FLICKR, TIFOTTER

Selections from The Scientist’s reading list:

  • Scientists have long lamented human nutrition–related study designs and the reliability of dietary data. In a Mayo Clinic Proceedings report published this month (June 9), researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Queensland School of Medicine in New Orleans, critique memory-based dietary assessment methods (M-BM). Because they rely on people’s abilities to accurately recall their nutritional habits, the authors argued these methods are flawed. The authors “conclude that M-BM data cannot be used to inform national dietary guidelines and that the continued funding of M-BMs constitutes an unscientific and major misuse of research resources.”
  • “[D]ata promised by organs-on-a-chip could accelerate drug development and allow researchers to carry out experiments too risky for human volunteers.” — The Economist, “Towards a Body-on-a-Chip,” June 13
  • Researchers in Puglia, Italy, investigating the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa are being questioned...

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