Nurturing Science
Coming back from vacations is never easy, and it is even worst in science. A lot of project proposals and articles to be written and conferences to be improved piled up in your laptop and you did not have the time to finnish even half of them. What is worst, that turn in your research you wanted time to think about didn’t come out as expected. Indeed, taking strong and deeply thought decisions is not an easy task while supervising your 6 to 11 years old kids in a rocky beach in the Costa Brava, climbing a Pyrenees mountain or enjoying a foam party in Vilamaniscle.
So fresh air is always welcome and I found it (as most good science) by chance at Uri Alon’s site. Afterwards (as happens also with most good science, unfortunately…) I realized his paper on “How to Choose a Good Scientific Problem” was extremely highly read. His “Materials for Nurturing Science” have started producing in me a similar effect as the reading of some Feynman’s lectures produced years ago, when a PhD student in Lluch’s and González-Lafont lab. Pessimistic views were (and periodically are) collapsing into what Alon refers as “the cloud”. But some readings and talks (veeeery few) lead us again to the right track, the one that was not initially drawn into our particular history. The wall, that I call sometimes (sorry, link in catalan). At any rate, spending some time having a look at Uri’s “Materials…” is an excellent therapy for the type of people that always reject any type of therapy: scientists…
Anyway, I think reading Uri’s paper and having some time to see his videos is an excellent start for any new PhD student or postdoctoral researcher in my lab, so here are the links for you, if you are thinking on spending the best years of your scientific career (and who knows if also of your life) at the CBBL.
Comment on “Statistical Analysis of Global Connectivity and Activity Distributions in Cellular Networks”
Aaron Clauset comments on the article in his blog. I am glad to see he shares our view but what he does not know (because the history of a paper is never clearly realized in its final published form) is that the article was send for the first time during the spring 2008. It’s been a looong way until somebody else realized the paper gave a comprehensive view of the (at that time!) current data and accepted the paper for publication. Are we facing some sectarism in science? I (naively) used to think NO, but sometimes one does not know what to believe…
[bibtex file=jordi.bib key=Garcia2010]
CBBL in the press
- “La simulación multiescala, útil para predecir cardiotoxicidad”, Diario Médico, 12/10/2010
- “La Medicina del futur”, Programa Angles, TV Hospitalet, 12/10/2010
- “El projecte Activa inicia els seus estudis clínics sobre fibrosi quística”, UPF e-noticies, 04/03/2010
- “ActivA, un projecte d’innovació tecnològica per a la rehabilitació de la fibrosi quística”, UPF e-noticies, 13/01/2010
- “ActivA, translational bioinformatics in health care”, VPH NoE newsletter, January 2010
- “La ciencia que permitió descifrar el genoma“, interview in La Gaceta de Tucumán, Nov. 2008
- “Simulating life through complex computer networks” El.lipse July 2008
- Informática biomédica: una disciplina que ayuda a sacar provecho de los resultados de la investigación experimental y clínica“, La Vanguardia, October 2006
- “Spain’s ill-conceived project leaves its scientists in the lurch“, Report in Nature Medicine 12, 1106 (2006) on the Ramón y Cajal program
- “Hemos aprendido a hacernos entender”, Diario Médico, 20/09/2005
Is Spanish research mini-miracle going to pervade?
Science magazine has published an interesting report on the situation of science in Spain. Although somwhow too optimistic, if one takes into account an inner vision, it shows the potential of the country to make a quantum leap in the following years. The basis has been set up, and now we need two main ingredients to ensure continuity, two mechanisms that are not entirely ensured within the current financial crisis context:
- continuous funding, if not increasing
- leaders that look beyond their own “business”
The reason for the first is obvious. The connotation of the second is not so. In a country with little history in producing knowledge and in competing with the world for a position among leading nations, little minded leaders, at all levels of organization, are the main dangers for the system to progress. The temptation to utilize the circumstancial power in the own benefit while sending messages of excellence is part of the Spanish culture, and those who are in the research field in Spain can give several examples in all our organizations. This is easy to cure, and there is only need fro decency and for clear regulations that favor such excellence with the most extreme transparency. Whatever is different than that is just yet another failed attempt to bring the country near the top, where it should be by its potential.
Screenshots of Activ8
Selected screenshots from the Activ8 portal, showing 3D biological environments relating to respiratory anatomy and cystic fibrosis.
From left to right: Research Environment, Research Tools, Cystic Fibrosis Pathway, Avatar, Organs, Lungs, Bronchiole wall and mucus, Alveolus, Cell, Membrane, Nucleus, Chromosomes, Chromosome 7.
The Chemical Touch
A video featured by some of our lab members
The Chemical Touch from ignasi on Vimeo.
2nd VPH Study Group and 2nd Barcelona School on Biomedical Informatics
On October 4th-8th 2010, the second edition of the VPH NoE study group in combination with the 2nd Barcelona school on biomedical informatics is going to be held at the PRBB premises.
The event will be a continuation of the successful first SG held in Nottingham in July 2009. The following video serves as an excellent introduction of the event.