55 years ago today, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of DNA. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suggests you celebrate by touring the James D. Watson Collection and The DNA Story exhibit from the New York Public Library.

Time to add a few links, as some recent articles on online tools for scientists are worth visiting. These include an article on career networking, a warning about the corporate forces behind social networks and an interesting piece by Peter Murray-Rust.

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Update–04-03-08. Version 2.0 of this talk is available here. This, the original version was delivered at a publishing meeting to publishers. V 2.0, the kinder, gentler version, was presented at a meeting of developmental biologists.

Last week I gave a talk at the American Association of Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing (AAP/PSP) meeting in Washington, DC. I was part of a panel discussion on “Innovative and Evolving Websites in STM Publishing” along with representatives from the New England Journal of Medicine, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society. While the other talks were a bit more evangelical, or mostly presented a look at new technologies that had been incorporated into the societies’ own journals, I tried to be a bit more practical, taking more of a hard look at what’s currently being tried, whether it’s succeeding and the reasons behind that success/failure. I’m posting my talk below, in hopes of receiving further feedback. This talk was delivered to a room full of publishers, so it’s directed with that audience in mind. In a few months, I’m giving a similar talk to a meeting of scientists, the users of these sites rather than the creators. So I’d love to hear from users as to your thoughts on how Web 2.0 is serving your needs.

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Immunohistochemistry (the localization of proteins in a tissue by binding antibodies to specific antigens) is a technique where one protocol definitely does not fit all. Each model organism seems to have its own quirks, whether it be in the fixative used, the methods needed for antibody penetration, issues with autofluorescence or even just figuring out which cross-species antibodies work in a given system. To that end, we’ve been working on expanding our coverage of immunohistological protocols. The February issue of CSH Protocols brings methods for plant sections, using both avidin-biotin and alk-phos, as well as a method for whole-mount immunocytochemistry in Xenopus embryos from John Wallingford’s lab at the University of Texas (they provided the lovely cover image for this month).

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Wired Magazine’s current issue (poetically titled, “Why Things Suck”) has a nice little piece on the conflicts between the human brain and science. Essentially, Thomas Hayden, the author, notes that our brains have evolved to prefer neat stories and fantastical explanations to numbers, abstractions and statistical norms.

“…thanks to evolution, half of all Americans don’t believe in evolution. That’s the universe for you: impersonal, uncaring, and ironic.”

Those familiar with the CSHL Press Manual, Drosophila Protocols (edited by Sullivan, Ashburner and Hawley) will want to be sure to check CSH Protocols’ February issue, as Bruce Paterson’s group at the National Institutes of Health has written an update of his chapter, “Targeted Disruption of Gene Function in Drosophila by RNA Interference”. The new, up-to-date version of the book chapter appears online in a series of articles, including Preparation of Double-Stranded RNA for Drosophila RNA Interference (RNAi), Collection of Drosophila Embryos for RNA Interference (RNAi), and Injection of dsRNA into Drosophila Embryos for RNA Interference (RNAi) (freely available as one of this month’s featured protocols). Paterson’s group has also contributed a new article covering Drosophila RNA Interference (RNAi) Using a Gal-4 Inducible Transgene Vector.