light reading

In the round-up of German pieces published in January/February it's mostly about light, so we have photosynthesis, seasonal affective disorder, UNESCO's year of light. Along with that a bit of chemistry bang in the shape of Knallgas bacteria and a new synthesis approach:

Ein neuer Molekülbaukasten
Chemie in unserer Zeit Volume 49, Issue 1, page 12, Februar 2015
abstract and limited access to full text/pdf
related content in English

Jahr der Erleuchtung
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 63, Nr 1, pages 133–135
free access

Die Brennstoffzelle der Knallgasbakterien
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 63, Nr 2, pp 133–135 DOI: 10.1002/nadc.201590047

Chemische Heiterkeit
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 63, Nr 2, p 215

Fotosynthese mit Turbolader
Spektrum der Wissenschaft Nr 2, pp 17-19

Mehr Licht - die saisonale Depression
Trillium Diagnostik 2014, 12, Nr 4, pp 188-189

oxidation and procrastination

Ooops, now it's March and I haven't done the roundup of the German pieces published in February yet. Time, you're moving too fast.

So in Feb, we had quantum procrastination, reduction and oxidation at the sea floor, and cycloaddition with triple bonds:

Organische Synthese: Drei mal drei
Chemie in unserer Zeit 47, 6
FREE ACCESS (PDF file)

Neuartige Redox-Biochemie im Meeresboden
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 61, 134-135

Proquastination
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 61, 111

And talking of which, a late arrival: a short piece on addiction biochemistry that is nominally in the issue for the 4th quarter of 2012 of the magazine:

Trillium Report 10, 200-201
Die Biochemie der Sucht

miscellaneous musings

rounding up the last two months worth of German pieces, I have the miraculous interconversion of spider glue and barnacle cement, the wine diet, barcodes and autism. Here goes:

Chemie in unserer Zeit 46, Nr 1, 6
Naturstoffe: Seide aus Beton
Abstract and FREE access to PDF file

Nachrichten aus der Chemie 59, Nr 2, 111
Ausgeforscht: Na denn, prost!

Nachrichten aus der Chemie 59, Nr 2, 137-8
Blickpunkt Biowissenschaften: Barcodes für Tiere und Pflanzen

Spektrum der Wissenschaft Nr 1, 24-26
Autismus: neue genetische Fährten

plus a late arrival from last December:

Trillium Report 9 Nr 4, 211-212
Astrobiologie: Lebenszeichen aus dem All




Astrobiology diffracted through a glass of Cotes du Rhone ...

synaptic vesicles & artificial genomes

The German pieces out this month include a look at the life cycle of synaptic vesicles, through the eyes of a STED microscope, a critical appreciation of Venter's "artificial genome" bugs, and a piece on data sharing ethics in the UK and Germany.

Methoden: Supermikroskop ermöglicht Beobachtung der Nervenfunktion
Chemie in unserer Zeit 44, Nr 4, 246.

Erstes künstliches Lebewesen?
Spektrum der Wissenschaft Nr 8, 14-16.

Datenschutz kontra Wissenschaft im Genomzeitalter: Very British - typisch deutsch
Trillium Report 8, Nr. 2, 117

Epigenetik, April, Krebsgenom

the monthly round-up of German pieces includes the epigenetic roots of multiple sclerosis (also covered in a recent feature in Oxford Today, see here), cancer genomes, and two (hopefully) funny pieces:

Ausgeforscht: Ein Molekül namens Dornröschen
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 58, 418

Red-Queen-Paradox im Bildungswesen: Studenten zahlen statt zu studieren
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 58, 443

Wird Multiple Sklerose epigenetisch vererbt?
Spektrum der Wissenschaft April 2010, S. 21-23

Das Krebsgenom: Invasives Wachstum
Trillium Report 8 (1), S. 40-41

cognitive enhancers -- the next war on drugs?

No German publications out in January, but there's one left to report for December, which only got printed late in the month and thus arrived here in the new year.

Together with Claudia Borchard-Tuch, I wrote the title topic of the current issue of Trillium Report, dealing with cognitive enhancement (i.e. drugs that healthy people take to boost their mental performance). While she handled the medical side, I had a go at the political aspects, and the risk of new drugs being made available illegally and thus starting a new version of the failed "war on drugs". While I'm not wildly enthusiastic about cognitive enhancers, I think sensible legislation is needed to avoid a rerun of the drugs disaster.



Read my article here:
Trillium-Report 7, Nr 4, 164-5
Drogenkrieg 2.0: Vom Schlafmohn zum Leistungskampf
PDF download (intro and CBT's article only)

bees, genes, and tweets

The round-up of German publications in October includes bees that don't buzz so busily any more, gene diagnostics being replaced by genome diagnostics, and a look into a future where tweeting has become the main communications medium:

Bienensterben: Sag mir, wo die Bienen sind
Chemie in unserer Zeit 43 Nr. 5, S. 267
Published Online: Oct 9 2009 6:27AM
DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.200990054

Von der Gendiagnostik zur Genomdiagnostik
Nachrichten aus der Chemie S. 1000-1001
Published Online: Oct 12 2009 7:57AM
DOI: 10.1002/nadc.200967400

Schöne neue Welt
Nachrichten aus der Chemie S. 970
Published Online: Oct 12 2009 7:57AM
DOI: 10.1002/nadc.200969141

PS: oops, I forgot:

Der Autor zahlt
Trillium Report 7, Nr. 3, S. 109

this last one is about Open Access publishing, juxtaposed with another piece on the same area by Claudia Borchard-Tuch.

round-up of German pieces

It's very rare that I get artwork from my own production published along with my text, so I'm thrilled to see that my recent feature on farm animal genomics is illustrated with the photo of our local horse population, snapped maybe 100 metres from my doorstep. Note that the origin of different colours in horses is part of the subject matter of the piece, and the horses belonging to the local riding school display a nice range of colours.



I'm also pleased to have acquired a new outlet for my writing in German, in the shape of the medical magazine Trillium Report. My contribution is an essay on the possibility of higher cognitive function emerging in computer networks.

So there are 3 pieces in German this month:

Tycho Brahes Elemente, Nachrichten aus der Chemie p. 741
more about this

Genomik auf dem Bauernhof, Nachrichten aus der Chemie p. 779

Der Geist des Netzwerks Trillium Report 7, Nr 2, 57