of Berkeley. This forward thinking community is actually using government dollars to help people get solar panels on their homes today. Basically, the city loans homeowners the money for the upfront installation costs and then the homeowners (if the property changes hands I believe the new owners) pay the city back at a rate close to the normal monthly electric bill of the house. This allows a long payback period for the owners and that money is then reinvested by the city to get more solar panels installed.

I would like to see this taken one step further. I would like to take the excess power generated by these homes during the day and instead of sending it to the power company and have them redistribute it to “who-knows-where” with the recognition that the longer the distance of transmission the greater the leaking of electricity. I would like to keep the electricity local. During these hours (when fewer people are at home) the electricity should go to support community-centric places like schools and municipal buildings. This would allow for an overall reduction in the cost of running municipal buildings without the cost of retrofitting these buildings (which are used mainly during normal work hours). So act globally and produce (and keep) your electricity locally.

A fellow scientist and I were discussing different laboratory “aromas” the other day and the list we came up with felt like it was missing some key scents. So, I call on the power of NN to help us embellish this list. Thanks for your help.

So far,

Xylene, Benzene etc. (organic solvents – mention your favorite if you wish)
Natural Gas (i.e. mercaptan additive)
B-mercaptoethanol
FlyNap
Autoclaved animal bedding

See, this list is obviously lacking.

Cheers,

Here in the States it is the 4th of July – our celebration of Independence. Once in a while it good to remember the humble beginnings and what was important at the time. In the midst of debates about uses of new technologies in the face of old laws I thought it was time to “dust off” a piece of history for reflection. Enjoy your weekend.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

I just saw this post that states Australia may ban Second Life. It has something to do with a games rating system. Does anyone from there (Australia not Second Life) know any more about this?

We have all seen comments attributed to scientists that have been outlandish, ridiculous or just wrong. We have also seen how these same statements have been latched onto by the Media and can lead to confusion in the general population. Now, many of us are likely guilty of writing a title for a presentation or poster or even a paper that we knew was a bit of a stretch, but would also likely draw an audience, that is not what I am referring too. Recently, I posted about an article on aquaculture that set my blood to boil and Richard was kind enough to share with me a previous post of his along the same vein of this topic. All of this has lead me to propose a contest.

Please submit one inflammatory headline for an article and an accompanying quote that you would generate from your own research experiences. If you would like you can e-mail it to me (cbrowell@yahoo.com) and I will re-post it without your name (so future journalists won’t actually use it). Or, if you don’t care, you can just comment below:

Here is my example:
Option 1:

Headline: Pregnant Women Should Not Take Hot Baths!

Quote: “In many reptiles and some fish species it has been demonstrated that changes in temperature during the incubation of the egg will influence the gender of the offspring. While we don’t believe this happens in people we have never run a double-blind study to determine if it is true.”

Option 2:

Find a article in the Scientific Press (does not/should not be in a field in which you already have knowledge and understanding) and write your own Headline and then pull the “supporting” quote from it (remember that context doesn’t matter).

With this option you are almost a real journalist.

Have fun!

I just read and article (more a press release) stating that because farmed fish eat meal that contains processed cows we should not eat farmed fish because they may spread Mad Cow Disease. The primary quote being “We have not proven that it’s possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans. Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited,” Friedland said. “Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows,” he added.

Those of us who have studied aquaculture will agree that fish, in the wild, do very well without eating cows. However, we also recognize that fish is THE MAIN SOURCE OF PROTEIN for much of the developing world. Furthermore, it is through the responsible farming of fish that many people even have access to an affordable source of protein. Can we do better, yes. Should we investigate if Mad Cow Disease can pass from cow to fish to human? Yes. Should we allow Scientists to make broad-ranging, fear insighting statements? You decide.