Mendel's name more than of any other draws our attention to the personal side in terms of success and failure in science. Mendel lived 19 years after presenting his research findings and died without receiving any recognition for his work. Are premature discoveries things of the past, you may ask? I review the material basis of science in terms of science boundary and field accessibility and analyze the possibility of premature discoveries in different fields of science such as, for example, physics and biology. I conclude that science has reached a stage where progress is being made mostly by pushing the boundary of the known from inside than by leaping across boundaries. As more researchers become engaged in science, and as more publications become open access, on-line, and interactive, the probability of an important discovery remaining buried and going unrecognized would become exceedingly small. Of course, as examples from physics show, a new theory or an important idea can always lie low, unrecognized until it becomes re-discovered and popularized by other researchers. Thus, premature discoveries will become less likely but not forbidden.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/gen-2016-0056 | DOI Listing |
Evolution
January 2025
Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom.
We are witnessing an ongoing global biodiversity crisis, and an increasing number of mammalian populations are at risk of decline. Species that have survived severe historic bottlenecks, such as the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) exhibit symptoms of inbreeding depression including reproductive and developmental defects. Although it has long been suggested that such defects stem from an accumulation of weakly deleterious mutations, the implications of such mutations leading to pseudogenization has not been assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
January 2025
Neonatology, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Introduction: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most common and significant complications of preterm birth. It ultimately leads to a decrease in the quality of life for preterm infants and impacts their long-term health. Early prediction and timely intervention are crucial to halting the development of BPD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDevelopment
January 2025
Pediatric Genomics Discovery Program, Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
Emerging evidence suggests that the nuclear pore complex can have unique compositions and distinct nucleoporin functions in different cells. Here, we show that Nup107, a key component of the NPC scaffold, varies in expression over development: it is expressed at higher levels in the blastula compared to the gastrula suggesting a critical role prior to gastrulation. We find depletion of Nup107 affects the differentiation of the early germ layers leading to an expansion of the ectoderm at the expense of endoderm and mesoderm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPNAS Nexus
January 2025
Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the most prevalent chronic lung disease of prematurity, is often treated with glucocorticoids (GCs) such as dexamethasone (DEX), but their use is encumbered with several adverse somatic, metabolic, and neurologic effects. We previously reported that systemic delivery of the GC prodrug ciclesonide (CIC) in neonatal rats activated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) transcriptional responses in lung but did not trigger multiple adverse effects caused by DEX. To determine whether limited systemic metabolism of CIC was solely responsible for its enhanced safety profile, we treated neonatal rats with its active metabolite desisobutyryl-ciclesonide (Des-CIC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Case Rep
January 2025
Department of Cardiology, Centre Hospitalier François Mitterrand de Pau (CHPAU), Pau, France.
BACKGROUND A single coronary artery is a rare congenital anomaly of the coronary arteries distribution, with an incidence of only 0.03% in the general population undergoing coronary angiography. RCA arising from the distal circumflex artery is an extremely rare variety.
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