Swine flu's warning shot

From Discover Magazine:
Emory Global Health Institute's Jeff Koplan warns that public officials need to pay much more attention to zoonoses, as one human disease outbreak after another has originated in animals.
See video of Koplan during a recent panel discussion on swine flu, beginning at 1:10.

The perils of peer review

The Academic Exchange sums up an Emory talk on getting published by Randy Hodson, editor of American Sociological Review:

"It’s very easy to cast [peer reviewers] as enemies because they have pointed out weaknesses and we don’t want to hear that, and these weaknesses entail significant amounts of work on our part. ...
"Your earliest draft of the paper, before it’s been rejected several times, is probably not as good as the draft after you’ve received some feedback. If you send this early draft to a highly visible journal, your odds of getting it accepted are not so good. You might send it to a specialty journal or a lower-tier journal, and you might have a better chance. The problem is a sort of tipping point. I’ve made every mistake you can possibly make in this regard. If you send it to a less visible journal and it gets accepted, you feel, Oh, I had a chance. But if you send it to the top one and it gets rejected, you say, That paper wasn’t really ready for the top; I should have waited. This is a difficult dilemma, but there is a resolution to it: make more use of your peer-review network of your colleagues and your friends. You do not want to send other than your very best effort out for review."

The entire web cast of the Art of Publishing Workshop, sponsored by the Department of Economics, is available online.

Test your behavioral IQ

Are the following statements true or false:
1. Inkblots reveal a great deal about someone's personality.
2. Studies show a tendency for people to marry someone whose name begins with the same letter as their own.
3. Researchers have demonstrated that dreams possess symbolic meaning.
4. The defining feature of dyslexia is reversing letters.
5. Men and women communicate in completely different ways.

What do you think?
Graphic: "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology"

Actually, the only true statement is No. 2. The others are either completely false, or "gross exaggerations of a kernel of truth," says Emory psychologist Scott Lilienfeld, who co-authored the new book "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior."

"Bursting bubbles can be painful," says Lilienfeld. "But we hope that puncturing some of these myths can lead people to better life decisions, and a more realistic appraisal of themselves."

Folk wisdom and so-called commonsense too often trump science in our society, Lilienfeld says. "There is this idea that we can understand the world, including our own minds, by gut instinct – that if something seems intuitively right, it must be right. To embrace a scientific approach is to be humble, but that's not a popular message in American society, which rewards certainty."

Related story:
Is hypnosis just hocus-pocus?
The anger myth: Read this before blowing up

Psychology 101: For parents of freshmen

Emory psychology professor Marshall Duke gives a popular seminar for parents every year, to help ease the separation process with their newly minted college students.

First, Duke advises them to think about their parting words:

"The closing words between parents and children are crucial. Whatever wisdom you have to offer, whether it is 'I love you,' 'I'm behind you,' 'I'm proud of you,' say it. If you can't express yourself verbally, write your thoughts down and mail the letter to your child immediately after you arrive home. Your children will remember your messages and hold on to them."

Read the other tips from Duke's seminar "Parenting a College Student."

What advice would you give?

Plug your data into the Galaxy

A report from Genome Web: Data-intensive bioinformatics tasks that were once relatively rare are now "permeating every aspect of biology," says James Taylor, a computational biologist at Emory and co-developer of Galaxy, an open-source software system that allows anyone with a normal laptop to analyze genomic data. Read more of the Genome Web article.

An Earthling from the unsequenced genome files:
Malaysian long-tongued nectar bat: Photo by Robert Baker.

Taylor's lab is working with biologist Nicole Gerardo to analyze the first sequencing of the ant genome, as well as the genomics of agricultural ant societies. A key part of the project is bringing genomics into classrooms, by giving high school and college students experience at analyzing genomic data.

"We hope to build up a public research community around this project to facilitate broader analysis," says Taylor, a leading expert in bio-informatics. "We will provide supporting infrastructure to allow people to discover new things. This project is novel – and it's going to be fun."

Related:
Bug splatter study is data driven
Mapping genomics of complex ant system

What genome would you most like to see analyzed?