Does the Nobel Prize reflect current scientific and academic values?

This opinion paper puts forward arguments that reflect how science’s most elite prize, the Nobel Prize may be, despite its grand stature, somewhat out of touch with the functionality of grassroots science. There is a disconnect between limited fields of study to which the prize is awarded and the interdisciplinary nature of complex research. This is the first weakness. The second limitation is the focus on a single individual, occasionally on two or three when the prize is divided, even though much research is frequently collaborative. This is particularly true in the biomedical and natural sciences, which tend to involve individuals with multiple skills, each or all of whom may be equally deserving of the Nobel Prize, given their collective participation. The Nobel Prize also tends to display poor cultural, linguistic and gender representation and/or bias. Finally, retractions of papers by select Nobel Prize laureates suggest that even these elite academics are not immune to the ills of science and academic publishing and that affect all scientists in a complex global web

Successful storage of protocorm-like bodies of hybrid Cymbidium (Orchidaceae) under low temperature conditions

AbstractLow temperatures result in lower metabolic cellular activity, thus slowing down cell division and growth. This is advantageous where a plant scientist might seek to store important germplasm without the risks associated with low temperature storage. In this study, two cold temperatures above freezing, namely 4 and 10°C, were tested to assess for how long PLBs could be preserved without a significant loss in regeneration ability (i.e., the ability to form neo-PLBs). Control treatments were cultured at 25°C on Teixeira Cymbidium (TC) medium at a 16-h photoperiod at a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 45μmolm−2s−1. For the cold treatments, each was replicated in the dark and at low light intensity (12-h photoperiod and a PPFD of 10μmolm−2s−1). All cultures were sub-cultured six times onto fresh medium every 60days, for approximately 1year. On the 7th subculture, all neo-PLBs were prepared uniformly and replated onto standard TC medium under light conditions described above for the control. 45days after the 7th subculture and just before subcultures 1–6, the number of neo-PLBs per half-PLB was measured. The number of neo-PLBs that formed under different treatments depended strongly on the temperature and light conditions with most neo-PLBs forming under control conditions, although that number dropped significantly as the temperature was dropped to 10°C and then even more to 4°C, the same trend being observed when explants were cultured and subcultured under dim light, with organogenesis being more strongly negatively influenced in darkness. For all low-temperature treatments, as well as the dimmed light and darkness treatments, the number of neo-PLBs increased significantly when recultured, on the 7th subculture, onto control TC medium under control environmental conditions, almost as high as the control values. In contrast, the control values decreased, with significantly fewer neo-PLBs by the 7th subculture relative to the control, indicating that new PLBs should be induced from shoot cultures at least once a year to maintain their vitality

Anthemideae: advances in tissue culture, genetics and transgenic biotechnology

Members of the Anthemideae include important floricultural (cut-flower) and ornamental (pot and garden) crops, as well as plants of medicinal and ethno-pharmacological interest. Despite the use of many of these plants (over 1400 species) in the extraction of important secondary metabolites and essential oils, the greatest emphasis has been on their in vitro tissue culture and micropropagation. Few studies have been conducted on genetic transformation, with those primarily focused on increasing yield of compounds in plants. This review, the first and only available for plants within this Family, highlights all the available literature that exists on Anthemideae (excluding ornamental chrysanthemums) in vitro cell, tissue and organ culture, micropropagation and transformation. Key words: Achillea, Anthemis, Artemisia, Matricaria, Santolina, Tanacetum. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp. 547-556, December 200

Cabell’s International publishing blacklist: An interview with Kathleen Berryman

On January 15, 2017, a blog that was maintained by a US librarian, Jeffrey Beall, was suddenly shut down. That blog was famed for its divisive and controversial content, namely two blacklists that in essence labelled open access journals and publishers as “predatory”. Beall showed that the entries on his lists increased annually, yet several publishing entities that had been blacklisted by Beall felt that they had been unfairly listed, causing, in some cases, reputational damage. In the vacuum that ensued in academic publishing quality control, a few entities tried to fill the gap to serve as a warning to academics. One of the organizations that stepped in was US-based Cabell’s International, which created a blacklist of journals that did not fulfill their established criteria. This brief communication reports on a structured interview that was held in June of 2017 between the author and Kathleen Berryman, Cabell's project manager. Some perspectives on Cabell’s whitelists and blacklists are provided

Mining the essential oils of the Anthemideae

Numerous members of the Anthemideae are important cut-flower and ornamental crops, as well as medicinal and aromatic plants, many of which produce essential oils used in folk and modern medicine, the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. These oils and compounds contained within them are used in the pharmaceutical, flavour and fragrance industries. Moreover, as people search for alternative and herbal forms of medicine and relaxation (such as aromatherapy), and provided that there are no suitable synthetic substitutes for many of the compounds or difficulty in profiling and mimicking complex compound mixtures in the volatile oils, the original plant extracts will continue to be used long into the future. This review highlights the importance of secondary metabolites and essential oils from principal members of this tribe, their global social, medicinal and economic relevance and potential. Key Words: Apoptosis, artemisinin, chamomile, essential oil, feverfew, pyrethrin, tansy. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol.3(12) 2004: 706-72

Fałszywe przedstawienie szalki Petriego jako szalki „petriego”, w literaturze naukowej

The Petri dish is, without a doubt, a very basic, yet important and popular tool in microbiological and other biomedical experiments. It serves primarily as a support or structural platform for placing, growing or testing biological specimens, whether these be microbiological, animal, plant or human. Given its size, usually about 10 cm in diameter, the Petri dish is an ideal platform for cellular and tissue cultures. Despite the commonality of Petri dishes, quite surprisingly, there is a pervasive error throughout the biomedical literature, namely its misspelling as “petri” dish. This is not a trivial issue since this dish is named after a scientist, Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), so the upper-case “P” should not be represented as a lower-case “p”. It is important to alert students and seasoned biomedical researchers, as well as the wider public, who might use this term, about the need to use the term Petri accurately, in order to respect its historical foundation. To garner some appreciation of the extent of this error in the biomedical literature, a 2022 search on PubMed for either “Petri dish” or “petri dish” revealed 50 search results, 24 (or 48%) of which were of the latter, erroneous form in titles or abstracts. This suggests that the indicated error, which is in need of correction, may be widely pervasive in the biomedical literature.Szalka Petriego jest bez wątpienia bardzo podstawowym, ale ważnym i popularnym narzędziem w eksperymentach mikrobiologicznych i innych biomedycznych. Służy przede wszystkim jako platforma wspierająca lub strukturalna, na której można umieszczać, hodować lub testować próbki biologiczne, niezależnie od tego, czy są to próbki mikrobiologiczne, zwierzęce, roślinne lub ludzkie. Biorąc pod uwagę jej rozmiar, zwykle około 10 cm średnicy, szalka Petriego jest idealna do kultur komórkowych i tkankowych. Pomimo powszechności szalek Petriego, co dość zaskakujące, występuje wszechobecny błąd, a mianowicie błędna pisownia jako „szalka petriego”. To nie jest błahy problem, ponieważ szalka ta nosi imię naukowca Juliusa Richarda Petri (1852–1921), więc wielka litera „P” nie powinna być reprezentowana jako mała litera „p”. Ważne jest, aby ostrzec studentów i doświadczonych badaczy biomedycznych, a także szerszą opinię publiczną, która może używać tego terminu, o potrzebie dokładnego używania terminu Petri, aby uszanować jego historyczne podstawy. Aby ocenić zakres tego błędu w literaturze biomedycznej, wyszukiwanie w PubMed w 2022 r. terminów „szalka Petriego” lub „szalka petriego” ujawniło 50 rezultatów, z których 24 (lub 48%) dotyczyło tej drugiej, błędnej formy w tytule lub abstrakcie. Sugeruje to, że wskazany błąd, który wymaga korekty, może być szeroko rozpowszechniony w literaturze biomedycznej

Thin Cell Layer technology in ornamental plant micropropagation and biotechnology

Thin cell layer (TCL) technology originated almost 30 years ago with the controlled development of flowers, roots, shoots and somatic embryos on tobacco pedicel longitudinal TCLs. Since then TCLs have been successfully used in the micropropagation of many ornamental plant species whose previous in vitro regeneration was not successful using conventional methods. This review examines the fundamentals behind TCLs, and their application in ornamental plant micropropagation and transformation. Key words: Chrysanthemum, lily, somatic embryogenesis, thin cell layer, tobacco, transformation. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp. 683-691, December 200