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Fig 2F, click for source

Left part of Fig 6D. Click for source.

PubPeer (highlighted previously on Labrigger) caught some shenanigans that apparently the reviewers and editors at Cell did not. Here’s the comment from PubPeer, and here’s the paper.

Figure 2F (top image) and the left side of Figure 6D (second image) are the same set of cells, but are presented as different in the paper.

Here’s a second example of image/data reuse from the same paper. Figure S6 reused the same exact data for two panels. The two panels even appear right next to each other in the figure.

Same data in both panels, but with different labels. Click for source.

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Beaker genie

Click for source

source: C&H

ss

sizes - click for source

Previously…
Sense of scale
R&D budgets in perspective

cupcakes

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New Orleans

ls

While they’re at it, let’s go back to Miami too.

kawaii

Apparently kittens can see an optimized Farser-Wilcox optical illusion.

Fraser and Wilcox 1979 (pdf)
Rotating Snakes (pdf)

atlas

INCF’s brain atlases (mouse, macaque, and human) are easy to browse online. The system has been around for several years now, and keeps getting better.

Of course, the Allen Institute also maintains some excellent atlases. And there are more.

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1000 words

xkcd

Randall Munroe did an xkcd cartoon a while back where he tried to explain a Saturn V rocket using only the 1000 most common words in English. The resulting work, entitled “Up Goer Five”, inspired some other scientists to try to explain their own work using just 1000 words. Want to try it? There’s a web app to help you out. It tells you when you use a word that is NOT in the list of 1000. I tried it out with the first part of the 2011 Eppendorf Prize winning essay by Tiago Branco.

Original
Animal survival depends on the ability to analyze the environment and act on it: escape predators, find food, select a mate. Understanding how the brain achieves this is one of the most fascinating and challenging problems in neuroscience. What sequence of steps converts sensory cues into behavior? In other words, how does the brain compute?

Limited to the most common 1000 words in English
Animal living needs to sense and think about what is around: escape bad guys, find food, get laid. Understanding how the brain does this is one of the most cool and hard problems in brain study. What steps change sensing into doing? In other words, how does the brain figure?

See what other people have written about their scientific work. Then try it out for yourself!

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Cough syrup

My MD friends tell me there’s no effective cough medication on the market. There are OTC and prescription medicines, but none of them have been proven to really work. That doesn’t mean that they won’t give you some level of subjective relief, but they’re not like asprin or pseudoephedrine (e.g., regular Sudafed)*.

We used to use more potent medicine. Who knows? Maybe this stuff below worked. I’m guessing it had some effect.

* Speaking of pseudoephedrine… Since it is a popular material for meth labs, it’s tightly controlled (not a big deal, just need to show your driver’s license). You can get the molecularly-related phenylephrine OTC (e.g., Sudafed PE), but again, it’s probably not effective.