63781229
submission
cranky_chemist writes:
"Cancer simply may be here to stay. Researchers at Kiel University, the Catholic University of Croatia and other institutions discovered that hydra — tiny, coral-like polyps that emerged hundreds of millions of years ago — form tumors similar to those found in humans. Which suggests that our cells' ability to develop cancer is 'an intrinsic property' that has evolved at least since then — way, way, way before we rallied our forces to try to tackle it, said Thomas Bosch, an evolutionary biologist at Kiel University who led the study, published in Nature Communications in June."
The paywalled original article is available at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2...
58270557
submission
cranky_chemist writes:
Megan O'Neil has published a story on the Chronicle of Higher Education's website noting some unusual language in the license agreement between authors and Nature Publishing Group.
"Faculty authors who contract to write for the publisher of Nature, Scientific American, and many other journals should know that they could be signing away more than just the economic rights to their work, according to the director of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communication at Duke University.
Kevin Smith, the Duke official, said he stumbled across a clause in the Nature Publishing Group’s license agreement last week that states that authors waive or agree not to assert "any and all moral rights they may now or in the future hold" related to their work. In the context of scholarly publishing, "moral rights" include the right of the author always to have his or her name associated with the work and the right to have the integrity of the work protected such that it is not changed in a way that could result in reputational harm."
Nature Publishing Group claims the waivers are required to ensure the journal's ability to publish formal retractions and/or corrections.
However, the story further notes that Nature Publishing Group is requiring authors at institutions with open-access policies to sign waivers that exempt their work from such policies.
54401697
submission
cranky_chemist writes:
MOOC provider edX, after a failed pilot program in which none of 868 students were hired, now plans to abandon a program that allowed companies to mine their massive open online courses for talent. edX cited HR departments for the program's demise, stating "Existing HR departments want to go for traditional degree programs and filter out nontraditional candidates."
