Earthworks 2014 Barossa Valley Shiraz

Today's You-app task was to "think positive" and make a note of something positive. This was actually my chosen "keep-it-up" habit-forming activity, so I had to do it twice. Fortunately, living in Australia gives you many positive things to think about, even on a rainy day like today. One of them is the wine - and one of the wines to be positive about is Earthworks 2014 Barossa Valley Shiraz, which is rich and velvety without being too in-your-face like some Aussie wines can be. (Not that I have a problem with that!)

It’s on offer at Vintage Cellars at the moment, so that’s two things to be positive about in itself!

ICBCSB 2015: Another scam conference comes to Australia

I am a bioinformatician working in Sydney, Australia. I recently helped to organise the ABACBS2015 conference in Sydney, where ABACBS stands for the Australian Bioinformatics And Computational Biology Society, of which I am a member. I am also part of the New South Wales Systems Biology Initiative. You may therefore find it surprising to know that I found it surprising to find out that in December, Sydney NSW will be host to "ICBCSB 2015 : 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology".

This is not the only surprising thing about ICBCSB 2015. For Sydney is actually at least the 15th 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology (ICBCSB 2015). Next week, the conference is being held in Madrid. Last month, there was the 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology in Bali. And Prague. And Chicago. And Istanbul. The 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology (ICBCSB 2015) has also been in Venice, London, New York, Berlin, and Geneva and will be held in Penang and Dubai. And that’s just in the first two pages of a Google Search - there are more (including Lisbon and Stockholm).

This makes OMIC Group Conferences look positively legit. Indeed, the organisers of all 15+ ICBCSB 2015 conferences - the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) - seem to be basing their conference business model on that of OMICS. Or perhaps it was the other way round. Either way, if you replaced the WASET logo on the website with OMICS Group, nothing would seem out of place.

If you have ever attended a (real) scientific conference, pick one of those past conferences at random, for example Berlin, and click on the conference photos page, then tell me if you have ever seen anything so depressing in your life. And remember: these are the photos they chose to put up, so presumably show the conference in its best light. Given the number of group photos of (all?) the delegates, I wonder whether they had time for much else other than publicity shots. And in case you are thinking: “those are probably just the invited speakers”, I would bet good money that the delegates were all invited - and still had to pay top dollar to attend.

Finally, in case you have any doubt, just Google “WASET scam”. It does not make for happy reading.

If you are in bioinformatics or systems biology, please spread the word far and wide about these conferences and why they should be avoided at all costs. The sooner we starve the likes of OMICS Group and WASET of naïve unsuspecting scientists to prey on, the sooner these parasites will f#@k right off. There are plenty enough legit conferences to choose from. (Yes, it makes me angry.)

And if you have already signed up for Sydney ICBCSB 2015, do not despair. As luck would have it, there is a real bioinformatics event being held in Sydney that same week: BioInfoSummer 2015. It’s more of a workshop than a conference but there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss science with some excellent bioinformaticians and systems biologists. At least that way, you won’t waste the plane ticket and hotel costs, even if WASET won’t give you a refund for pulling out. (Not likely!)

A tale of two conferences - #ABACBS2015 and #AGTA15

Two weeks ago, I attended the awesome double-header of ABACBS2015 and AGTA15. In some ways they were chalk and cheese - ABACBS was cheap and cheerful, where as AGTA was expensive and (therefore) exclusive - but both were great and highlighted some of the very best features of successful academic conferences.

As part of the ABACBS2015 organising committee, I needed to collect my thoughts for a debrief, so I thought I’d got down some thoughts here. (Thanks to grant writing, the post itself got a little delayed!) As with biology itself, most decisions are trade offs and the following comparison is not to criticise - I just find it interesting. As with the awesome ABiC14 conference last year, I mainly want to document good practice for future reference. (Some of these will no doubt be repeats of my ABiC14 thoughts!)

Size. Both conferences were, for me, the perfect size - around 180-190 people. This is enough to give the conference a good buzz and ensure that there are sufficient interesting people to listen to and posters to visit. Critically, though, it was small enough that you could find and speak to the people you wanted to. (Even if I didn’t fully get the chance at ABACBS2015 because I was busy, and managed to miss some people at AGTA15 because time ran out!)

Venue. ABACBS2015 was run on a budget and we were very fortunate to have the Garvan Institute provide a free venue for the conference. The Garvan lecture theatre is lovely, with a great AV system and comfy seats. The only negative for a conference of that size - and we got close to our 200 person limit - is that the space outside the theatre for breaks and posters does get a bit cramped. In contrast, AGTA15 was held in the Crowne Plaza at Hunter Valley, which is a pretty luxury hotel in the wine region of New South Wales. It took me a while to warm to the main conference setup, with seats around tables in a large, wide room with a screen each side of (and a long way from) the podium. However, the “trade exhibition” space where the breaks, lunch and posters were, was excellent. I am big fan of having the posters up all the time and in the same place as the breaks.

Location. ABACBS was held in the city centre at a research institute. This kept the costs down and made it easy to get to. (We did not organise accommodation.) It also made it easy to escape from, which might have affected evening social numbers. AGTA was out in the sticks, which made it harder to get to and may have put some people off attending - it essentially added another day to the length of the conference. The plus side of this was that everything was on one site and it was not so easy to disappear or go home, and so most people were around most of the time, I think. (Although there was the temptation of wine tasting on the doorstep!)

Goodie bags. I’m pleased to say that both conferences went down the reusable shopping bag route (pick above). Being budget, we got UNSW to sponsor us with some canvas bags for ABACBS. (Complete with the scary statistic that plastic bags take 15-1000 years to break down.) AGTA was (a) a bit more upmarket and (b) in wine country, so they provided wine coolbags!

Trade exhibition. We binfies are a cheap lot - and I don’t mean tacky or miserly, I mean that we don’t need a lot of money to do great things. As a result, it is hard to attract trade sponsors: we just don’t spend (or often even have!) any money! Genomics is clearly a different matter, as you literally cannot do it without lots of expensive kit. The AGTA trade exhibit was therefore pretty big and bustling. Again, putting it with the food and posters made for some great…

…Breaks. Breaks really do make or break a conference. One of the few criticisms of ABACBS2015 was that the breaks were a bit too short - we were somewhat hemmed in for time because we needed to leave people enough time to get to AGTA in the afternoon of the second day. We also tended to over-run a little, because people would be enjoying the breaks and take a bit of time to filter back into the theatre for the talks. My advice for conference planners: (1) make all breaks 5-10 minutes longer than you think they should be (e.g. 40 minutes for coffee and over an hour for lunch); (2) build in some dummy time into the program to soak up delays; (3) Make sure you have a bell or something to signal that the next session is starting! Being a more leisurely multi-day conference, AGTA had nice long breaks, including a session off for posters etc. after lunch. Lots of opportunities for mingling and looking at posters.

Invited speakers. Both conferences had outstanding invited speakers that gave really interesting talks. I know some of the binfie crowd would have enjoyed a bit more about the methodology in ABACBS2015 - and we should perhaps brief our speakers a little better in future - but personally I was blown away by the quality of the science presented. Both fields are rapidly changing as technology opens up opportunities and there is some really cool stuff going on out there! AGTA in particular seemed to have a lot of invited speakers, talking about really cool stuff - possibly part of the reason it's so expensive. (It must be said: the quality of the selected abstracts was good too!)

Gender Equality. Both conferences did pretty well on the gender front, I think. ABACBS2015 in particular nailed it, with a 50% split of invited speakers and over 50% female speakers overall! (The latter wasn’t deliberate as such - there are just loads of good female bioinformaticians in Australia who submitted interesting abstracts!)

Twitter. (And #confBingo.) I have mixed feeling about live tweeting at conferences. This year, I decided to throw myself in a bit more and, on balance, I feel that I got more out of it than I missed. It is true that sometimes I missed something a speaker was saying because of a tangential Twitter conversation (such as #JediKelpie) - but I also learnt stuff and picked up on things that I had missed thanks to the Twitter feed. The #confBingo thread was also quite entertaining a fun, and helped networking and building community spirit, which is what a lot of a good conference is ultimately about.

Coffee. Unfortunately, we were unable to attract the barista sponsor from ABiC14 to sponsor ABACBS2015. AGTA did have a sponsored barista, though. Roche (I think) gave out three tickets with registration for the trade exhibit barista. Not quite as good as unlimited but it hit the spot. My other top conference coffee tip: bring a reusable cup! It' so much easier/safer if you want to take coffee into the talks and generally cuts down on spills - and refills! (Next year, I am hoping for ABACBS Keep Cups in the goodie bags!)

Overall, I had a lot of fun helping with the conference organisation - and would recommend it - and even more fun attending. Australia has some great science going on and a really strong/vibrant bioinformatics community, and I am proud to be part of it.

Second Aussiversary musings

Wednesday this week was our second Aussiversary, having stepped off the plane to start our new adventure two years ago.

To celebrate, here are some of things I have learnt over the past two years (in no particular order):

• Aussies are very serious about their coffee, and it’s fantastic. (Even if Melbournites think that Sydney coffee is crap!)
• The chips are disappointing but the fish is great.
• The Aussie ideal of mateship is aspirational and inspirational, even if not always realised.
• Not all of the animals are trying to kill you - including the dragons.
• Your average store chocolate is rubbish but they do have people who know what they’re doing.
• Jacaranda trees are awesome.
• If thongs are banned at a club, the bouncer will stare at your feet, not perform an intimate search. And you can buy thongs in vending machines.
• Aussie rules football is possibly the best spectator sport ever. (Based on one game!)
• Thanks to craft breweries, Aussie beer is not all bad, and some of it is very good.
• Brunch is a serious(ly good) meal of the day.
• Musically, Australia is trapped in the era of hair rock power ballads. And it’s awesome.
• The coins have animals on them
• For long haul, always fly an A380 if you can.
• The Socceroos may struggle but Aussies rule at robot soccer.
• They do a good line in sunsets.
• Australia is a great place to do bioinformatics.

Comment below if you think I’ve forgotten anything important - I’m sure there’s lots!

OMICS Group conferences are still to be avoided at all costs

Regrettably, my most popular post of the week is pretty much always: OMICS Group Conferences - Sham or Scam? (Either way, don’t go to one!) [I’d much rather it was one of the evolution posts - maybe Artificial Selection versus Natural Selection.]

A few weeks back, I was contacted by an ABC journalist doing an investigation of OMICS Group conferences, which have been trying to break into the Australian market. The show, Predatory publishers criticised for ‘unethical, unprincipled’ tactics, is fully available (complete with transcript) and an interesting, disturbing and upsetting in equal measure.

In the end, I declined to do an on-the-record interview - as another anonymous academic on the show said:

“Having been duped, it is somewhat embarrassing and you don’t really want to wave that around too much on national radio. Yes, I don’t want to be known as someone who was so easily drawn in.”

Nevertheless, I am still glad that I wrote the post. Predatory publishers and conferences are a scourge on academia and need to be exposed. Hopefully, Hagar Cohen’s ABC show will help. (They seem to know their brand is toxic and now avoid using it in emails - but they are still easy to spot!)

UNSW are robot soccer world champions!

Following the first the first innings performance of their cricket team at Trent Bridge, the Aussies need a sporting success story. Happily, the UNSW Australia Robocup team has been able to provide such a story.

Yesterday’s piece in The Conversation by team captain Sean Harris, How we won the world robot soccer championship, gives an interesting insight into the competition and how our team was able to overcome the Germans in the final.

It makes for strangely compelling viewing. It’s pretty awesome to consider that these are autonomous robots - this is no Robot Wars scenario where the humans are controlling from the sideline. Of course, it is rather unrealistic as soccer: when players fall over (sometimes themselves but usually following contact), they get straight back up again!

After watching the first couple of minutes for authenticity, I recommend dialling the speed up to 2x for a bit more action. Watch for the great Maradona moment by UNSW #3 (screenshot top) at about 21:30 (dribbling round everyone, not scoring with his hand!) followed shortly afterwards by a fantastic long range strike by my personal “robot of the match”, UNSW #5!

Sydney Sunset

Today, I met up with an ex-student who moved to Sydney this week. After lunch at Coogee and a bit of the afternoon at UNSW, we headed into the city and ended up at circular quay for sunset.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Sydney does do a good sunset.

The cocksure cockatoo

As well as my first wild wallaby, my Lorne trip earlier this year featured some good photo opportunities with sulphur-crested cockatoos. Although I included a couple of photos in the earlier post, I thought they deserved their own. They are very handsome birds and sometimes, when they pose, you think they just know it.

Of course, the “cock” in cockatoo does not really derive from cocksure. Instead, cockatoo is a derivative of the Indonesian name kaka(k)tua. [The cock in cocksure is a euphemism for God according to Google.]

As well as the posers, I also got some good shots of cockatoos eating. They can actually be pests and a flock of cockatoos can (apparently) strip a fruit tree in a few hours - not so fun if that tree is in your garden or farm!

Winter is coming...

…Down Under, at least.

UNSW sunset

The UNSW campus may not be the most beautiful in the world but it does a good job with sunsets.

The amazing Anzac tribute of Atatürk (Mustafa Kemal)

It’s probably not escaped the attention of many that today is Anzac Day, and the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. Like all of WWI, it’s an horrific part of history, which makes me glad that I was not born 100 years earlier. For all our problems today, the world is surely a better place.

One of the reasons that the world today is a better place is leaders of the world who have advanced peace and reconciliation. One such leader was the commander of the Turkish forces at Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal. He later became the first president of Turkey when it became a republic in 1923 and was given the title “Atatürk” - father of the Turks - in 1934. The same year, he wrote this tribute to the Anzacs killed at Gsllipoli:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Beware of fusion when drying your face with a hand-drier

The hand-dryer in the bathroom of a restaurant we went to recently:

I’m not sure what “fusion” is but it sounds scary. (The drier wasn’t strong enough to make be believe it was nuclear powered.) Who knew it could be so DANGEROUS! (Personally, I close my eyes if I ever stick my face it hot air but maybe that's just me.)

It may have been Australian made but I am not convinced that it was Australian proof-read.

New Zealand annexed by IGA for Australia

It appears that Putin is not the only one with a greedy eye on a smaller neighbour:

Always check seat guru, even for small planes

Our recent holiday in Tasmania was fantastic but did not start entirely well.

I checked us in online, not long after check-in opened. I thought that our allocated seats might have been over the wing, spoiling the view, so I decided to check whether anything better was on offer. There were not many available seats left but there were a couple of window/middle pairs nearer the front of the plane, in row 9 on the left and somewhere nearby on the right. I figured that during the afternoon flight time the sun would be in the west and we would mostly be heading south, so the left side was probably better. This also had a better chance of coastal views, I thought. Seats 9A & 9B selected. Checked in. Job done.

Later, we became interested in what type of plane it was. (I can’t really remember why: it might have been curiosity as to the number of rows and which ones might therefore be over the wing.) Googling the route, I came across the Seat Guru entry for the likely plane (the one flying the route that day) and I took a quick look. And horror!

Seat 9A is an Economy Class seat that is missing a window.

For reasons that still mystify me, the one window seat on the whole fecking plane without a window was the one that I had so carefully selected for my wife. WTF, Virgin‽ (Actually, that should be "WTF, Boeing‽" - Qantas planes are the same.)

I always check seat guru for long haul flights and big planes but it never even occurred to me that there could be such a crappy seat on small plane like a Boeing 737-800. (Fortunately, my wife was very gracious and laughed about, so my grumpiness on discovery did not last too long!) Lesson learnt.

Always check Seat Guru before choosing your seat. (It probably gives a better indication of the wing rows too!)

My first wild wallaby

Over the weekend, I was at Lorne for the 20th APS Lorne Proteomics Symposium. It’s a lovely spot for a conference, and the schedule always includes some free time in the afternoon. On the friday, I took advantage of this and went for a walk on the nearby Tramway track.

I was attracted by the (somewhat optimistic) hope of seeing an Echidna, possibly my favourite animal of all, but instead got my first wild wallaby on the trail:

And some kangaroos:

Indeed, it was a good day for nature, with a seal having fun by the pier and some cockatoos strutting their stuff. (Galahs too, for all those Alf Stewart fans.)

No echidna, sadly. Maybe next time. (More pics here.)

Aussie vs British/Irish Fish ’n’ Chips

We celebrated the start of the Australia Day long weekend by driving out to Brighton le Sands on Botany Bay for some fish and chips on the beach after work on Friday. I grew up in a seaside holiday town, so I am no stranger to fish and chips. Here, then, are my reflections after a year and a bit in Oz. It boils down to this:

In the UK and Ireland, it’s all about the chips. In Australia, it’s all about the fish.

Chips. Aussies can’t do chips. Well, OK, that’s a little unfair - and they often produce something considerably superior to “fries” - but they cannot do chips as well as the Brits and Irish. There is a reason that “chippy” or “chipper” are common affectionate slang for fish and chip shops - you cannot beat chips from a good chippy. Big, fat, slightly greasy chips with salt and vinegar. Yum. It may not be the most healthy thing but it’s one of the few food items that I really miss.

Indeed, the rest of the fayre on offer is somewhat secondary and fish are only one of a number of different accompaniments for your chips. Pies, kebabs, scampi, burgers and all sorts of unhealthy items like battered sausage (or nowadays, a battered anything) are on offer.

The best chips ever? Well, Leo Burdock in Dublin stakes a good claim on that one.

That's not a chip...

That's a chip!

Fish. As indicated, the average British or Irish fish and chip shop does not focus so much on the fish, and there are usually only 3 or 4 different types of fish available (cod, haddock and some kind of flat fish such as plaice or sole being most common, I think) in addition to scampi. In Australia, the choice of fish can be quite overwhelming, and will include several other kinds of seafood (calamari, prawns, oysters etc.).

On Friday, for example, we went to Ocean Heart Seafood who offered five kinds of fish plus other seafood, grilled (barbecued) or battered and fried.

Conclusion. The overal verdict, therefore, is a draw. If you fancy chips, then Australia’s not the place. (Although the wdespread availability of chicken salt does go some way in terms of compensation.) However, if you want a good selection of really fresh, tasty fish, I think Australia is the winner. (Unless, I suspect, you are away from the coast - but more that 85% of Aussies live within 50km of the coast.)

An unexpected visitor

As well as cool reptiles, Australia also has some interesting insects that are not found in the UK. One of them paid us a visit on Saturday night: a mantis of some sort.

I'm not sure what species it was, and therefore whether it was technically a "praying mantis" or not. Hopefully, it was a preying mantis and will despatch a few of our less appreciated insect visitors, i.e. cockroaches!

It didn’t come into the house, which is a good thing because the cats seemed super-interested! Indeed, it was Arthur who drew our attention to it, spotting it on one of the outdoor chairs in the dark.

I went out to take a few pictures and it obligingly wandered over to the door to give the kitties a closer look.

Advance Australia Fair

Today is Australia Day, so I though I would write a post celebrating the attitude of Australia. Whilst the nation has undoubtedly done some terrible things in its not-too-distant history, and has its fair share of bigots, one of the things that I really like about Australia is the way that optimism and inclusiveness are promoted as part of the national identity.

Recognising its foundation and continued growth/development at the hands of immigrants, it manages this without (in my eyes) the excessive patriotism of some other countries one could mention. There is a pride to be Australian without the insecurity of thinking/implying that any non-Australian must be inferior.

This is captured in one of my favourite things about Australia the nation, which is the national anthem, “Advance Australia Fair”. There are a couple of things I like about this. First, the lyrics of the song itself:

Verse 1 Australians all let us rejoice, For we are young and free; We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil; Our home is girt by sea; Our land abounds in nature’s gifts Of beauty rich and rare; In history’s page, let every stage Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair.

Verse 2 Beneath our radiant Southern Cross We’ll toil with hearts and hands; To make this Commonwealth of ours Renowned of all the lands; For those who’ve come across the seas We’ve boundless plains to share; With courage let us all combine To Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair.

OK, so the reality might be a little different, but as something aspirational you can’t do much better than: “For those who’ve come across the seas, we’ve boundless plains to share; with courage let us all combine to Advance Australia Fair.”

It certainly beats lines about killing and/or being killed by ancient foes, who are now your close neighbours (or even fellow countrymen). Admittedly, Australia’s federation as a nation was a blood-free independence (and they’ve not yet done away with the monarchy completely) but it’s still decidedly up-beat and lacking in über-nationalism.

The second thing I like about it is the fact that, whilst performed in 1878, it only became the official national anthem in 1984, supplanting the fusty and outdated God Save the Queen. As merits the national anthem of a modern democracy, it was chosen by plebiscite (i.e. non-binding referendum) - something that I think should be at the heart of a lot more political decisions in the digital age.

You don’t have to be stuck in the past. In my opinion, a national anthem should reflect modern ideals. After all, it’s supposed to be something to identify with. I’d love if it the UK replaced God Save the Queen with something more secular and democratic (even if it does contain the classic line, “Frustrate their knavish tricks”). I’m sure that the anthems of a few other nations could do with a bit of a spruce up too.

Well done, Australia.

Here be (water) dragons!

One of the great things about living in Sydney is that you do not need to venture far from the city to find little pockets of National Park and bush tracks, where you can take a stroll away from the hustle and bustle. One such pocket is the headland at Shelly Beach, in Manly.

Last Friday, I took advantage of a day off to pay Shelly Beach a visit, and stumbled across this guy (or gal) on the headland:

To be honest, I almost stumbled on him! He was good enough to hang around and pose for some close-ups. (A much larger one scared the bejaysus out of me when it bolted into the bush a little later!)

Judging from the signs up in the area, (s)he is an Eastern water dragon. I've never really noticed such prominent ear openings on lizards before.

The UK has only 6 native reptile species, so it’s always a treat to see them. (Until, I suspect, I stumble across a venomous snake!) Fantastic creatures!

A couple more photos here.

Best Christmas stocking chocolates ever!

Like many - most? - people my age who grew up in the UK (and Ireland, I think), Christmas stockings are synonymous with Cadbury’s chocolate coins. However, this year was destined to be a Christmas without them, for two good reasons:

First, there was the report earlier this year that Cadbury are no longer making them. This had a considerable public backlash, as captured on Buzzfeed. (The author made one error in his post, ending: “However, all hope is not entirely lost, you can still buy different chocolate coins at supermarkets and pound stores around the country.” Sorry, but other chocolate coins suck in comparison.)

Second, Australian Cadbury’s chocolate is rubbish. (Sorry, Aussies, but it is. We’ve done blind taste tests and everything.)

Fortunately, Santa came up with a much better idea this year: spiced chocolate almonds from Haigh’s Chocolates.

These sound pretty amazing but are even better than they sound: an almond, encased in milk chocolate, encased in white chocolate and dusted with spiced dark chocolate powder (cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and star anise.) One to look out for next year!