The author has never worked in chemistry. They are absolutely ubiquitous in scholarly journals for chemistry and I'd say that most people trained in chemistry often only read the graphical abstract when initially deciding whether the paper is worth a deeper read. Perhaps chemistry is a naturally visual field, given that we rely on visualizations of reactions and mechanisms from the very start of our university education.

The table of contents (TOC) graphic usually shows a key chemical structure (thus bonding connectivity, angles, elements, and electronic configurations), reaction mechanisms or conditions, models, or even core results as graphs. Now I do not claim to understand what is implied in every TOC graphic, however I can immediately see which branches of chemistry the article relates to faster than I can process the title, especially in a multidisciplinary chemistry journal.

That ability to categorize to identify relevance is a bigger issue in reading a multidisciplinary chemistry journal like the Journal of the American Chemical Society:

https://pubs.acs.org/toc/jacsat/current

But graphical abstracts are still immensely useful within a subdiscipline such as organic chemistry, which I suspect were the early adopters of TOC graphics:

https://pubs.acs.org/toc/joceah/current

The better graphical abstracts tend towards simplicity, but it's a challenging task to distill a year or more of research into a single picture. And, unfortunately, graphic design is not a subject for which scientists generally receive additional training, despite it being a core element of digital communication.

> One of the simplest approaches to correct for multiple testing is the Bonferroni correction. The Bonferroni correction adjusts the alpha value from α = 0.05 to α = (0.05/k) where k is the number of statistical tests conducted. For a typical GWAS using 500,000 SNPs, statistical significance of a SNP association would be set at 1e-7. This correction is the most conservative, as it assumes that each association test of the 500,000 is independent of all other tests – an assumption that is generally untrue due to linkage disequilibrium among GWAS markers.

https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/jo...

cf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonferroni_correction

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46117343

Points: 7

# Comments: 1

Suggestion: Most of the fits that you've done assume that the errors are normally distributed. It would be worthwhile adding some graphical or numerical checks on that, rather than having goodness of fit or visual inspection be the only indication if this is a faulty assumption.

It gave made for a good quick check testing some data I had.

As you noted, one needs a lot of fine tuning to meet publication rules & guidelines. Compared to a local LaTeX editor or Overleaf, this looks too generic to meet the needs I've had in the past. Sure, LaTeX can require a lot of tinkering, but PhD students ought be able to figure it out for themselves, whether through documentation, forums, or asking labmates.

- https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/youtube-may-reinstate-chan...

- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/youtube-will-restore...

The Globe and Mail had a piece on March 25th on the advice that lawyers were giving to their clients, often Canadians working on TN visas down south:

> York-based immigration law firm Dyer Harris LLP, which helps foreigners secure work visas in the U.S., sent an e-mail to their clients residing and working in the country to hold off on international travel altogether, unless in an emergency.

Lawyers advise Canadians working in U.S. to avoid travel amid border crackdown, The Globe and Mail, 2025-03-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20250325223021/https://www.thegl...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41712512

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

https://www.science.org/doi/suppl/10.1126/science.adm6869/su...

Also the abstract of the article notes that strong UV absorption is likely a prerequisite for this effect:

> We hypothesized that strongly absorbing molecules can achieve optical transparency in live biological tissues. By applying the Lorentz oscillator model for the dielectric properties of tissue components and absorbing molecules, we predicted that dye molecules with sharp absorption resonances in the near-ultraviolet spectrum (300 to 400 nm) and blue region of the visible spectrum (400 to 500 nm) are effective in raising the real part of the refractive index of the aqueous medium at longer wavelengths when dissolved in water, which is in agreement with the Kramers-Kronig relations. As a result, water-soluble dyes can effectively reduce the RI contrast between water and lipids, leading to optical transparency of live biological tissues.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adm6869

However this kind of research into the effects of absorption bands on the transmission properties at interfaces might ultimately bring about more effective sunscreen formulations.

Drug manufacturers regularly take approved medicines, which are off-patent and non-exclusive, due to safety reasons (side-effects, risks to patients) or due to commercial reasons: high cost of production, low demand, or possibly to increase demand for an exclusive alternative.

The FDA maintains a list of "List of Off-Patent, Off-Exclusivity Drugs without an Approved Generic": https://www.fda.gov/drugs/abbreviated-new-drug-application-a...

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_withdrawn_drugs

There are also perverse incentives at play and it often isn't easy to get a generic approved, especially if the original drug was already removed from market, under biosimilar regulations:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-03-14-novo-nordisk-disconti...

"no changes to our support policy" links to https://safety.google/nest/

It bothers me when these company blogs link to the wrong page for finding the aforementioned policy. It feels so deceptive. I've seen it happen multiple times. Is it intentional?

For how this works, see "How CLOCKSS Works" [4] & "How LOCKSS Works" [5].

Chemistry World also had an earlier article ("A key chemistry journal disappeared from the web. Others are at risk", 2024-04-09 [6]) discussing the journal's sudden disappearance [7] and the loss of access when it went offline, an increasingly common problem with scholarly research.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterocycles_(journal)

[1]: https://clockss.org/clockss-triggers-heterocycles/

[2]: https://clockss.org/the-japan-institute-of-heterocyclic-chem...

[3]: https://clockss.org/triggered-content/heterocycles/

[4]: https://clockss.org/about/how-clockss-works/

[5]: https://www.lockss.org/use-lockss/how-lockss-works

[6]: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/a-key-chemistry-journal-...

[7]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240217181955/https:/www.hetero...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40980714

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

[0]: https://bisqwit.iki.fi/jesus/

That seems to be a senseless concern, since offered the evidence of a lab test, a physician should be prompted to investigate further. No physician (nor individual) should ever be making a diagnosis or treatment decision based on a single line of evidence.

More importantly, such results can help offer hard evidence to pressure one's physician to investigate a particular complaint, which can be difficult to convey or to convince the physician it's real. Physicians are often dismissive of things that they do not understand, or of certain classes of patients. Consequently many patients are forced to figure out the source of the problem for themselves.

With a lab based test result, you can go to a physician and say, "Hey, this isn't just my imagination nor some kind of over-reaction. It's tangible and externally verifiable."

And for those without a GP, waitlisted like myself (5+ years waiting here in Canada!), such tests can help one navigate our piecemeal medical system more effectively.