Challenge me!

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’ve been actively soliciting feedback from scientists whose papers I have summarised on this blog. A critique I received from one respondent is that my posts are very technical, and might be difficult for the lay person to follow.

I tend to agree. I think the reason is that I’ve been choosing the papers that interest me the most, and these are usually the ones that I know most about. I then get excited by the nitty gritty details and end up writing summaries that are targeted mostly at fellow molecular biologists.

So now it’s your turn…

Do you have a paper that you’ve read (or written!) recently, or maybe a general topic, that you would like to see described on this blog? I’m happy to consider any paper that falls within the biological sciences. I’ll do my best to summarise it, and you get to tell me how I did. Leave me a link in the comments, or email me. Open Access papers preferred!

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010
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6 Responses to Challenge me!

  1. Ford says:
    July 11, 2007 at 4:23 pm

    I may suggest a paper sometime, but choosing papers can be as big a contribution as explaining them. And, although I TRY to write for a general audience, science has gotten so specialized that I, at least, often need help understanding the more molecular aspects even within evolutionary biology. A colleague was just telling me about how challenging it is to communicate with someone with whom he’s writing a grant proposal! You don’t seem to have defined ANC in a recent post.

  2. CAD says:
    July 11, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    Gaahh, you’re right! Thanks for the tip-off, the definition is included now.The molecular aspects of evolutionary biology are my favourite parts! I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the debates going on within my ERV evolution thread, but I tend to answer the molecular / microevolution points in great detail, and refer people to Talk Origins for anything macro. I know the basics, but I just can’t carry the same authority when answering those questions than with anything molecular. I really do need to catch up on some reading!

  3. Chris Harrison says:
    July 14, 2007 at 3:07 am

    Hi CAD,I’d like to get any thoughts you have on the discussion I’m having in the comment section here:http://telicthoughts.com/a-dubious-opportunity-for-iders/Your knowledge here certainly trumps mine, so I was just wondering if you had any comments/suggestions for me. THanks for looking

  4. CAD says:
    July 17, 2007 at 2:38 am

    Hi ChrisI just spotted your comment today after a few days ignoring email. It’s become extremely long, but I did read as many of your comments as I had time for. I would say you’re doing an excellent job over there! I loved your suggestion to stop reading press releases and start reading papers. You seem to have already covered pretty much everything I would have wanted to add to the debate.I also enjoyed your recent post on the same subject. Keep up the good work!

  5. Chris Harrison says:
    July 18, 2007 at 12:59 am

    Thanks for the comments!I should have another post up in the next few days that retouches on evolutionarily conserved non-coding regions.I added you to my blog-roll, so you can be expecting perhaps 2 new visitors per week. 😉

  6. CAD says:
    July 19, 2007 at 2:10 pm

    Likewise!

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