Sublime

Modern genetic techniques were instrumental for understanding the fundamentals of the virus and ascertaining where it spread. The first step was mapping the virus’s genome—a more manageable task for a virus than for more complex organisms. The genome of every virus contains instructions for just a handful of proteins, and since viruses work by taki

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Among many memorable events, I saw a talk by David Allison about his efforts to correct simple statistical mistakes in the published literature. He would notice a clear and obvious error, like a claimed interaction that wasn’t actually tested properly. He would then send a polite email to the authors to explain the situation so it could be correcte... See more

Many argue that having this kind of information behind a paywall is bad for society, and even the institutions who pay these large subscriptions are getting sick of them.

Tizard knows that a lot of people are freaked out by genetically modified organisms. They find the idea of eating them repugnant and of releasing them into the world anathema. Though he’s no provocateur, he believes, like Zayner, that such people are looking at things all wrong. “We have chickens that glow green,” Tizard told me. “And so we have sc

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