Trail Mix

The Trail Mix

Dr. Clark’s News of the Weird:

Harvard University medical researcher Mark Shrime documented recently how easily made-up research can wind up in reputable-sounding academic journals -- by submitting an article composed by random-generating text software, supposedly about "the surgical and neoplastic role of cacao extract in breakfast cereals" (and authored by "Pinkerton A. LeBrain and Orson Welles"). Of 37 journals, 17 quickly accepted it, some feigning actually having read it, with the only catch being that Shrime would have to pay a standard $500 fee for publication. Shrime warned that some of the journals have titles dangerously close to highly respected journals and cautions journalist (and reader) skepticism. [Fast Company, 1-27-2015]

Because We Can: Scientists at the University of California, Irvine (with Australian partners) announced in January that they had figured out how to unboil a hen's egg. (After boiling, the egg's proteins become "tangled," but the scientists' device can untangle them, allowing the egg white to return to its previous state.) Actually, the researchers' paper promises dramatically reduced costs in several applications, from cancer treatments to food production, where similar, clean untanglings might take "thousands" of times longer. [UC Irvine press release, promoting publication in the ChemBioChem journal, 1-23-2015]

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND OUR INFOSESSION: Hosted by Fiona Reidy: When: Monday, March 2nd at 7 PM Where: ENR 223, Cook Campus