Monthly Archives: November 2017

This [attached] article is an intriguing bit of history about scientific “preprint” publications. Since 1991, physicists and mathematicians have been using the arXiv preprint repository to circulate articles and ideas, to the envy of many biologists. After a number of … Continue reading →

Cell integrity depends on the precise organization of its limiting cell membranes, whose molecular organization we understand poorly. The established dogma about the fluid mosaic model had suggested that membrane proteins and lipids diffuse freely and therefore are homogenously distributed. … Continue reading →

Below is another horror story that Professor Eaton wishes to share with everyone. Because I receive 20-30 of these bogus emails each day, I could offer perhaps some insight to one or several “key words” that I see in virtually … Continue reading →

These GEITP pages will continue to share horror stories related to these “online open-access predatory journals” that have exploded in number during the past decade. This one today should be especially of interest to dog lovers. Dog of a dilemma: … Continue reading →

As discussed many times on these GEITP pages –– archaeological, fossil, and genetic data have positioned the early traces of anatomically modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa. The earliest (completely) modern human remains, dating to ~190,000 years ago, originate from Ethiopia. … Continue reading →

Peer review (colleagues, peers, reviewing a manuscript submitted for publication in some journal) can be “single-blind” (reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of paper authors), or “double-blind” (this information is hidden from the Reviewer). Noticing that computer-science research … Continue reading →

Ever since the start of the CRISPR craze 5 years ago, scientists have raced to invent ever-more-versatile, or efficient, variations of this powerful tool, which vastly simplifies the editing of DNA (e.g. instead of requiring 4-6 months to create a … Continue reading →

Breast cancer risk is a perfect example of a multifactorial trait –– which these GEITP pages have continued to scrutinize and underscore importance. I still recall discovery of the BRCA1 gene (1994) when it was declared “THE breast cancer risk … Continue reading →

As discussed often in these GEITP pages, psychiatric disorders represent multifactorial traits (i.e. phenotypes caused by the contribution of hundreds if not thousands of gene mutations, plus epigenetic effects, plus environmental adversities that can accumulate over decades of time). Other … Continue reading →

As these GEITP pages have often described, there is no simple diagram to illustrate migrations of modern humans (Homo sapiens) out of southeast Africa during the past 1-2 million years. Both Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and modern humans are likely to … Continue reading →