olog

Time to terminate the "Research Works Act" which aims to terminate public access to publicly-funded science?

2012-01-12T16:14:00.001-05:00

The Research Works Act aims to terminate the NIH Public Access Policy which ensures that results of publicly-funded research are publicly available. Michael Eisen has raised attention to this issue, including an eloquent nytimes op-ed essay.

I wrote to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, the sponsor of the bill, with these concerns, and below is her reply.

Dear Dr. Kentsis:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about your opposition to HR 3699. As someone who represents thousands of researchers, research institutions, and publishers, and a strong advocate who helped double NIH funding, I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

First, I think it’s important to point out that this bill does NOT impact research reports and raw data generated by government-funded research. This information would still be available at no cost to the public. Reports that suggest that these NIH funded research papers (prior to peer review) will not be available for free are wrong. Authors still retain the ability to share data, reports, and other forms of research findings derived from the taxpayer-funded research. However, once a publisher has worked on a manuscript, spent private funds to improve it and has peer-reviewed it, under this bill, the government would not be able to take that work-product and disseminate it for free. The information, the manuscript, and the data can be made available for free before they receive any private investment.

The purpose of HR 3699 is to support the continued investment and innovation by private-sector publishers in scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journal articles and to advance the public interest in the important peer-review publishing system that helps ensure the quality and integrity of scientific research.

The importance of peer review cannot be overstated. It is the system by which experts give informed comments on papers in highly specialized fields of science. It is essential to providing independent, informed, objective assessments to maintain the quality of scientific articles and ensure that science develops independently of ideological and political interests. Because peer review happens and fixes problems prior to publication, we never hear about the false or erroneous research that would otherwise make it into journal articles.

Moreover, the publishing industry has invested in providing public access to scientific journal articles. Patients can get free access to information on new research through various publisher programs including PatientINFORM. Anyone can go into research libraries for free access to the articles in which publishers have invested substantially to ensure their high quality.

Two-thirds of the access to PubMed central is from non-US users. In effect, current law is giving our overseas scientific competitors in China and elsewhere important information for free. We are already losing scientists due to a reduction in funding for federal research. This policy now sends our value-added research papers overseas at no cost.

Finally, as people continue to struggle during these difficult economic times, it is important to be mindful of the impact of various industries on job creation and retention. New York State is home to more than 300 publishers that employ more than 12,000 New Yorkers, many of whom live in or around New York City in my district. New York City scientific publishers represent a significant subset of the total, and more than 20 are located in Manhattan, publishing thousands of scientific journals and employing thousands of New Yorkers. This bill saves American jobs. No industry could survive a model whereby they invest private dollars and are then required to give it to the federal government to disseminate the final product for free.

Once again, I appreciate your taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,

CAROLYN B. MALONEY

Member of Congress

This response speaks for itself, particularly the last 2 sentences, which invert the logic of public access to publicly-funded science to suggest that the "final product" of our science belongs to commercial publishers.

North Korea sells people to labor in Russian Siberia

2011-12-23T12:23:00.001-05:00

look lab christmas 2011

2011-12-23T08:19:00.001-05:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

on medicare

2011-10-17T05:38:00.003-04:00

much has been written about the failures of the current US healthcare system, with recent critiques amplified by its enormous financial cost.

the separation between the scale of these dollar amounts and the needs of individual people makes it difficult to escape ideology when discussing what and how to reform. and most people simply do not have the time or resources to investigate this issue fully. but we should.

if you care to do anything, do these 2 things:

1) look over the top 50 services, procedures and items billed to medicare. regardless of the particular ideology that's permeated your thinking, you will be surprised.

2) read jane gross' opinion about how medicare fails the elderly. this is what awaits you and your parents in the current system.

occupy wall street: e pluribus unum?

2011-10-16T07:14:00.002-04:00

the major media and popular consciousness are finally registering the occupy wall street movement.

i am proud that the founding (dis)organizers of the phenomenon chose to maintain an organic voice with no specific references to constituencies or policies.

this has prompted some critical responses, but i believe that the decentralized approach has a fundamental strength in allowing it to spread and generalize to a more effective majority. the threshold for transforming the currently marginalized phenomenon to a plural one remains to be defined. the critique offered by the movement, however, is neither marginal nor plural.

just look at the summaries of real lives on http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com. a few particularly jarring ones have been buzzfed. even those instinctively opposed to the movement are actually a part of it.

the challenge for all now is how to make e pluribus unum.

olog's most read posts

2011-10-09T09:12:00.000-04:00

though the apparent pageviews should be normalized for age, this list of "most read" posts must mean something:

conversations with asher

2011-10-01T15:16:00.002-04:00

asher: can we have some music?
me: sure
asher: i want oscar
me: we don't have the oscar cd here, how about peter and the wolf?
asher: well, that's good...very good, peter and the wolf is so much fun!

realtime facial substitution

2011-09-25T07:13:00.000-04:00

baby sarah (asher?)

2011-09-03T17:23:00.001-04:00

baby sarah (asher?), a photo by kentsis on Flickr.

miscellaneously sourced sunday dinner

2011-08-28T18:30:00.003-04:00

boston harbor: mackerel sashimi
trader joe's: pan-fried pork gyoza
stop&shop: broiled skirt steak
nina: home-made plum galette

freshly caught blue fin tuna: let me count the ways i am loving you!

2011-07-19T19:13:00.004-04:00

crispy fried skin with sea salt (just for me)
tuna belly with ponzu and nama shoyu (sashimi o-toro)
tuna tartare with hazelnut mayonnaise (o. g.)
pan fried tuna steak marinated in soy sauce and manischewitz wine with sesame oil, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, and chilis (east meets west)

dr. claw

2011-07-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

Aleksandar Hemon's Aquarium, and why pediatric oncologists do what they do

2011-06-28T13:47:00.001-04:00

as a pediatric oncologist, i've grieved with many parents about the death of their children. with experience, my ability to help them-- through the practice of medicine to guide treatment, scientific research to find new therapies, and shared humanity when the right prescription is unknown-- is becoming better.

for parents, however, the loss of child remains a singularly terrible experience in life. becoming a parent has made me a better pediatrician, but my appreciation of the experience of grieving parents, as it is for most physicians, remains more of sympathy than empathy.

now, aleksandar hemon provides us with a most articulate and moving account of childhood cancer, published in a recent issue of the new yorker as "the aquarium: a child's isolating illness." it is currently behind a paywall, but if there is ever a story that is worth paying for and a story for which the new yorker should lift its paywall, this is the one. it is a must read for all physicians and parents.

i thank him for sharing his experience, which is as much a human story as it is a testament to why the desire to heal remains a powerful motivation for all physicians, pediatric oncologists among them.

in russia, water drinks you!

2011-06-04T09:54:00.000-04:00

on scientific publishing

2011-04-29T18:29:00.002-04:00

Hidde Plough writes an incisive critique of the current system of publishing in "top" scientific journals, emphatically entitled "End the wasteful tyranny of reviewer experiments." The agreement on its deficiencies among scientists, myself included, is unanimous.

I think that we should go beyond this critique, and move scientific publishing towards the PLoS ONE model-- with publication based on technical validity only-- but that would deprive for-profit publishing companies and academic hierarchies from using publication in "top" journals as business instruments and measures of scientific productivity/fundamental contributions, respectively.

The whole goal of "top" (read, general interest) journals of providing a general interest forum to the readership is obsolete. Today, electronic papers can be tagged, annotated, and searched regardless where in the library stacks their bound volumes may be located. Physicists have been doing this for years at arxiv.org with some of the most important work being deposited there years before peer review.

But for now, as Hidde concludes, editors and reviewers should resume their true responsibilities, and "revisit the experiment."

Soldiers: Transcripts of Fighting, Killing and Dying

2011-04-14T19:15:00.010-04:00

Nazi War Crimes as Described by German Soldiers
Newly published conversations between German prisoners of war, secretly recorded by the Allies, reveal horrifying details of violence against civilians, rape and genocide. Here, Wehrmacht soldiers pose with a Russian girl.

In World War II, 18 million men, or more than 40 percent of the male population of the German Reich, served with Germany's military, the Wehrmacht, and the Waffen-SS.
War is War is War.

my karyotype

2011-04-12T10:44:00.001-04:00

Another karyotype of Alex Kentsis, a photo by kentsis on Flickr.

Behind The Seams - Mexican Pointy Boots

2011-04-03T19:26:00.001-04:00

2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

2011-03-15T20:10:00.005-04:00

current dose intensity at the fukushima nuclear power plant is reported to be 0.4 Sv/hour.

this is the worst nuclear disaster in human history-- above chernobyl and three mile island-- after the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki.

Songify This - Winning - a Song by Charlie Sheen

2011-03-08T18:34:00.002-05:00

Muammar Gaddafi - Zenga Zenga Song - Noy Alooshe Remix + Download

2011-02-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

on neo-feudalism in russia

2011-02-25T19:35:00.002-05:00

just one quote is sufficient to illustrate how right on and plainly awesome this piece about neo-feudalismn russia is: "political problems are solved as if they were commercial ones, and commercial ones as if they were political."

ATL's duck recipe (literally)

2010-12-30T19:40:00.001-05:00

2010-11-21 Recipe Port wine Mallard duck or Brandt breast

0. Cook the wild rice first. Rinse one cup in cold water. Bring 4 cups water to a boil and add wild rice, Keep at a strong simmer for 30 min. Pour in a strainer and strain. Bring 3 cups of chicken stock to a boil. Add strained wild rice. Strong simmer for 15 min. Pour in a strainer and strain.

1. Remove the duck breast. Brine by incubating in one can of coke and 1 tbsp kosher salt in a one quart ziplock plastic bag in car after cleaning.

2. Rinse and cut out any shot wounds, etc. Slice one side 3/4 of the way through several times.

3. Place on a plate. Pat dry and pepper. No Salt, salt to taste later.

4. Dice 1 sweet onion. 3-4 cut lengthwise, then slice 3-8 crosswise. Or green onions, including tender green parts.

5. Dice 3 garlic cloves into small pieces in the white dicer. Or buy diced garlic in a jar.

6. Cut baby bellas into 1/8ths.

6. Heat a large, deep frying pan on low. Add a little domestic duck fat or olive oil. Get pan hot first. Then add onions and cook and stir until translucaent. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until done. Remove to a bowl under the heat light.

7. Add a little more olive oil and then duck breasts to the pan and brown them on both sides. Add 1 cup regular port. Add mushrooms and onions and garlic back. Cook until reduced and duck breasts are rare.

6. Add one tbsp corn starch to a cup of cool chicken stock and mix well in a cup.

7. Then add 2 tbsp butter and about 1 cup chicken stock or the veal stock from Joseph's. Reduce and cook until duck breasts are medium rare. Add the corn starch slowly until it is the right consistency.

8. Add the cooked wild rice to the bottom of a flat bowl. Place a duck breast on top. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic on top and ladle on some of the gravy. Add some trappist burgandy wine jelly sauce or lodenberry relish or cranberry relish to the corner of the bowl.

a toddler's dinner

2010-12-13T18:58:00.002-05:00

buckwheat kasha
raspberries
cous cous with pumpkin seeds and sour cherries (cherries discarded)
meatloaf
chocolate crackers
milk

spoiled

2010-11-21T19:33:00.003-05:00

last night, nina and i went to o-ya for dinner, thanks to jeffers and triin.

we've been there before, and the food was outstanding. this time, feeling lazy, we settled on omakase. it was a great time, but in contrast to our previous visit, dish sequencing lagged, and selections seemed trite.

perhaps we should've ordered a la carte, but in spite of the "chef's choices," the biggest disappointment was the food.

it's not that it wasn't well crafted. it was. but the ingredients could've/should've been better. there is no excuse for serving (farmed, dyed) "scottish salmon," no need to combine chinese truffles and fish, and no gain from sourcing corn-fed (american) wagyū beef.

maybe, we'll return, but in all likelihood not. for the sake of o-ya, i do hope that frank bruni's review turns out to be more than an archival document.