Critical role of vascular endothelial cells in liver regeneration
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7488/full/506299a.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6169/416.full

A potential alternative to Gal4/UAS:
http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/5/1167.full

How neural crest cells coordinate rapid migration and proliferation:
http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/5/1095.full

Popular science level intro to the broad utility of CRISPR/Cas9:
http://www.biotechniques.com/news/biotechniquesNews/biotechniques-350132.html#.UwVHtPaYDNF

An interesting stem cell clinical trial
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26273707

And finally just to cause you nightmares: dire notes about young academic researchers around the world
http://www.nature.com/news/extreme-workloads-plague-scientists-at-the-start-of-their-careers-1.14567
The sample is too small and non-random, but worthwhile nonetheless.

But there is a bit of good news: some professions experience shortage of workers:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/18/279032024/theres-a-clown-shortage-who-will-fill-those-big-shoes
The bad news is one has to be funny to qualify…

Enjoy.

This week’s issue of Science has not one, not two, but three great developmental genetics papers. I will not complain about cyrusification anymore.

Two weeks ago we read about Wnt not being a morphogen anymore. Now it turns out there is no more (need for a) somitogenesis clock.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6172/791.full
Together with the recent "no more black holes" stuff, I really do not know where science is headed :-)

But I do find some solace in the fact that gastrulation movements are getting further sorted out
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6172/1248636.full
And I do not think black holes are involved in many cases of "missing” genes.

Regeneration-wise, shrimps are more similar to mammals than to flatworms:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6172/788.full
Not a huge surprise but an extremely importand finding nonetheless.

Now onto fluffier stuff:

A cool evolutionary story on native American populations
http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2014/02/native-americans-descend-ancient-montana-boy

Data visualization is a huge challenge, and some people are better than others at solving it:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6171/600.full

And here is one of my favorite gripes for grad students: the fact that you found a statistical method which demonstrates a significant difference between your experiments does not necessarily mean much.
http://www.nature.com/news/number-crunch-1.14692

Would you keep a neater lab notebook if you thought it may end up online?
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7487/full/506159e.html

Enjoy!

No "hard science" papers this week...

Do you need more reasons NOT to become a scientist? Here they are:
http://www.nature.com/news/animal-farm-1.14660
http://www.nature.com/news/biomedicine-the-changing-face-of-primate-research-1.14645
But please, do become an advocate for science...

So lizards need to socialize to become successful:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7486/full/506009a.html
Does the opposite apply to grad students?

A self-diagnosis tool for grad students.
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_02_04/caredit.a1400031
This is obviously no laughing matter, but things don’t really get easier after grad school…

A set of well-intentioned articles on how to reduce waste in biomedical research:
http://www.thelancet.com/series/research
I can volunteer an example of pure waste: keeping a zebrafish head count. Not kidding.

A fun read for a Saturday night - or a Sunday morning. No more, no less.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6170/478.full
Talk about living up to your last name :-)

How to make your science understandable:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6171/600.full
I have as much to learn as anyone...