My 6th residence at the Stellenbosch Institute For Advanced Study (STIAS), and the 3rd of my Permanent Fellowship, has begun. My project here will be a continuation of my first residence in 2015 “New approaches to anti-obesity therapeutics”.
During my first 2015 residence, I presented some of the approaches followed by my laboratory to investigate this problem, based on studies of the ALK7 protein, a highly abundant receptor molecule in rodent and human adipocytes that is a key regulator of fat metabolism and plasticity. Major advances have taken place in the past 9 years in the field as a whole, the best known of these being the development and clinical application of GLP-1 agonists.Read more...
“Acoustic Ribosomes”, the fourth volume of the Chromatographies project, is now live in Bandcamp for download or streaming. The download includes a digital booklet. There are also CDs available.
Chromatographies is the jazz and ambient guitar project of Carlos Ibanez. The recordings consist of solo guitar performances that alternate improvised ambient guitar meditations with jazz guitar pieces.
Different from previous volumes, the present recording mainly features acoustic instruments. In addition to original tracks, it includes pieces by Ralph Towner, Egberto Gismonti and Jimmy Page.
Tracks featured in this recording:
Sacred Place (Ralph Towner)
Cystine Knot Waltz [knotted]
Salvador (Egberto Gismonti)
The Three-Antibody Problem
Jamaica Stopover (Ralph Towner)
Cystine Knot Waltz [unknotted]
Bonding Hydrogens
Solitary Woman (Ralph Towner)
Cystine Knot Waltz [reknotted]
Peace On The Chromosome
The Rain Song (Jimmy Page)
Compositions by Carlos Ibañez except as indicated.Read more...
Our latest guitar acquisition is a cross-over nylon string guitar made in 2005 by John Buscarino. This is his Grand Cabaret model with a number of special woods and appointments. This instrument was purchased through the wonderful (and highly addictive) Dream Guitars shop and website run by Paul Heumiller in North Carolina. Full specs can be found at their website here. Dream Guitars had two instruments that caught our attention and we schedule a live demo with them to see and hear the two instruments through an uncompressed video link. There were several features in this instrument that tilted the decision. A wider nut and the cedar top were the more critical, aside of its fancy woods and appointments. What’s a crossover guitar?Read more...
The current system is broken, as argued in an earlier post. Given the arguments exposed there, is there a better way forward? I believe there is, and some ideas on how to go about it are presented below. Much of what is being proposed here represents the complete opposite of many of the fundamental principles of the current system: forums instead of journals, acceptance instead of rejection, commentary instead of review, disclosure instead of anonymity, community engagement instead of expert wisdom, live papers instead of dead papers.
Like it or not, we live in an on-line society; certainly most part of research communication and dissemination take place on-line. The word “journal”, in all its physicality, feels very much obsolete. For an on-line world, and for other reasons that will become clearer later, the word “forum” seems much more appropriate. “Neuroscience Forum” instead of “Journal of Neuroscience”. “Cancer Research Forum” instead of “Journal of Cancer Research”. How’s a Forum different from a Journal?Read more...
We have a small vineyard in Mendoza. Vineyards make wine and wine has to be bottled and bottles bear labels. So, what’s in a label? As we begun thinking about this, there were some elements that had to be there. The Andes mountains. A pleasing and elegant off-white background. Our names in a modern font. And the place, Valle de Uco (aka Uco Valley). What else? Tradition has it that family wines carry the emblems of the family. And so the Marketing team at The Vines Of Mendoza took inspiration from those emblems and prepared three designs for the three wines we are producing with the 2023 vintage, Malbec Reserva, Malbec Grand Reserva (barrel fermented) and a Blend.Read more...
“Bonding Hydrogens”, the second advanced track from forthcoming vol. 4 of Chromatographies “Acoustic Ribosomes”, is an acoustic guitar meditation with a pastoral flair that evokes the open spaces of the green pampas. It is available for download at Chromatographies’ Bandcamp page.
I have been honored to serve as Chief-Editor of the section in Cell and Molecular Neuroscience of a prestigious journal, until I resigned this month. It was time for me to leave space to someone with a stronger belief in the peer-review system. In my case, this has been slowly eroding during the past years, as I witness a steady decline in scholarship, transparency and basic respect across the publishing enterprise and its actors. Failed scientists become editors of powerful journals but their shallow competence limits them as over-qualified secretaries. Researchers with little time to spare accept to review papers, but end up providing senseless and superficial evaluations of dismal scholarship.Read more...
When I was about in the middle of my undergraduate studies, I decided that I needed some laboratory practice. So I joined a lab that was studying Drosophila genetics. The Prof. there, his name was Enzo Muñoz, was an old-school geneticist, with rather conservative views. We spoke often. He was talking about science. I remember one thing he said once: “There are no boring topics in science, only bored scientists.” I thought at that time that he was defending himself a little bit.
Later I understood that he was actually talking about something more profound. Nothing in science is boring. There are scientists that may get bored about something, but that does not make that topic a boring one, it only says that those scientists have been unable to find a way to crack that problem or make progress in that topic. Or they simply did not understand its depth.Read more...
The Casimi C5S baritone guitar is finally here. Ordered in Mach 2021, and finally finished now, in mid September 2023. Matthew Rice and Matthias Roux are Casimi Guitars, based in Muizenberg, outside Cape Town. They are in high demand and only make a handful of instruments per year, hence the long waiting list. This is a multiscale instrument, also called “fan-fret”, with the 6th string at 28” and the 1st at 27”. To be noted is the tilted bridge, and the perpendicular fret at the fifth position. It features a sound port on the top side as well as subtle arm and chest bevels.
As for woods, the top is made of Moonspruce, a master grade spruce that is harvested at a particular moon phase. The back and sides are African Blackwood, a hard tone wood similar to Brazilian Rosewood. Bindings are made of beautiful koa. The neck is mahogany and fretboard is ebony with golden Evo frets like our Buendia 12-string. The nut and saddle are Black Tusq.Read more...
There were several features in this instrument that tilted the decision. A wider nut and the cedar top were the more critical, aside of its fancy woods and appointments. What’s a crossover guitar?
The Casimi C5S baritone guitar is finally here.