Author Archives: Michael Eisen

Our new paper in PLoS One: why we should sequence big genomes

By Michael Eisen | Published: March 4, 2009

We have a new paper out in PLoS One that I think is particularly cool: Peterson BK*, Hare EE*, Iyer VN, Storage S, Conner L, et al. (2009) Big Genomes Facilitate the Comparative Identification of Regulatory Elements. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4688.  The paper is about species with big genomes – in particular species from the […]

Posted in evolution, genome size, NOT junk | Comments closed

Is John Conyers Shilling for Special Interests? [HuffPost]

By Michael Eisen | Published: March 2, 2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig-and-michael-eisen/is-john-conyers-shilling_b_171189.html

Posted in politics, science and politics | Comments closed

I love Anna Eshoo!!

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 27, 2009

A friend posted this letter on Facebook: February 27, 2009 Dear ——-, Thank you for writing to me about H.R. 801, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act.  As you may know, Congress directed that all NIH funded studies be available for free online. H.R. 801 would effectively overturn this important and much needed policy […]

Posted in open access, science and politics | Comments closed

Stem Cells: The Future of Skin Rejuvination

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 27, 2009

As if there wasn’t enough stem cell hype already….

Posted in misc stuff, science | Comments closed

Evans and Reimer greatly underestimate effect of free access

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 24, 2009

A lot is being made of a new paper (no link – I only link to articles that are freely available) by University of Chicago sociologist James Evans in which he analyzes citation and free access histories of journals in various disciplines, and concludes that the effect of free access (which he mistakenly calls open […]

Posted in open access | Comments closed

Great op-ed on Conyer’s Bill

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 23, 2009

Misunderestimating open science By James Boyle Published: February 24 2009 02:19 | Last updated: February 24 2009 02:19 It is hard for politicians to do anything that would shock me but I have to say that John Conyers, a US Congressman, has done it. In the process, he has taught us a lot about how […]

Posted in open access, science and politics | Comments closed

Unfair attacks on Sandlers

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 20, 2009

There’s a very good article from a respected bank analyst on the Sandlers that shows how the 60 Minutes attack was totally unwarranted.

Posted in misc stuff | Comments closed

Herb and Marion Sandler and the Financial Crisis

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 14, 2009

I just received an email from Herb Sandler: Dear friends We are living in a benighted time. It is hard to believe that the attacks on Marion and me, and the company, are really happening. As you know, we were one of the very few companies which was monomaniacally  focused on loan quality, doing what’s […]

Posted in misc stuff, PLoS | Comments closed

Stats on Commenting in PLoS One

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 12, 2009

Euan Adie has a great post over at Nascent (Nature’s web tech blog) about commenting in PLoS One. My thoughts on it later, but it’s definitely worth checking out what he’s done.

Posted in open access, PLoS | Comments closed

How should the NIH spend its stimulus money?

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 11, 2009

Steve Quake has an interesting post on Olivia Judson’s blog (Quake is a guest columnist while she is on sabbatical) about what life is like for a scientist at a modern research university. The interesting stuff is at the end, when he talks about how labs are funded. It’s a particularly important time to think about […]

Posted in politics, science, science and politics | Comments closed