About the author

Nick Oswald

Nick is a molecular biologist-turned-publisher. After a PhD in Developmental Biology and an eclectic seven years in biotech he is now Editorial Manager of Neuroendocrinology and the founder and Editor-In-Chief of Bitesize Bio. You are welcome to connect with Nick on LinkedIn

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Here’s my round-up of the best from around the blogs this week:

• Rosie Redfield provided a three great articles (1, 2, 3) delving into the molecular biology of competence and DNA uptake in H. influenzae and B. subtilis

• John Hawks cleverly weaved together the findings of two recent Nature publications giving insight into the role of our gut microbes in obesity at his Anthropology blog

• At Microbiology Bytes, Alan Cann served up a tutorial on Glanders and Melioidosis, infectious diseases with bioweapons potential, caused by Burkholderi species.

• Thinking of having your genome sequenced? At SEQanswers, Eric talked about his privacy and data ownership concerns over this emerging prospect.

• Micheal Rugnetta provided a commentary on ETC group’s criticisms of J. Craig Venter (et al)’s report on the potential dangers of synthetic biology at Science Progress

• The scandal of mis-reporting of scientific data in the popular press was highlighted in a commentary by Noah Gray in Nature‘s Action Potential blog

• At Noble Intent, Jonathan Gitlin talked about global brain circulation (a cyclical version of the “brain drain”) and the effects disparities in scientists’ salaries in different parts of the world have on it.

• Over at Epigenetics News, Trevor touched on the importance of maintaining your lab’s website and provided some great tips on how to to it.

• Bertalan at ScienceRoll educated us about science learning opportunities in second life.

• …and finally, at BayBlab, they got into the Halloween spirit with a pumpkin brewing experiment.