From the bench to the press: Scholarly publishing as a career route for the scientist.

As the academic career path has become less feasible for most researchers, scholarly publishing offers a way to put scientific training to use, and to build a career while remaining in the world of research. Here I detail the path that my career took and offer advice for those interested in exploring academic publishing.

Seafarer citizen scientist ocean transparency data as a resource for phytoplankton and climate research.

The oceans' phytoplankton that underpin the marine food chain appear to be changing in abundance due to global climate change. Here, we compare the first four years of data from a citizen science ocean transparency study, conducted by seafarers using home-made Secchi Disks and a free Smartphone application called Secchi, with contemporaneous satellite ocean colour measurements. Our results show seafarers collect useful Secchi Disk measurements of ocean transparency that could help future assessments of climate-induced changes in the phytoplankton when used to extend historical Secchi Disk data.

The "New Deadly Quartet" for cardiovascular disease in the 21st century: obesity, metabolic syndrome, inflammation and climate change: how does statin therapy fit into this equation?

Despite population-based improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking, cardiovascular disease still remains the number-one cause of mortality in the United States. In 1989, Kaplan coined the term "Deadly Quartet" to represent a combination of risk factors that included upper body obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertriglyceridemia and hypertension [Kaplan in Arch Int Med 7:1514-1520, 1989]. In 2002, the third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III) essentially added low HDL-C criteria and renamed this the "metabolic syndrome." [The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) in JAMA 285:2486-2497, 2001] However, often forgotten was that a pro-inflammatory state and pro-thrombotic state were also considered components of the syndrome, albeit the panel did not find enough evidence at the time to recommend routine screening for these risk factors [The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) in JAMA 285:2486-2497, 2001]. Now over a decade later, it may be time to reconsider this deadly quartet by reevaluating the roles of obesity and subclinical inflammation as they relate to the metabolic syndrome. To complete this new quartet, the addition of increased exposure to elevated levels of particulate matter in the atmosphere may help elucidate why this cardiovascular pandemic continues, despite our concerted efforts. In this article, we will summarize the evidence, focusing on how statin therapy may further impact this new version of the "deadly quartet".