Ethics

Blind Peers: A Path To Equality In Scientific Peer Review?

Posted 30 May 2013 by Jalees Rehman

There is a fundamental asymmetry that exists in contemporary peer review of scientific papers. Most scientific journals do not hide the identity of the authors of a submitted manuscript. The scientific reviewers, on the other hand, remain anonymous. Their identities are only known to the editors, who use the assessments of these scientific reviewers to help decide whether or not to accept a scientific manuscript. Even though the comments of the reviewers are usually passed along to the authors of... Read more

Posted in academia, bias, Ethics, open access, peer review, professionalism, science communication, science journalism |

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Critical Science Writing: A Checklist for the Life Sciences

Posted 21 May 2013 by Jalees Rehman

One major obstacle in the "infotainment versus critical science writing" debate is that there is no universal definition of what constitutes "critical analysis" in science writing. How can we decide whether or not critical science writing is adequately represented in contemporary science writing or science journalism, if we do not have a standardized method of assessing it? For this purpose, I would like to propose the following checklist of points that can be addressed in news articles or blog-posts which... Read more

Posted in Ethics, fraud, science communication, science funding, science journalism, science writing |

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Good Can Come From Bad: Genetic Testing For The BRCA Breast Cancer Genes

Posted 12 February 2013 by Jalees Rehman

Our ability to test for the presence of genetic mutations has become extremely cost-efficient and private companies, such as 23andMe now offer genetic testing for consumers who want to find out about their predisposition for genetic diseases. The results of such tests are sent directly to the consumers, without the involvement of genetic counselors or other healthcare providers. This has lead to a growing concern about how people will respond to finding out that they are carriers of mutations that... Read more

Posted in cancer, Ethics, medicine, patients, psychology |

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Recent Study Raises Questions About Using Adult Stem Cells for Chronic Heart Disease

Posted 15 November 2012 by Jalees Rehman

A recent clinical study (POSEIDON Randomized Trial) investigated the effects of transplanting bone marrow derived adult stem cells into patients with known heart disease. The results were presented at the 2012 American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in Los Angeles and also published in the article "Comparison of Allogeneic vs Autologous Bone Marrow–Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Delivered by Transendocardial Injection in Patients With Ischemic Cardiomyopathy: The POSEIDON Randomized Trial". The article by Dr. Joshua Hare and colleagues appeared in the online... Read more

Posted in adult stem cells, clinical trials, Embryonic stem cells, Ethics, heart disease, induced Pluripotent stem cells, scientific method, scientific methodology, Stem Cells |

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Science Journalism and the Inner Swine Dog

Posted 5 November 2012 by Jalees Rehman

A search of the PubMed database, which indexes scholarly biomedical articles, reveals that 997,508 articles were published in the year 2011, which amounts to roughly 2,700 articles per day. Since the database does not include all published biomedical research articles, the actual number of published biomedical papers is probably even higher. Most biomedical researchers work in defined research areas, so perhaps only 1% of the published articles may be relevant for their research. As an example, the major focus of... Read more

Posted in Ethics, fraud, journalism, professionalism, science journalism, scientific method, scientific methodology, Stem Cells |

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The Importance of Being Embryonic

Posted 25 October 2012 by Jalees Rehman

There are three broad categories of human stem cells: 1) adult stem cells, 2) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and 3) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Adult stem cells can be found in selected adult tissues, such as the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow which give rise to a variety of blood cells on a daily basis in an adult. Such adult stem cells are quite rare and, when compared to ESCs, somewhat limited in the type of cells... Read more

Posted in adult stem cells, Embryonic stem cells, Ethics, induced Pluripotent stem cells, Stem Cells |

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