10 Top Retractions of 2015, from Retraction Watch

Peer-review and fine editorial process do not guarantee scientific integrity and valid research results, sadly enough.  As reported in The Scientist, Retraction Watch has published its Top 10 Retractions of 2015 and the list includes published articles from such high profile titles as Science, Cell, Cancer Research, and Genes and Development.  Errors in judgment, neglecting essential statistical tests, falsifying data, plagiarism, and faulty study design were all reported.   Critical evaluation by all reviewers, editors and readers is still needed, even for high profile researchers with distinguished careers and piles of papers to their credit.  Fraudulent research can lead to legal action, a prison sentence and a judicial decision that grant funding must be repaid. Oh my.

Adam Marcus, Alison McCook, and Ivan Oransky contributed reporting on The Scientist story.

Dan Stinebring publishes in Astrophysical Journal with the NANOGrav Collaboration

Dan Stinebring, Physics and Astronomy, is one of 44 researchers from 12 different states plus Canada, China, England and Germany who co-authored this paper, just indexed in Web of Science:

The NANOGrav nine-year data set: observations, arrival time measurements, and analysis of 37 millisecond pulsars.
Astrophysical Journal 813 (1): :10.1088/0004-637X/813/1/65 NOV 1 2015.  Article no. 65.

Authors:
Arzoumanian, Z; Brazier, A; Burke-Spolaor, S; Chamberlin, S; Chatterjee,
S; Christy, B; Cordes, JM; Cornish, N; Crowter, K; Demorest, PB; Dolch,
T; Ellis, JA; Ferdman, RD; Fonseca, E; Garver-Daniels, N; Gonzalez, ME;
Jenet, FA; Jones, G; Jones, ML; Kaspi, VM; Koop, M; Lam, MT; Lazio, TJW;
Levin, L; Lommen, AN; Lorimer, DR; Luo, J; Lynch, RS; Madison, D;
McLaughlin, MA; McWilliams, ST; Nice, DJ; Palliyagurui, N; Pennucce, TT;
Ransom, SM; Siemens, X; Stairs, IH; Stinebring, DR; Stovall, K; Swiggum,
JK; Vallisneri, M; van Haasteren, R; Wang, Y; Zhu, WW.

Partial Abstract:
"We present high-precision timing observations spanning up to nine years for 37 millisecond pulsars monitored with the Green Bank and Arecibo radio telescopes as part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) project. We describe the observational and instrumental setups used to collect the data, and methodology applied for calculating pulse times of arrival; these include novel methods for measuring instrumental offsets and characterizing low signal-to-noise ratio timing results."

Access the pre-publication manuscript at ArXiv

More about NANOGrav.

Distractions on the last day of classes

Looking out and looking in ...

Looking north from the science library: jackets not needed this mild December afternoon.

Standing in the corridor: Multiple reflections give the new books a new light.

Follow the Climate Change Talks in Paris: COP21

One of thousands of books
on climate change in OBIS

These select news sources are devoting special coverage to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris, beginning today.  Follow one or all of them for different perspectives.

The Christian Science Monitor

The Guardian

National Public Radio

Nature

New Scientist

The New York Times

Science  American Association for the Advancement of Science

Scientific American

God, hyenas, hormones, methylation, synthesis, hazards, Western Reserve, meteorite and glaciers...

Random nouns from
titles of books now
on the new book shelf!
Not to forget frogs,
physician, evolution, porpoises, senses...

Come and read.

Fall is fleeting

The colors of fall gave warmth of our view last week of north quad. A few days and a hard frost later, yellow leaves have dropped.  The window seats are a favorite, in every season.

New publications from students and faculty: Elrod, FitzGerald, and Petersen

Oberlin affiliated author names are in bold print:

Fig 1. Aerial view of experimental wetland cells taken in 2006.
Brandt, EC, et al. PLoS ONE

Erika C. Brandt, John E. Petersen, Jake J. Grossman, George A. Allen, David H. Benzing. (2015) Relationships between Spatial Metrics and Plant Diversity in Constructed Freshwater Wetlands.
PLoS ONE 10(8): e0135917. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135917
Open access at Public Library of Science.


FitzGerald, Stephen A.; Eckdahl, Christopher T.; McDonald, Cooper S.;
Nelson, Jocienne N.; Shinbrough, Kai; Lai, Holden W. H.; Rowsell, Jesse
L. C.† (2015)
Orientational ortho-H-2 pair interactions in the microporous framework MOF-5.
Physical Review B, 92 (13):10.1103/PhysRevB.92.134304 OCT 9 2015
Subscriber access at American Physical Society

Stropoli, Santino J.; Elrod, Matthew J. (2015)
Assessing the Potential for the Reactions of Epoxides with Amines on Secondary Organic Aerosol Particles.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 119 (40):10181-10189; 10.1021/acs.jpca.5b07852 OCT 8 2015
Subscriber access at American Chemical Society

†Deceased.

Searching for unicorns

Longing to see a mythic beast?  Check out:

The last unicorn : a search for one of Earth's rarest creatures / William DeBuys.
QL737.U53 D434 2015. [on the new book shelf]

We have this book because of an excellent segment on NPR's On Point with guest host Jane Clayson, May 26, 2015.  If you don't have time to read the book right now, listening to Jane Clayson's interview with conservationist and author William DeBuys is the next best thing.

The "unicorn" is a saola, by the way - known to science for a little over two decades.  It's a good story!

Historical Ecology and the Landscape of Confucius

A new publication from Joshua Wright, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology:

"The Anthropocene and the landscape of Confucius: A historical ecology of landscape changes in northern and eastern China during the middle to late-Holocene."
Rosen, Arlene M.; Lee, Jinok; Li, Min; Wright, Joshua; Wright, Henry T.; Fang, Hui.
Holocene vol. 25 (10):1640-1650; OCT 2015

Extracted from the abstract:
“This research provides geomorphological evidence that early human impact began in the Yangshao period with deforestation, soil erosion, and increased alluviation in the upper catchment of the Yiluo River.”  Read this in the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center.

Learn more about the practice of historical ecology:  The historical ecology handbook : a restorationist's guide to reference ecosystems, edited by Dave Egan and Evelyn A. Howell.  Washington, DC : Island Press, 2005.

Antiparasite Drug Developers Win Nobel Prize

News of today's Nobel Prize announcement can be found in countless ways.  This is the highly readable account from The Scientist: "William Campbell, Satoshi Omura, and Youyou Tu have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of their contributions to antiparasitic drug development."

...or listen to Rob Stein's report on  NPR Morning Edition.  Nobel Prize week is always inspiring, and this year's winners for Medicine are no exception.  Their research has led to treatment of potential benefit to the nearly 4 billion people worldwide who are exposed to these particular disease-causing parasites.

Wondering how many parasites bedevil humans?  Here's an alarming guide:

The parasites of Homo sapiens : an annotated checklist of the protozoa, helminths, and arthropods for which we are home / R.W. Ashford and W. Crewe.  Taylor & Francis, 2003.

"Luckily, I'm a botanist"

The unlikely coincidence of NASA's announcement of flowing water on Mars and release of the film "The Martian" was not lost on NPR Morning Edition host Renee Montagne or film critic Kenneth Turan.  Our botanist friends will surely appreciate the clip of Matt Damon, left stranded on Mars with the challenge of growing enough food for himself for three years on a planet that does not support plant growth:  "Mars will come to fear my botany powers."  Love it!  Listen to Kenneth Turan's review.  Cory Powell offers "10 Quick Thoughts about Water on Mars" on his blog hosted by Discover Magazine.

There is an abundance of literature on Mars readily available in the science library and accessible from OBIS.  Here are two excellent overviews for the non-specialist:

A Traveler's Guide to Mars / William K. Hartmann
Mars : an introduction to its interior, surface and atmosphere / Nadine Barlow
And, check out this highly entertaining reflection from Dr. Chris Martine: "Why I'm Naming a New Plant Species After The Martian," on the Huffington Post Blog [tip of the hat to Mike Moore for this lead!].

Climate Science, 50 Years Later

From the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

On 5 November, 1965, the group now known as the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) cautioned President Lyndon B. Johnson that continued accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide resulting from fossil-fuel burning would “almost certainly cause significant changes” and “could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings.”

AAAS observes that fifty years later, "the reality of human-caused climate change has been reaffirmed by virtually every leading scientific organization as well as the vast majority of individual climate scientists worldwide."  The public is invited to participate in a free day-long scientific symposium to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the First Official Climate-Change Warning to a U.S. President, to "review what scientific research has revealed over the past 50 years, and offer a forward-looking assessment of the range of scientific, technological, communication, and policy options for the future."  Registration is required.  More @ AAAS.

Organized by AAAS and the Carnegie Institution for Science,

with support from the American Meteorological Society

and the Linden Trust for Conservation

Thursday, 29 October, 2015

8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

1530 P Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20005

Review article by Gunnar Kwakye, et al., on manganese and Parkinson's disease.

New publication by Neuroscience Assistant Professor G. Kwakye, indexed by Web of Science:

 

Manganese-Induced Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease: Shared and Distinguishable Features.
Kwakye, Gunnar F.; Paoliello, Monica M. B.; Mukhopadhyay, Somshuvra; Bowman, Aaron B.; Aschner, Michael

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 12 (7):7519-7540; 10.3390/ijerph120707519 JUL 2015.  Open access article at PubMed Central.

Partial abstract:

[This] review discusses the advances made in understanding the essentiality and neurotoxicity of Manganese (Mn). We review occupational Mn-induced parkinsonism and the dynamic modes of Mn transport in biological systems, as well as the detection and pharmacokinetic modeling of Mn trafficking. In addition, we review some of the shared similarities, pathologic and clinical distinctions between Mn-induced parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease. Where possible, we review the influence of Mn toxicity on dopamine, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), and glutamate neurotransmitter levels and function. We conclude with a survey of the preventive and treatment strategies for manganism and idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Connect to MDPI

Published by MDPI, an open access publisher. 

Study Carrels will be assigned Friday September 4

Study carrel sign-up is underway in the science library.  Complete your carrel request before 4pm on September 4 for the initial round of assigning carrels.

Declared science majors are given first consideration, but there are usually a good number of our 30 carrels that are assigned to others - everyone is welcome.

More information on the science library "About" page.

Oliver Sacks TED talk on Hallucination

With the death of Oliver Sacks, the world has lost another brilliant mind and generous soul.  You can appreciate his contributions, very quickly, listening to his amazing TED talk (2009), linked from National Public Radio.

The library owns many of his books; engaging, thought-provoking and delightful to read.  Borrow one soon!

Oberlin students ready to save the world: a Sierra Magazine eco-valedictorian

Cover art by Nate Williams

Oberlin ranked 5 out of the "10 coolest schools" in the United States, on the Sierra Club "green" scale, including measures of sustainability, eco-centered curriculum, energy and water usage, sources of energy and an overall culture of conservation.  Oberlin's score was 769.50, just slightly ahead of University of Connecticut and trailing a bit behind Colorado State University with its School of Global Enviornmental Sustainability.  Univesity of California, Irvine was the leader and a two-time winner, with a score of 859.75.  See the full lists and rankings @ sierra club.org/coolschools.  The story is in the September/October 2015 print issue, received by donation in the science library from Sierra Club life member Alison Ricker.

Three New Publications from the Chemistry Department

Recent publications from the Chemistry department (names indicated in bold), with partial abstracts as extracted from SciFinder.

journals.elsevier.com/food-chemistry/

Robert Q. Thompson.
Homocapsaicin: It's NOT the 7-ene-9-methyl isomer.
Food Chemistry 2015, 182, 72-73.
There are key differences in the occurrence of homocapsaicin isomers: 6-ene-8-Me (more abundant in nature), 6-ene-9-Me (less abundant in nature), and 7-ene-9-Me (not found in nature). Nevertheless, even in scientific journals, the 7-ene-9-Me isomer has been erroneously associated with natural sources on numerous occasions.

Ren A. Wiscons, M. Zeller, and Jesse L. C. Rowsell.
Crystal structure of 2,3-dimethylmaleic anhydride: continuous chains of electrostatic attraction.
Acta Crystallographica, Sect. E: Crystallographic Communications 2015, 71, 950-955
In the crystal structure of 2,3-dimethylmaleic anhydride, C6H6O3, the closest non-bonding intermolecular distances, between the carbonyl C and O atoms of neighboring molecules, were measured [and found to be surprisingly close]. Computational modeling suggests that this close contact is caused by strong electrostatic interactions between the carbonyl C and O atoms.  Open Access.

Liora E. Mael, Michael I. Jacobs, and Matthew J. Elrod.
Organosulfate and Nitrate Formation and Reactivity from Epoxides Derived from 2-Methyl-3-buten-2-ol.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2015, 119, 4464-4472
Recent work has suggested that 2-methyl-3-butene-2-ol (MBO)-derived epoxide intermediates are responsible for some of the molecular species commonly found in ambient secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques were used to study the reaction kinetics and products of two potential MBO-derived epoxides under acidic solution conditions in the presence of sulfate and nitrate nucleophiles… the nucleophilic reactions were observed to be quite regiospecific, and the tertiary addition product species were found to hydrolyze on atmospherically relevant time scales.

order a reprinted issue from ACS

Visual Guide to Understanding Climate Change

Just released: the ultimate visual guide to understanding climate change from the world's leading experts: the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

To supplement the IPCC: we have SO many wonderful books to guide you through the complexity of climate change findings and publications: from considering varying data sets, long-term projections, variability of climate models, the politics of climate, and more.   I recommend Climate Peril.  It will get your attention.

The essential news: it's bad, it's getting worse, we all need to try and make it better. Please. Browse the shelves virtually: QC 903, then come read to understand why slowing global warming to mitigate climate disruption is essential for our well-being, now and decades into the future.

CLOSED Mon-Wed July 13-15

photo credit:  Maya Iverson OC'12

The Science Library will be closed for much needed maintenance on Monday-Wednesday, July 13-15. No library staff will be onsite, but the science librarian will monitor email for any queries regarding online access to library resources. Email: slibrary@oberlin.edu. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Further research published from Rowsell and FitzGerald collaboration

The Royal Society of Chemistry has published further research from the labs of the late Jesse Rowsell, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Stephen FitzGerald, Department of Physics and Astronomy. Research students Cassandra Zentner (OC '13), Holden Lai (OC '15), Joshua Greenfeld (OC '11), and Ren Wiscons (OC '15), all of the Rowsell lab, were instrumental in completing this work and manuscript, published posthumously under Rowsell's name.

Zentner is corresponding author on the paper. Congratulations to all of the authors for continuing the work and producing a fine record of results.

Zentner CA, Lai HWH, Greenfield JT, Wiscons RA, Zeller M, Campana CF, Talu O, FitzGerald SA, Rowsell JLC. 2015. High surface area and Z′ in a thermally stable 8-fold polycatenated hydrogen-bonded framework. Chemical Communications 51(58) July 7:11642-5.
Access at the Royal Society of Chemistry or at OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center. Published online June 16, 2015; print issue is dated July 7, 2015.