Posts

November 01, 2012

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We have touched in the Investigator criterion of NIH grant review in the past. I observe that it has little dynamic range because for the most part the investigators applying for grants are very accomplished. So when your summary statement talks about how awesome you are.... I take mine with a grain of salt. It [...]

October 29, 2012

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6:38 PM | Expectations for trainee publication output

A question arrived about publication expectations for trainees at the blog mailbox recently. I was wondering if you would consider a blog post and perhaps encouraging discussion on a related topic, on how do you evaluate your student/postdoc performance and how common is the 1 paper/yr "rule"? At the outset I was skeptical that much [...]

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1:15 PM | Sandy

Stay safe, friends in the path of Hurricane Sandy. Hoping this turns out milder than anticipated...

October 26, 2012

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3:20 PM | Advice for new grant writers gets one thing wrong

The latest iteration is on the Twitts, launched by queries from @JacquelynGill. You can browse the #firstgrant hash tag if you want some background. One of the sounder bits of usual advice to new grant writers is to get some examples from established scientists. The closer to your field and the closer to the agency [...]

October 25, 2012

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9:13 PM | NIAID and NIDDK are fond of the R56

The R56/Bridge mechanism of the NIH is called the High Priority, Short-Term award will fund, for one or two years, high-priority new or competing renewal R01 applications with priority scores or percentiles that fall just outside the funding limits of participating NIH Institutes and Centers (IC). Investigators may not apply for R56 grants. Sounds good [...]

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6:25 PM | Training Future Surgeons...or Scientists

Teacher Ms. S. has requested support for her science class to learn basic vertebrate biology with the time honored dissection lab. This grant will provide our science classroom with the equipment necessary to complete two laboratory dissections with 100 students. After an in depth study of the circulatory system and the chambers and structures of [...]

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2:35 PM | Your Republican Party thinks quite a lot about rape

Via brain wrap at DailyKos Obama has a better approach

October 24, 2012

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1:22 PM | A query on your publication practices

This one is mostly for the PIs in the audience but I'm sure trainees will have experiences to share as well. What fraction of the people who have spent time in your laboratory have ended up with authorships on published papers? (Including students and techs)

October 22, 2012

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6:29 PM | Donor's Choose Time!!!

Yes, folks, it is that time of year. You get to open up your wallets, even $5 helps people, to help little kids' school classrooms. It is no secret that public education has been enduring a long downward slide in the ranks of things that are important to voters/taxpayers in the US. But you probably [...]

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6:14 PM | The purpose of writing GrandeTheorye scientific review articles

The sole purpose of generating a review article that lays out your GrandeTheoryeEleven in the biomedical sciences is so that you can try to take sole credit for ideas that occur to many members of your subfield who are following the same literature that you do. Please note that Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine [...]

October 19, 2012

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11:24 PM | The conversation is not about whether or not the guy is a sexist; it is about what he said

siiigh. that is really what I find so distasteful of this whole affair. The witch-hunt being carried out by some of these commentators reeks of McCarthyism like persecution to seek out "impure thoughts" and destroy those who may harbor them. There is ZERO EVIDENCE that DM is actually sexist, other than an idiotic comment he [...]

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7:12 PM | Repost: I Am...

There was a blogpost responding to the Maestripieri comment that noted a tendency for more mainstream outlets to emphasize the complaints of women over those of men. I rush to disagree since it happens that Isis and Janet Stemwedel are eloquent and quote worthy. My post was little more than a "don't do this". Nevertheless [...]

October 18, 2012

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8:07 PM | Gaining clarity on the pharmacology of the bath salt MDPV

There are two new pharmacological investigations on the substituted cathinone drugs that have been discussed here on occasion. Each of Baumann MH, Partilla JS, Lehner KR, Thorndike EB, Hoffman AF, Holy M, Rothman RB, Goldberg SR, Lupica CR, Sitte HH, Brandt SD, Tella SR, Cozzi NV, Schindler CW.Powerful Cocaine-Like Actions of 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a Principal [...]

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7:18 PM | The upside of scientific meetings

It's quite possible that the full-throated value of a scientific meeting for your science is only realized once you are a PI. It is not infrequent that I come back from scientific meetings all in a tizzy to do one of three things. 1) Put the hurry up on pumping out some data that we've [...]

October 17, 2012

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2:07 PM | SfN 2012: Professors behaving badly

I don't actually know Dario Maestripieri although I have read some of his scientific work now and again over the years. His areas of interest include primate social behavior as well as mating systems and reproductive strategies. Apparently his interest extends to the human primate. Professor Maestripieri has posted a rather idiotic observation about the [...]

October 16, 2012

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8:59 PM | Return of the A2 revision for NIH Grants?

According to a blog entry at Nature the NIH is reconsidering their policy limiting applicants to a single revision of an unfunded grant proposal. Good. They should do so. Unless, as I've said repeatedly, they can show that the increase in the percentage of grants funded on the first try is driven by genuine "first" [...]

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12:30 PM | Making your own equipment

The latest from Backyard Brains... When I walked up this year the rig seemed curiously sophisticated compared with past efforts... SfN must be on to these guys...no live roaches this year.... Anyway, their schweeetly fabbed plastic bits? They built it all themselves using a Makerbot. Tim claimed about a $2,000 cost for the bot. Niiiice

October 11, 2012

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5:30 PM | I know what if feels like to sports dope

The recent news about Lance Armstrong and his numerous teammates, who are now confessing to having doped, raises parallels to cheating in the profession of science. I suggest you read the linked stories which all contain a fair bit of excuse making from the confessed cheats. "Everyone is doing it". "I always wanted to be [...]

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12:48 PM | Are you presenting work at SfN 2012?

This is my annual no-promises request for you, my Readers, to turn the tables. I am interested in what you all have to say, scientifically. So, if inclined drop your presentation details here in the comments or send me an email. Drugmnky at the google mail. I might stop by.

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12:19 PM | Repost: Put NIH Row on Your Itinerary

As those of us in the neurosciences prepare for our largest annual scientific gathering, we should attend to a certain little task to assist with the odds of obtaining NIH grant funding. Part of that process is a long game of developing interpersonal relationships with the Program Officers that staff the NIH ICs of interest [...]

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12:49 AM | Thought of the Day

If your success as a lab depends on concealing the "real way" to do some technique then your science sucks.

October 10, 2012

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4:25 PM | Repost: Scientific Meetings, Networking, The Male Gaze and, well, um, Thingmabobs...

What with the 2012 edition of the Society for Neuroscience meeting rapidly approaching, I thought I'd return to this critical issue in meeting etiquette. This was originally posted Sept 11, 2008 on the old Scienceblogs version of DrugMonkey. __ Annual scientific meetings have many purposes. One of the most essential purposes that cannot be readily [...]

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4:21 PM | Poster presenting 101: Know your audience

Neuropolarbear has a post up suggesting that people presenting posters at scientific meetings should know how to give the short version of their poster. My favorite time to see posters is 11:55 and 4:55, since then people are forced to keep it short. If you are writing your poster talk right now, remember to use [...]

October 09, 2012

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3:38 PM | By hook or by crook

One of the worst feelings in science is to beat you head against the wall, trying to get your ideas funded, only to see multiple RFAs and PAs appear several years later. Or, to see someone finally get "your" grant funded. I have three suggestions for sanity. 1) If you've stopped fighting on Idea 1 [...]

October 08, 2012

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7:49 PM | Estimating the populations at risk for dependence on marijuana versus cocaine

The recent fax (yes, they still call it this despite it arriving via email attachment) from CESAR (Vol 21, Issue 40; October 09, 2012) puts us back on an occasional theme of this blog. They have adapted data from the latest update from SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. This figure shows the number [...]

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1:06 PM | New Scientopians!

Thirty-seven Elephants, Giraffes, Baboons Transient Interactions Enjoy!

October 04, 2012

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6:42 PM | Where are you from? The Othering

From Kristin Booker at xojane: But at the end of the day, a simple answer should be sufficient, random stranger. If I decide to answer that question at all, I'm being nice. All further questions past the answer, "I'm Black," will now be met with one answer and one answer only: "I've answered your question." [...]

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12:02 AM | Grumpy

I dunno. I liked this manuscript I just reviewed okay but it wasn't super unusually awesome or anything. But I just had the strongest desire to rebut the Third Reviewer and the Associate Editor to the Editor in Chief. I thought they were being a bit too demanding and harsh. And the other two reviews [...]

October 01, 2012

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6:39 PM | Too MUCH effort on your NIH Grant?

Oh, this is a good one. @boehninglab asks: Has anyone heard of study section tanking a grant b/c of too much % effort listed (in particular, 40%)? @drugmonkeyblog #NIH I have no specific recollection of such a thing but it does tingle a slight chord of my memory. Suffice it to say that I am [...]

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3:45 PM | Editorial Boards

Obviously it is an academic career credit to be selected as the Editor in Chief of a journal, no matter how humble that journal may be. And I would tend to say the same for Associate Editor appointments, i.e. those positions with the authority to manage review and make accept/reject decisions. The role of Editorial [...]