Scientifically Scooped

I’m working on a manuscript now, and I find myself feeling kind of jumpy. Everytime I skim the journal RSS feeds and see a keyword related to my project, I get a little jolt until I finish reading the title/abstract and confirm that no, in fact, they did not beat me to the punch.

I realize logically that there are a huge number of problems in science, and that there’s very little reason to think that someone is going to scoop me. Still, it’s terrifying to think that my entire last 6 months of work could be rendered obsolete by one paper that duplicates my findings first, or even worse yet, does it more elegantly!

That said, I’m still glad to be working on this article and hopefully, getting a little closer to graduation.

Five years

Last Friday marked five years since I started this weblog.

I thought about doing a big introspective look back at old posts, but digging through the archives just didn’t feel like much fun today.

Instead, I’ll just say that a lot has changed in my life since then. I’ve finished up college, moved across the country, and gotten married. My politics haven’t changed much, but I’m generally less hot-headed and a little more accepting of the fact that changing society is a slow process. I’m a lot more focused and sure of my goals in life, and a lot happier with my current position.

So, internet, here’s to another five.

Programming note

I’m now using postalicious to pull in my del.icio.us links, so you’ll be seeing linkdump posts every now and then. They’ll be a little more frequent over the next few days, as I clean out my bookmarks and old to-do lists from the year.

Published Again

The second paper to go out with my name on it has just been published online:

A sequence-level map of chromosomal breakpoints in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line yields insights into the evolution of a cancer genome. doi:10.1101/gr.080259.108

That’s me, listed as “Christian A Miller”. Yeah, we’re working on getting that fixed…

As an added bonus, this one is open access!

Published!

The first paper to go out with my name on it has been officially published in this week’s Nature:

Comprehensive genomic characterization defines human glioblastoma genes and core pathways.

Sure, I’m one of about 200 people credited on the paper, but I was happy with my contribution to the group effort. Unfortunately, it’s not in an open-access journal, so I can’t link to anything but the abstract.

Our lab has another paper in submission that I’m an author on, and the plan is for me to clean up some data over the next few months to get a solid first-author paper out the door. That sounds great and all, but the hard work is really just beginning.

Just a quick note – My wishlist in the sidebar has been updated.

Published!

My first paper hit online publication today:

Comprehensive genomic characterization defines human glioblastoma genes and core pathways. The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. doi:10.1038/nature07385

Long time…

Most of my activity lately has been elsewhere on the web.  (Twitter, Delicious, etc).  If you’re not keeping up with it, be sure to check out the root of this site (chrisamiller.com).  It aggregates all my posts elsewhere and includes an RSS feed.

Frequent Flier Follies

Heather called me today and asked if my flight, scheduled for this evening, was on time. “Let’s see”, I said, as I logged into southwest.com. Houston. . . to St. Louis . . .  loading . . .

“Hrmmm. My flight number isn’t showing up – that’s odd”. “All right. . .” goes to email, pulls up e-ticket “Nope, scheduled for 8pm, flight from St. Louis to Houuustooon…” Drop a beat. “Oh shit.”

Not only did I book my flight in the wrong direction, but I actually checked in last night and confirmed my flight itinerary without noticing the error. Thankfully, with the help of a lovely SWA agent and some frequent flier flights I had laying around, I’m getting to St. Louis tomorrow morning in plenty of time for Heather’s graduation tomorrow, and getting my money back for the incorrect reservation.

I’m pretty sure that before I started flying once a month, I would have checked my reservation a little more carefully. So beware, all ye frequent fliers, lest you make the same mistakes as I.

San Francisco

I’m in San Francisco until Tuesday night at a conference. I’m staying right on the bay, so I ducked outside tonight for some fresh air and to take a few pictures. After spending 6.5 hours on a plane to get here, and then the next 4 in meetings, I needed to stretch my legs. For those of you who worry that the government isn’t spending your tax dollars wisely, know that I had to stop over in Phoenix because the direct flights were too expensive for the NCI. The experience has also convinced me that if I ever take a trans-atlantic flight, I should just load up on Ny-Quil before takeoff. I get a little stir crazy after about 2 hours.

The flight in is very picturesque. After hours of dull brown wasteland, the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas shoot up out of the desert, then give way to the lush green California Valley. The landing at SFO is interesting as well, because the approach is over the bay. Out the window, the water rises closer and closer, until you’re convinced that you’re about to splash down, but at the last possible second the runway appears to meet the wheels of the plane.

Sadly, there won’t be time for much tourism because I’ll be cooped up discussing integrative analysis of cancer biology. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be here and expect to learn a lot, but I’m definitely wishing I could explore the kick-ass city right outside the hotel doors. Looks like I’ll have to come back with Heather one of these days. From the little bit I’ve seen, it looks awesome.

Programming Note

The root of this site (chrisamiller.com) now contains an aggregator for lots of my different web activity, including posts from this blog, updates from twitter, del.icio.us quick links, and my pictures from flickr. There’s also a combined RSS feed, for your stalking convenience.

The style needs some work, but it’s nice to have everything together one one page.

Woah – been a while

Woah – been a while since i posted. Normally, this is where i’d tell you about how my pet gerbil died, and my classes have been hell, and that i just haven’t had any time for you, my faithful reader. But I’m not going to lie to you – i just haven’t felt like posting. So ha.

Been busy with Phi Sigma Pi Rush all week – bringing new members in is always a blast. I’m just glad that I’m not longer initiate advisor. It was fun, showing the new kiddos the ropes, but it was a lot of work. Sitting back and just watching the process will be great. Mardi Gras is coming up fast, and I’ll be headed down there with about 150 of my brothers from different mothers. Woo hoo.

Yes, I realize that this post was rambling, and contains no links, although I defnitely should have included some on relevant terms. Well, i’m all about defying the norms today – so deal with it. Viva La Laziness!

Enough serious talk for one

Enough serious talk for one day. Time to whip up some nachos and head over to Caitlin and Andrea’s house for their Super bowl party. Who am I pulling for? I’m down with the Bucs, just because I don’t like most Raiders fans I know. Yeah, I know it’s a horrible reason, but I didn’t get a chance to watch much of the playoffs, so I don’t have any real loyalties.

Oh, and if it’s entertainment you’re looking for, just spank the monkey.

I admit it. I’m a

I admit it. I’m a junkie. They say admitting it is the first step to recovery, but I’m not so sure.

You see, I was one of those kids who could pull out the encyclopedia to work on a project about England, and end up reading about everything from Eggplants to Emus. Absorbing information is invigorating to me. They say knowledge is power, but all I know is that it makes me bad-ass at Trivial Pursuit.

It all starts innocently enough. I sit down to read the news (from the BBC, of course), and before I realize what’s happening, I’ve got eight Netscape windows open, containing topics ranging from John Poindexter to bonzai potatoes. Sigh.

So if it’s useless information you’re looking for, let me know. (Did you know that the longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds? Or that the odds of hitting the Powerball jackpot (120,000,000:1) are three times worse than your odds of being injured by a falling coconut (40,000,000:1)?)

I really need to get on Jeopardy…