Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times today has an article describing the work of hundreds of brain researchers who are collaborating and using crowd-sourcing techniques to share their activities via Internet technology.   The article states:

“In the largest collaborative study of the brain to date, scientists using imaging technology at more than 100 centers worldwide have for the first time zeroed in on genes that they agree play a role in intelligence and memory.

Scientists working to understand the biology of brain function — and especially those using brain imaging, a blunt tool — have been badly stalled. But the new work, involving more than 200 scientists, lays out a strategy for breaking the logjam. The findings appear in a series of papers published online Sunday in the journal Nature Genetics.

“What’s really new here is this movement toward crowd-sourcing brain research,” said Paul Thompson, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and senior author of one of the papers. “This is an example of social networking in science, and it gives us a power we have not had.”

Crowd-sourcing has its proponents as well as questioners.   Regardless I think we will see more of this type of collaboration especially as researchers become more comfortable using social networking technologies.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

There is a good deal to report on the presidential campaign trail.  First, Hilary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney and working moms are not going way.  During a closed-door fundraiser in Florida, Ann Romney described Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s recent criticism of her choosing to be a stay-at-home mother as an “early birthday present,” according to a report by NBC News.

Second, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner threw water on one of GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s claims about the economy and women, saying Sunday that it is “ridiculous” to imply the president is to blame for high unemployment among women.

“It’s misleading and ridiculous. It’s just a political moment,” Geithner told CBS’s Bob Scheiffer on “Face the Nation,” adding that the quality of debate over economic policy is “really terrible.”

Geithner was referring to a statistic cited by Romney this week on women who lost jobs during President Barack Obama’s time in office. Romney said that 92.3 percent of the jobs lost during that period were held by women, which he said was “the real war on women.”

Third,  President Barack Obama probably received an important endorsement yesterday from former Vice President Dick Cheney during his first major public appearance since his heart transplant.  Speaking before the Wyoming Republican Party state convention:

“He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country,” Cheney said of President Barack Obama.

The Wyoming Republican Party chose 14 delegates Saturday to this summer’s Republican National Convention and all of them are committed to support Romney.

We wish Mr. Cheney a speedy and full recovery but unfortunately for us, he was the worst vice president this country has seen in recent history.  A megalomaniac who lied, cheated and deceived the American people into going to war in Iraq.  Anything he says negative about Barack Obama candidate can only help the president be re-elected.

Tony