Did You Know…Fruit Flies and Cancer Research!

While the humble fruit fly may be a summer-time nuisance for many of us, they have been helping the scientific community study the building blocks of life for over a century due to their availability, small size and quick reproduction. The Manchester Fly Facility at Manchester University has a very informative website about the history and current uses of these little guys in science research.

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More Growing Pains as Scientific Publishing Evolves, Reviews of 60 Minutes’ Glioblastoma Story, and Some Discussions of Fair Use

all in this edition on Blog Buzz.

  • An editor tweeted last week that he was quitting Scientific Reports an NPG open access journal over a service which allows authors to pay for expedited peer review by a third party corporation. Science News covers the story here, and has updated it with a link to a copy of a letter from board members of Scientific Reports to NPG raising some questions and concerns.

MSK Outpatient Art Program and More…

  • MSK’s Outpatient Art Program (established in 2013) which includes both temporary and permanent installations coordinated by Outpatient Curator Sarah Campbell, was highlighted in a March 25 Hyperallergic article. How art is being integrated into MSK’s mission and the role it serves in the healing process of patients was explained.
  • MSK’s Visible Ink writing program was described in a March 30 News 1 segment that reported on how learning to write down their personal stories has helped many cancer patients of all ages. The program produces annual anthologies of the written works and also organizes a yearly performance where the best pieces are read by actors.
  • On NPR’s March 26 Morning Edition, jazz singer and MSK patient MaryAnn Anselmo was featured in a story about how genetic testing of her tumor — which showed it to have a mutation usually found in skin cancer — lead to her brain cancer being treated with a skin cancer drug therapy.
  • A March 24 Reuters Health piece described a recent study by MSK’s Dr. Raymond Thornton and his group which showed that patients may not currently be getting as much information about the risks of radiologic testing as they might wish to receive from their doctors.