This is a guest post by Adam Obeng, a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at Columbia University. His work encompasses computational social science, social network analysis and sociological theory (basically anything which constitutes an excuse to sit in front of a terminal for unadvisably long periods of time). This post is Copyright Adam Obeng 2013 and licensed under […]

Diminutive species mutate more rapidly than their taller counterparts

While research on the bacterial component of the human microbiome has taken off in the last several years, the fungal members of that community have not really received similar attention. A new review in Trends in Microbiology acknowledges that the total number of fungal cells in the human microbiome is orders of magnitude less than bacteria, but that fungi represent an important part of the ‘rare biosphere’ that can play an important role in inflammatory diseases and metabolic disorders.

Jesús Lemus — the veterinary researcher whose work colleagues have had trouble verifying, including being unable to confirm the identity of one of his co-authors — has notched his ninth retraction. It’s a clear and comprehensive notice, from the Journal of Applied Ecology, despite the bizarre nature of the case: The following article from Journal […]

Unique nanostructures allow the predator to fade into the shadows