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Biotechnology Advances retracts 3 papers from India for plagiarism

October 5, 2010

Biotechnology Advances

 

 

Update 3: 7th August 2011 Kalasalingam University sacks Sangiliyandi Gurunathan

Update 2: 27th June 2011: Yet another

Sangiliyandi retraction  h/t JV Prasath


Update:

Links to the retraction notices have been added – 31st January 2011 and the links have been updated 22nd February 2011.

Biotechnology Advances has retracted 3 papers from India (2 from IIT Kanpur and1 from Kalasalingam University), all at the request of the editors and all for plagiarism.

A matter of some shame for Indian science and especially for the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. It remains to be seen if the Institutions take any action. The plagiarism seems to have been particularly inept since it included blatant copying even from Wikipedia and Encyclopedias.

The 3 retraction notices are given below:

1. Retraction notice to “Microbial production of dihydroxyacetone” [Biotech Adv. 26 (2008) 293–303] by Ruchi Mishra, Seema Rani Jain and Ashok Kumar

Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 208016-Kanpur, India

Available online 22 August 2010.

Retraction Notice

Reason: This article has been retracted at the request of the editor as the authors have plagiarised part of several papers that had already appeared in several journals. One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that their work is original and has not appeared in a publication elsewhere. Re-use of any data should be appropriately cited. As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and we apologise to the readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process.

From a limited, non-exhaustive check of the text, several elements of the text had been plagiarised from the following list of sources:

(more…)

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Posted in Biotechnology, Ethics, India, Science, Scientific Fraud | 24 Comments »

Physics Nobel for graphene

October 5, 2010

What I thought might be the subject area of the Chemistry Nobel was in fact rewarded with the Physics Nobel prize today.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”

BBC: Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both at Manchester University, UK, took the prize for research on graphene. Geim, 51, is a Dutch national while Novoselov, 36, holds British and Russian citizenship. Both are natives of Russia and started their careers in physics there.

Andre Geim

Andre Geim: Wikipedia

Graphene is a flat sheet of carbon just one atom thick; it is almost completely transparent, but also extremely strong and a good conductor of electricity. It consists of a hexagonal array of sp2-bonded carbon atoms, just like those found in bulk graphite. 2D materials display very interesting properties, and are fundamentally different from the 3D materials we encounter everyday. The discovery of 2D materials means that scientists now have access to materials of all dimensionalities, including 0D (quantum dots, atoms) and 1D (nanowires, carbon nanotubes).

Geim and Novoselov first isolated the fine sheets of graphene from graphite. A layer of graphite one millimetre thick actually consists of three million layers of graphene stacked on top of one another. The layers are weakly held together and are therefore fairly simple to tear off and separate. The researchers used ordinary sticky tape to rip off thin flakes from a piece of graphite. Then they attached the flakes to a silicon plate and used a microscope to identify the thin layers of graphene among larger fragments of graphite and carbon scraps.

Graphene can be used for many different purposes including transistors, gas sensors, support membranes for TEM and inert transparent coatings.

Konstantin Novoselov

Konstantin Novoselov : Photo: University of Manchester, UK

It provides the possibility for further research in quantum physics, relativity and has allowed the Klein paradox to be observed for the first time.

Some scientists have precicted that graphene could one day replace silicon – which is the current material of choice for transistors. It could also yield incredibly strong, flexible and stable materials and find uses in transparent touch screens or solar cells.

Ten years ago, Professor Geim and Professor Sir Michael Berry from the University of Bristol were jointly awarded an Ig Nobel prize for their experiments using magnetic fields to levitate live frogs.

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Posted in Physics, Science, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

How exactly is biodiversity a problem?

October 5, 2010

Yesterday The Guardian reported that

While some 230,000 marine species have been recorded there are thought to be at least 1 million species in the sea. Ian Poiner, chair of the Census of Marine Life (COML) steering committee, said: “All surface life depends on life inside and beneath the oceans. Sea life provides half of our oxygen and a lot of our food and regulates climate. We are all citizens of the sea”. To mark the end of the COML project, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) showed off the results of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, an inventory of more than 16,000 marine species and the culmination of more than 19 trips into Antarctic waters.

In fact the total is unknown and may be as many as 10 million. The New Scientist points out:

A newly discovered copepod (Image: Jan Michels)

A newly discovered copepod (Image: Jan Michels)

“There are three to four unknown species for every known,” says Paul Snelgrove of Memorial University of Newfoundland in St John’s, Canada.

The Census has so far added 1200 new species to the tally, though that is likely to rise as over 5000 more organisms that were collected have yet to be studied or named. The new species include several that were thought to have disappeared, such as the “Jurassic shrimp”, which was believed to have died out 50 million years ago.

The Census was also able to identify those regions that are richest in diversity, which include the Gulf of Mexico and the Australian coastline. The Galapagos Islands, meanwhile, turned out to have less biodiversity than the chilly South Orkney Islands, in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.

However, plant and animal diversity looks insignificant compared to the sea’s micro-organisms, which may number 1 billion. Their diversity is “spectacular”, Snelgrove says.

Just a few days ago Science reported that

Diana Fisher and Simon Blomberg of the University of Queensland in Australia carried out a comprehensive analysis of missing and extinct mammalian species. They created a database of all 187 mammal species that have been identified as extinct or possibly extinct, then combed through the literature to find out which ones had been rediscovered. They also included what threats the species had been facing, such as habitat destruction or hunting.

(more…)

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Posted in Biodiversity, Development, Environment, Evolution, Science, Wildlife | 2 Comments »

Getting a silkworm to behave like a spider

October 4, 2010

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/uond-nda092910.php

A research and development effort by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Wyoming, and Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. has succeeded in producing transgenic silkworms capable of spinning artificial spider silks. “This research represents a significant breakthrough in the development of superior silk fibers for both medical and non-medical applications,” said Malcolm J. Fraser Jr., a Notre Dame professor of biological sciences. “The generation of silk fibers having the properties of spider silks has been one of the important goals in materials science.”

Silkworms and cocoon:University of Cambridge, Department of Materials Science

Natural spider silks have a number of unusual physical properties, including significantly higher tensile strength and elasticity than naturally spun silkworm fibers. The artificial spider silks produced in these transgenic silkworms have similar properties of strength and flexibility to native spider silk.

Until this breakthrough, only very small quantities of artificial spider silk had ever been produced in laboratories, but there was no commercially viable way to produce and spin these artificial silk proteins. Kraig Biocraft believed these limitations could be overcome by using recombinant DNA to develop a bio-technological approach for the production of silk fibers with a much broader range of physical properties or with pre-determined properties, optimized for specific biomedical or other applications.

The wonders of spider silk

(more…)

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Posted in Materials, Science, Technology | Comments Off on Getting a silkworm to behave like a spider

La Niña chills out the Pacific – could cause drought

October 4, 2010

“The tropical Pacific Ocean has transitioned from last winter’s El Niño conditions to a cool La Niña, as shown by new data about sea surface heights, collected by the U.S-French Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 oceanography satellite” writes Science Daily.

La Niña continues to strengthen in the Pacific Ocean, as shown in the latest satellite data of sea surface heights from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite. The image is based on the average of 10 days of data centered on Sept. 3, 2010. Higher (warmer) than normal sea surface heights are indicated by yellows and reds, while lower (cooler) than normal sea surface heights are depicted in blues and purples. Green indicates near-normal conditions. (Credit: NASA/JPL Ocean Surface Topography Team)

“This La Niña has strengthened for the past four months, is strong now and is still building,” said Climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “It will surely impact this coming winter’s weather and climate.

“After more than a decade of mostly dry years on the Colorado River watershed and in the American Southwest, and only one normal rain year in the past five years in Southern California, water supplies are dangerously low,” Patzert added. “This La Niña could deepen the drought in the already parched Southwest and could also worsen conditions that have fueled Southern California’s recent deadly wildfires.” NASA will continue to track this change in Pacific climate.

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Medicine Nobel to Robert Edwards for IVF

October 4, 2010
SvD: Thirteen minutes before midnight on July 25, 1978 Louise Joy Brown delivered a baby girl by Caesarean section at Oldham General Hospital outside Manchester UK.
The girl weighed 2610 grams and the responsible physician Patrick Steptoe was soon able to reassure the hundreds of journalists gathered that “all studies have shown that the child is completely normal. ” The news of the birth was a medical sensation. Louise Brown was the first child in the world born with the aid of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

BBC: Robert Edwards, the man who devised the fertility treatment IVF, has been awarded this year’s Nobel prize for medicine. His efforts in the 1950s, 60s and 70s led to the birth of the world’s first “test tube baby” in July 1978. Since then more than four million babies have been born following IVF.

The prize committee said his achievements had made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition affecting 10% of all couples worldwide.

(That’s one prediction I got wrong)

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Posted in Medicine, Science | 1 Comment »

Life flows back into the Murray-Darling Basin

October 1, 2010

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

An aerial view of the Choke (north and south lagoon) of the Coorong. Photo: David Mariuz

The long wait is almost over at the mouth of Australia’s greatest river. A decade after it last spilt into the sea, the Murray River will reconnect with the Southern Ocean in a matter of days.

The Murray-Darling Basin is having its fourth wettest year (to date) on record, the Bureau of Meteorology said yesterday. The Murray’s famous Lower Lakes – surviving on environmental ”death row” last year – have swollen close to 150 centimetres higher than the nadir of 2009, thanks mostly to summer downpours in northern Australia and the September floods in Victoria.

Chief executive of South Australia’s environment and water department Allan Holmes is bullish about the future, saying the region was already ”an entirely different environment” to the one he was managing six months ago. ”These systems, provided you don’t tip them over the edge, are enormously resilient and they come back with a vengeance,” he said.

Just a month ago The plight of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin was being attributed to climate change:

“Australian climate scientists see the country as ‘extremely vulnerable’ to climate change and the Murray-Darling Basin as a ground zero for global warming. Climate change advisors to Australia’s government have warned that agricultural production in the basin could fall by up to 92% by 2100”.

“Global warming will trigger more frequent and severe droughts, as well as more devastating bushfires, cyclones and floods”–Kathy Marks.

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Posted in Alarmism, Environment, Science, Weather | 1 Comment »

Next week is Nobel week: My layman forecasts

October 1, 2010

This week I won a $10 prize in a lottery and my belief in my crystal ball is high (but I ignore the fact that the lottery tickets cost me $30).

Nobel Prize® medal - registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation

Nobel prize medal

Next week is Nobel week and the winners for Medicine will be announced on Monday 4th, for Physics on Tuesday 5th and for Chemistry on Wednesday 6th. I pass over the Literature, Economics and Peace prizes in silence but address my crystal ball as to the areas of research that will be honoured.

Medicine: The 2 areas that spring to mind are stem cells and genetic cancer research. To choose one I go for stem cells with Dr. Yamanaka included in there somewhere.

Physics: The 2 areas I see as most likely are either quantum physics or the expanding universe. To choose one I plump for the universe and Prof. Perlmutter among the recipients.

Chemistry: I am fascinated by new materials and with graphene being the flavour of the decade I choose work related to graphene as being the winner. To name a name it would be just if the first person to discover graphene received recognition and so I hope that Hanns-Peter Boehm is on the list.

In spite of my lottery win, I put the probability of being right on one count at no more than 1%, on two counts at 0.1% and being right on all 3 at 0.01%.

Add your favourites if you have any.

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Posted in Chemistry, Medicine, Physics, Science | 2 Comments »

BBC balance: 1 PR = 2 x FRS

October 1, 2010

The BBC carries a short article about the Royal Society’s rewritten “Short guide to the science of climate change”.

Professor Anthony Kelly, one of the 43 Fellows who called for the change, says he is reasonably satisfied with the new guidance. “It’s gone a long way to meeting our concerns,” he said. “The previous guidance was discouraging debate rather than encouraging it among knowledgeable people. The new guidance is clearer and a very much better document.”

Professor Kelly is one of two Fellows who are advisers to Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, which says it wants to bring balance to a “seriously unbalanced, irrationally alarmist” debate about the impact of human activities on the Earth’s climate system.

Having named the GWPF the BBC feels it incumbent for the sake of balance to also mention the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, But to do this they are forced to quote a certain Bob Ward who is the PR hack of the Grantham Institute.

But the BBC which is far from neutral in the climate disruption / change debate, reveals its governing mathematics when it implies that one public relations hack is sufficient to balance two Fellows of the Royal Society:

1 x PR = 2 x FRS

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Michibiki navigation satellite in position over Japan

September 30, 2010

Japan’s first navigation satellite has arrived on station more than 20,000 miles over Asia to improve positioning coverage in mountainous terrain and urban centers.

Artist's concept of the Michibiki satellite. Credit: JAXA

MICHIBIKI injected into the quasi-zenith orbit with its center longitude of about 135 degrees.

The First Quasi-Zenith Satellite MICHIBIKI, which was launched by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 18 on Sept. 11 (JST,) has been maneuvered to shift its orbit from the drift orbit to the quasi-zenith orbit starting on the 21st. The satellite is now confirmed to be inserted into the quasi-zenith orbit over Japan with its center longitude of about 135 degrees through the final orbit control performed at 6:28 a.m. on Sept. 27. The MICHIBIKI was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center at 8:17 p.m. on September 11, 2010 (JST.)

Yoshinobu Launch Complex

Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center: JAXA

JAXA’s press release is here:

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/09/20100927_michibiki_e.html

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