Please update your bookmarks and see this farewell post about our departure from the ScienceBlogs community after four years and this inaugural post at CENtral Science.

CENtral Science is an online forum associated with Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly publication of the American Chemical Society that covers, “science and technology, business and industry, government and policy, education, and employment aspects of the chemistry field.” The majority of the bloggers there are Ph.D. staff writers for the magazine and are both gifted writers and scientists. I think that CENtral Science has the right chemistry for us.

Please update your bookmarks and see this farewell post about our departure from the ScienceBlogs community after four years.

When Mom told me she’d been following the aftermath of Pepsigate/sbfail, she asked, “So, what are you going to do about your blog?”

Yes, like Bora’s Mom, my Mom also reads my blog. And yes, my Mom is dialed into the unrest here at ScienceBlogs.

The weekend gave me some great opportunity to get back to my formative roots and have the clarity of the dry, high-country air where my brain seems to work a little better than the way it normally chugs along. I also won’t discount the soul-warming effect of sampling many bowls of New Mexican green chile.

As I watch so many of my friends leave ScienceBlogs, both for other venues and in holding patterns, I’ve asked myself about the purpose of remaining or leaving. One of the best parts of being at ScienceBlogs has been to form relationships with some incredible people, from great writers to great scientists, and often a mixture of the two.

My professional writer friends (you know who you are) were all uniformly kind in assuaging my concern that remaining here so long after the ethical breach of Pepsi buying their own blog did not necessarily mean that my own ethics were compromised. For your expert opinion, kind words, and supportive gestures, I am tremendously grateful.

And as has happened during much of my scientific career, some of the greatest guiding wisdom has come from a few British colleagues (I’ll name you if you’d like) who, again, I would not likely have come to know so well if not for writing at ScienceBlogs. The most useful advice was to not think about whether or not to leave ScienceBlogs but, rather, ask what I want the blog to be in a year or future years and where might I best achieve those goals.

Then my wife reminded me that she had been saying this all along.

Hence, the time has come for me to take leave from ScienceBlogs.

My reasons for doing so are manifold but you are certainly aware of my feelings regarding ScienceBlogs selling one of our competitive blogging slots to a multinational food and beverage company (here, here, and here).

I also won’t lie that while I was saddened to see all of my friends leave this network, it was the loss of Bora Zivkovic, PalMD, and Zuska that tilted me over the edge toward Bion’s Effect, so eloquently discussed the other day by Bora. Each of these people have become among my best friends – not just online friends but real life friends. Each has been a source of strength and encouragement and has in their own way helped me through various life challenges. They are not the only ones of my online community to do so, but their cluster of departures is a bellwether.

However, the primary reason for my leaving now is the thinking I’ve done about the future.

That future is not at ScienceBlogs.

I have to thank Katherine Sharpe because without her, I would not have been here for the last four years, one month, and thirteen days. Katherine was community manager of ScienceBlogs for the second round of bloggers who joined the original 14 hand-picked by Christopher Mims. After only five months of blogging at my old Blogger site, I received a letter of invitation from Ms. Sharpe (on my birthday!) to join ScienceBlogs. Others in that position have subsequently been a great influence – Virginia Hughes, Arikia Millikan, Erin Johnson – but Katherine will always have my gratitude, and respect for her own writing prowess, for seeing in my writing something that this larger audience might enjoy.

Even before the invitation, it was my surgical oncology colleague, Orac at Respectful Insolence, who encouraged me in this endeavor, gave me great advice on considering the invitation to join ScienceBlogs and, like Bora, linked to me very early at my Blogger site and gave me the early visibility that I believe caught Katherine’s eye. Orac has subsequently been a steadfast supporter with a multitude of links of a consistency paralleled only by the support of my family.

There remain today a core of people in whom I find mutual support and camaraderie both within and outside the ScienceBlogs platform (yes, outside SB who had never joined the network ). The list would be too long to note here but the wisdom of Janet Stemwedel stands above all – and I think many of my colleagues would consider the same in their own cases. A member of the original ScienceBlogs class and my own daily read before the network existed, many of us considered Janet our den mother. As a fellow Garden State native, Janet was responsible for my Sb pledge name, “Exit 153A.”

In addition to Janet, my colleagues who are also women – Zuska, Tara Smith, Sheril Kirshenbaum, Alice Pawley, Anne Jefferson – (as well as PhysioProf, remarkably) have helped me understand my blind spots as a white man and learn what it really takes to be an ally in promoting and sustaining women in higher education and the academy. Their continuing liberal arts education is deeply appreciated.

DrugMonkey and my other neuropharmacology blogger colleagues have also been remarkably supportive in my dabbling with CNS pharmacology as a function of my broad interests and sense of responsibility in serving as an ambassador for natural products and the field of pharmacognosy.

But the most numerous thanks go to you – The Reader. Without you, there would be no thanking of anyone else. The referrals from my friends probably got you here but I am grateful that you find it valuable to spend five or 10 minutes here everyday (or every few days). Your lurking readership and/or participation in the discussions on our comment threads is what has made the Terra Sigillata community one of few places where you can get what I hope is straightforward, objective information on drugs – botanical, non-botanical, prescription, and over/under-the-counter – that guide you through a world so fraught with market-driven information across the spectrum from dietary supplements to, yes, prescription drugs.

And at home, I really must thank my wife, PharmGirl, MD and the outcome of what actually began as a scientific relationship, our daughter, PharmKid. Besides supporting me in this hobby that has become more serious over time, my wife was the first to believe in my intelligence and capability to communicate, thereby cultivating the confidence I needed to open my mind and keyboard to each of you. In many cases, the topics you read about here were seeded by late-night e-mail referrals during her bouts of insomnia. She knows the topics that motivate me and just as she can pick off a new restaurant menu what I will order, she knows what stories will coax me into a post for you.

While I am obviously grateful for my scientific colleagues and writers within and outside my field who come to read, I am especially indebted to those of you who are not scientists but who come here to learn and ask questions, maybe even be empowered in your own health or in pursuing your own future directions. Preaching to the choir certainly has value in galvanizing the science communication community. However, I can’t think of a single science blogger who doesn’t view this exercise as a form of outreach – to share and demonstrate to our constituents, the humble taxpayers, that what we are charged to do for world health is well-spent and communicated in an objective and approachable manner.

Come to think of it, my time at ScienceBlogs has been nearly the very same four-plus years it took to complete my Ph.D. work at the University of Florida, largely funded for by the taxpayers of that state. Gainesville was also home to Tom Petty and most of the members of his band even today, The Heartbreakers. Their song on Wildflowers was the inspiration of the title of this farewell post (but I prefer the version covered by my musical mentor I spoke of Saturday, Jon Shain, on his previous album, Army Jacket Winter.

It’s time to move on, it’s time to get goin’
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, grass is growin’
It’s time to move on, it’s time to get goin’

And, indeed, I have no immediate plans to do anything but take up a simple WordPress blog at abelpharmboy.wordpress.com. So, please update your links and RSS feed accordingly as that’s where I have also archived all 1,167 posts written since 9 June 2006. I’ll also contribute on occasion to Science-Based Medicine but probably only on a monthly or bi-weekly basis.

Of course, venturing into the great wide open gives me the “nauseous adrenaline” Petty cites therein.

So if anyone wants to procure the services of an able farmboy, contact me via Gmail at abelpharmboy and we’ll set for a spell out on the front porch and discuss propositions over a couple of tall glasses of iced sweet tea.

In the meantime, I hope y’all will excuse me.

It’s time to get goin’.

The setting sun provides contrast on the faces of East Spanish Peak as taken from a little piece of heaven in Huerfano County, Colorado, 17 July 2010. Photo ©2010 by the blog author.

However, his long-awaited analysis of the Pepsigate #sbfail episode is superb and he provides an unparalleled history of science blogging, its relationship with the legacy media, and his views of the future. He ends on an optimistic note, so I hope that his leaving the network is a GoodThing for both him and his family.

Bora has been and will continue to be a great blog mentor. I am most fortunate to know him in real life as well.

I can’t help thinking that this is another nail in the ScienceBlogs coffin. I hope I am proven wrong.

For those who began reading us for our discussions of underrepesented minority groups in the sciences, namnezia holds forth on the awkwardness of minority status in the university:

[S]oon after starting my job I promptly ended up in a list of “faculty of color”. In fact, I am the only minority in my department, and one of a handful in my entire division. Now, to me “faculty of color” implies having brown or black skin. The problem is that, being Jewish, although I clearly am Mexican and my name is in Spanish, I don’t look Mexican. Which puts me in an awkward situation. Every September I get invited to a luncheon for incoming students of color, and every September I struggle whether to go or not, or whether to sign up to be a mentor for an incoming student of color. On one hand, I can relate as a minority, which I felt much more growing up Jewish in a Catholic country where the antisemitism is real and stereotypes abound. I remember we would occasionally receive pictures of Hitler in the mail, or swastikas would show up on a synagogue or Jewish school wall. Some of my friends would tell me that their parents told them that the Jews killed Jesus. But those were things you got used to and overall I really loved growing up in Mexico. I feel very close to Mexico, and feel very Mexican.

I’m traveling back home today after visiting with PharmMom and PharmStiefvater for my mom’s 70th birthday. As I start my morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico, their very Catholic and very Hispanic-influenced adopted home, I can appreciate the depth of namnezia’s love for the motherland just a few hundred miles south.

But that’s not all. namnezia speaks of coming up for tenure this year, having Tourrette syndrome, and the challenges of changing a shop-vac from dry to wet mode.

Add to this that Take it to the Bridge is presented in an eye-pleasing Georgia font of adequate size and spacing and you’ve got all the makings of a blog that you must put in your RSS reader and blogroll (which reminds me that I have to reconstructed my blogroll here).

Enjoy, readers, and welcome to this side of the tracks in the blogosphere, namnezia!

On Friday, Paul Goldberg of The Cancer Letter reported on an investigation into Duke cancer researcher, Anil Potti, MD, and claims made that he was a Rhodes Scholar – in Australia. The misrepresentation was made on grant applications to NIH and the American Cancer Society.

The Cancer Letter, a $375/year go-to newsletter on cancer research, funding, and drug development, has made this issue free at this PDF link.

News & Observer higher education reporter, Eric Ferreri, has a nice overview of the situation. Potti has been placed on administrative leave by Duke and the American Cancer Society has suspended payments on his grant and initiated their own investigation.

This news follows on questions regarding Potti’s highly-promoted research conducted in the lab of Joe Nevins at Duke. From The Cancer Letter PDF on page 6:

The Nevins and Potti team emerged as pioneers of personalized medicine in 2006, when Nature Medicine published their paper claiming that microarray analysis of patient tumors could be used to predict response to chemotherapy.

However, two biostatisticians at the MD Anderson Cancer Center attempted to verify this work when oncologists asked whether microarray analysis could be used in the clinic. Keith Baggerly and Kevin Coombes, the statisticians, found a series of errors, including mislabeling and an “off-by-one” error, where gene probe identifiers were mismatched with the names of genes.

Baggerly and Coombes said they devoted about 1,500 hours to checking Potti’s and Nevins’s work. These efforts–dubbed “forensic bioinformatics”–resulted in a paper in the November 2009, issue of the Annals of Applied Statistics.

The Nature Medicine paper lists two corrigenda on sample duplication and mistakes in the gene list that appear to have preceded the Baggerly and Coombes analysis.

According to current issue of The Cancer Letter and several previous issues, Duke terminated three clinical trials of microarray-based individualized chemotherapy but the trials were then restarted after evaluation of the methodology by outside experts. The report was considered confidential by a Duke official but Goldberg noted that following its submission to NCI, the report became subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

A link to the report is provided among the Special Reports list at The Cancer Letter website. The report details some of the problems with the data and the responses by the research team that included several corrections to other papers. However, Goldberg reports that Duke officials “were inaccurate in their description of the document’s substance and conclusions when they announced completion of the investigation and resumption of the clinical trials earlier this year.”

The personalized genomics work of Potti, now an associate professor of medicine at Duke, was widely publicized by the university and included television advertisements that aired locally as late as last year. When I attempted to access The Cancer Letter link to one of the announcements at Duke’s YouTube page, the URL returned with the message, “This video is private.”

This latest development reported by Goldberg also includes several other inconsistencies in Potti’s biosketches regarding residency sites and awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Addendum (19 July, 11:45 am) after thinking more about this overnight: What I don’t understand from a grant reviewer’s standpoint is why Potti thought that being a Rhodes Scholar would make a damn bit of difference in how he was evaluated as an investigator.

Times Right Now is the 6th album by Piedmont Blues guitarist Jon Shain since he went solo in 1998 after a decade with his folk-rock group, Flyin’ Mice, and their spinoff, WAKE.

Shain’s album covers as much diverse ground as you might expect from a Jewish boy from a Massachusetts milltown who came to Duke to major in American history and seek the mentorship of legends in the Piedmont blues style (biography here). There’s something for everyone on this album regardless of one’s musical preferences.

Perhaps the greatest departure for Jon is the partnership with The Grandsons from DC who add a layer of vintage horns not normally seen on previous albums. Hailing largely from DC, The Grandson bring a self-described “pawn shop of instruments” to the effort. Together with members of his time-tested trio, FJ Ventre on bass, Bill Newton on harmonica, and John Currie on dobro, Times Right Now is a work of finesse and strong songwriting and musicianship while also serving up a few earbugs for even the casual listener.

Self produced with Scottsburg Jonze and Jackson Hall, it’s the fresh mixing of Chris Stamey that comes to the forefront from the first note. Stamey, a long ago member of the dBs and outstanding guitarist in his own right most recently partnering with his old mate, Peter Holsapple, has made a consistent name for himself with his recording and production skills. Stamey brings the clarity and authenticity of each instrument to the overall mix and Holsapple even shows up for a guest appearance. After listening to Auto-Tune-worked songs and sampling loops out the wazoo elsewhere, it’s truly refreshing to hear exquisite playing that doesn’t skimp on melody and hooks.

Shain opens “James Alley Blues” with the album’s title line, “times right now ain’t nothing like they used to be,” letting us know from the start that this is a different album. His acoustic guitar lines are clean and the groove set down by Newton and Ventre is infectious. Followed by “Mr. Snakeoil!,” a tune inspired by the Bush administration, the album opens strongly with blues riffs before Jon breaks it down to show his diverse skill.

“Spinning Compass” is the first of a few dreamier numbers that demonstrate Shain’s penchant for supreme fingerpicking and sense of melody. A few of the breaks are reminiscent of Suzanne Vega’s debut album “down in your hometown.” The Grandsons are then front and center on “Something New,” launching with tenor sax and Bill Newton’s playful harmonica in the style of Stevie Wonder.

It took me several listens to the concertina waltz, “Clementine,” before I could identify what grabbed about this one. I could hear this being one of Springsteen’s sweeping waltzes featured on 1980’s, The River, except that Jon’s singing is more authentic and less affected than The Boss was on that album (and that coming from a Jersey boy).

“Driving them Crazy” again pulls out the fingerpicking chops and hits a home run with “Careless Love,” a top pick from a musician’s standpoint with pre-World War slide picking and lonesome vocal harmonies.

The most broadly accessible song on the album is the New Orleans-flavored, “Oooncha Ooncha Music.” This song has become a ritual for the PharmKid every morning this summer where we can play it three times in the car before I drop her off at camp. That’s a far greater endorsement than my writing can provide. I’m happy to support her fixation on the song because she sings along with words that tell the music history: “Louie Armstrong and Jellyroll, they paved the way for rock ‘n’ roll.” If you don’t move some part of your body while listening to this song, you need a defibrillator.

“Midnight Snack” then features FJ Ventre on vocals. I learned from seeing the trio a few weeks ago that Jon writes a song on each album for FJ and they’ve been trying to get this song adopted by Lynne Rosetto Casper for her NPR foodie show, The Splendid Table.

“Louise, Louise” is one of the grittier numbers in the true blues style: “When Louise gets down to business, she’s like a locomotive train.”

“Song for Dara” kicks off back-to-back family time building on Jon’s tunes Song for Maria and Song for JoJo on his previous album, Army Jacket Winter. For his sister, Dara, Jon devotes a catchy instrumental with an overdubbed counter melody – a tasty little piece. But to reprise his devotion to his daughter JoJo, Shain channels Matthew Sweet’s Divine Inspiration in “Little Flower”. Johanna (her given name) is a contemporary of the PharmKid, a rising 3rd grader. The song will resonate with the daddy faction, reminding of short time we have with these little angels before they launch off: “Just a little while longer, she’ll blow away from me soon.”

Jon closes the album with a primarily acoustic number called “Yadkin River Blues,” a song that was my instant favorite when I saw the Shain with FJ and Bill Newton the night I purchased the disc. The Yadkin River Valley is a sleepy region of North Carolina one encounters while driving west up to the Appalachians that’s now making its name as a major wine grape growing region, the first American Viticultural Area appellation so designated in the state. Perhaps reflecting North Carolina’s prominence in science, technology, and education, but down-home Southern culture, Shain grabs me with the lines, “I’m just waiting for two checks in my mail…one’s from the academy and the other’s from a jail.”

While Jon has another three or four decades of doing this, I found that this album was a major step forward that the previous albums had been leading to. I didn’t speak much about Jon’s singing but it’s really strong and pure with an ease that hadn’t quite come through fully on previous albums; I feel that he’s really hit another milestone in his own musical journey. I tried to identify a weakness in the album but the only one I can find was that it ended after the last song. Certainly, some songs will appeal more to some than others but Jon is to be congratulated for putting together such a strong team whose seasoned core and new friends, The Grandsons, treat his songs with the craftsmanship they deserve.

Shain’s own press release describing the background and inspirations for this album can be found in this PDF.

And he’ll teach you how to do this, too
I should also mention that Jon is an equally talented instructor of electric and acoustic guitar and bass in many styles as well as songwriting technique. His long-running advertisement in the Triangle’s Independent Weekly cites his expertise with helping adult players getting unstuck from their plateaus. It was that line that drew me to seek Jon out for lessons for the first time in my 30 years of being stuck at my own plateau. As an instructor, Jon’s approach is to help you be whatever you want – a parlor hack, an open mike night player, a solid traditionalist, or a balls-out rocker.

His teaching sessions don’t just cover music theory and fingerpicking exercises. Jon’s given me tutoring on songwriting, how to talk to an audience (don’t tell a long story about the story you’re about to sing them), and the basic nuts and bolts of the music business.

Jon’s also built a really nice community among his protégés by hosting an open mike house concert for his students every few months to give everyone a chance to perform in a supportive environment no matter where they are in their music development. It’s not often that you’ll find such a magnanimous spirit in the music industry – Shain is a community treasure.

You can download Shain’s Times Right Now and hear previews at cdbaby.

And for those readers in New York and New England, Jon will be touring up with y’all during August. Check his tour calendar to learn we you can see him live.

Disclosure: The copy of Times Right Now reviewed herein was purchased by the blogger at a Jon Shain Trio concert but I did get a deal by buying three for $30 and had them autographed by Shain, FJ Ventre, and Bill Newton. No free materials or other services were provided by the artist in exchange for this review or endorsement of his instructional activities. This is pure love and admiration, my friends.

The artwork provided by her granddaughter above (©2010 PharmKid) contains a subliminal message about the significance of today’s birthday. I will have the pleasure of delivering the original work of the artist to the birthday girl this weekend.

For those of you who don’t know PharmMom, she’s nothing short of incredible having raised my sister, then deciding when we were in elementary school that she wanted to serve the greater good as a registered nurse, earning an AA degree while she also worked nights in the ER.

She closed the books on a three decade career in nursing a couple of years ago and retired with my stiefvater to Santa Fe, Mew Mexico. She worked in emergency medicine, urology, cardiac intensive care, and completed her career working in clinical trials coordination for patients with HIV/AIDS. She continues to do health screening in her new community for the Lion’s Club and other organizations.

Being a parent now give me even more appreciation for how hard this must’ve been for her to be so dedicated to her patients and be a great Mom, involved in our activities and pushing us academically.

Mom’s also a 26-year breast cancer survivor and her example – and personal cancer pharmacology experience – led me to pursue my career in cancer research. Much of what I am today is due to her example of strength and persistence.

So, Happy Birthday, Mom! I can’t wait to see you!

The post focuses on an article by someone who contends that the link between sunlight and skin cancer is a conspiracy by dermatologists and the cosmetic dermatology industry. Dr. Lipson’s highly insightful analysis about the “interview” process and how doctors must act these days on behalf of their patients concludes:

This article shows a misunderstanding of journalistic ethics, medical ethics, and medical science. It’s a disaster. And it’s no surprise that it’s in the Huffington Post.

While this is a medicine story, my question relates to why an organization with a lot of great frontpage news so frequently posts medical articles that are wrong and, sometimes, downright dangerous.

Read the article first, then read Dr. Lipson’s analysis.

Disclosure: I am an occasional contributor to Science-Based Medicine but, like all contributors there, receive no compensation.

With contributions from Aaron C. Davis, the article by writer Michael W. Savage provided an insight into Spice use in Adams Morgan and around the District. The second page of the online article goes into much more detail than the NYT article by addressing the pros and cons of state approaches to outlaw the compounds and products.

Savage also included commentary by Marilyn Huestis, chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and focused in on a problem we discussed Sunday, namely, that the content of active components in the synthetic products and dosing with the pure compound(s) can vary wildly and account for reports of safe use vs. those of intense anxiety, cardiac disturbances, and seizures.

Savage quotes Dr. Huestis:

“These different, synthetic compounds are up to 100 times more potent than THC and have not been tested on humans,” she said. “When people take it, they don’t know how much they’re taking or what it is they’re taking.”

It’s a really nice overview and it won’t take you terribly long to read it.

As more states move toward regulating JWH-018, related compounds, and incense products that contain one or more of the compounds, we will be seeing more of these kinds of articles in the legacy media.

By the way, if you are looking for more science writing, check out Carl Zimmer’s fantastic article, How Microbes Defend and Define Us, in today’s NYT Science Times section on the microbes that live in our bodies and how “fecal transplants” have proven effective in treating infectious diseases – I kid you not.