Scintilla

Sharing data, editorial, Nature Cell Biology, November 2009 (not OA, at least so far). Johan Weigelt, The case for open-access chemical biology, EMBO Reports, November 2009 (not OA, at least so far). Christina Chandras, et al., Models for financial sustainability of biological databases and resources, Database, October 23, 2009. Thinh Nguyen, Remembering Babel: Open Data Sharing & Integration, Science Commons, November 19, 2009. Shadi S. Saleh, et al., The case for developing publicly-accessible datasets for health services research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, BMC Health Services Research, October 29, 2009. Group on Earth Observations Meets in Washington to Strengthen Access to Data and Information on Biodiversity, Forest Carbon and Other Global Issues, press release, November 17, 2009. University of California, DataONE to deal with data deluge, press release, November 18, 2009.

I just finished writing a post (next one down) on new news that reads like old news, on old news that some take as new news (the croc one below that), and here’s another on new news that feels like same old same old, but is not. The genome for corn, aka maize, is done and is now published in journals. A genome, one thinks. Hmmm. Corn huh? Well whoop de doo. But one story was enough to assure The Tracker that this one really is worth special note. At the Washington Post David Brown declares that if biologists “had to pick one living thing as the textbook of how genes work” they might say corn. The results, after all and as he notes, are spreaded across 14 papers in this week’s PLoS Genetics and Science. And Brown backs up his lede with info cited from several sources who lay out this plant’s central role in many genetic lines of research and practical application.

A proposed resolution to restrict human embryonic stem cell research at the University of Nebraska has failed. The University's Board of Regents today split their votes 4-4, defeating a measure that would have limited research to embryonic stem cell lines approved under former President George W. Bush. The resolution needed a majority of five votes to pass. "That probably settles the question for the time being," Thomas Rosenquist, vice chancellor for research at the University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha, told Nature. "It's permission to go ahead and take part in 21st-century research with embryonic stem cells."

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 17