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Boffins don't give a sh!t, slap Trump's face on a turd in science journal
A pair of boffins are in hot water after the image of President Donald Trump made an unexpected cameo in a paper on how to gather animal DNA from their poop at scale.
The paper [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20427-9] [DX], which was published in Nature Scientific Reports, discusses the difficulties of gaining high-quality DNA samples from wild animals in a non-invasive way. Feces is the obvious option, but it is dominated by DNA from other organisms, such as bacteria – so the authors proposed a way to enrich the desired animal's DNA from the sample.
However, the pair also buried an Easter egg in a figure depicting the method, which shows a baboon sitting next to an average-sized turd. And on that turd, is a tiny image of the leader of the free world.
[...] Here's a close-up of the image in question:
— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) December 17, 2018
[...] "The editors have become aware of unusual aspects to the 'Extract fecal DNA' illustration in figure 1. We are investigating, and appropriate editorial action will be taken once the matter is resolved," a note said.
Here is the graphic referenced:
Figure 1: | Scientific Reports
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @02:13PM (4 children)
Yes, much like the orange clown currently sitting in the oval office.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:16PM (2 children)
It does not seem normal to me to think that it is okay to act like a child when you are doing the most important work that mankind can do (research). Bad behavior does not justify bad behavior. I kind of expect our presidents to be shitheads between Trump being himself, Bill gettiin blowjobs, Kennedy doing drugs, etc. The only people this damages are the people doing the research and their research for making it into a joke.
That said i think they should not be punished or anything for this, its their own reputatiion they are already damaging.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:49PM (1 child)
That's not the most important work mankind can do. Fermenting grain is.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 18 2018, @07:59PM
Zigackly! Hic!
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Friday December 21 2018, @09:00PM
I not defending Trump or commenting either way on his performance or degree of maturity.
Adding in your political jokes or views in a science paper is inappropriate and juvenile. It detracts from the scientific message and results, and may skew potential discussions of the science with your peers. I can only assume that their work isn't all that interesting or pertinent and so they injected some political wheezing in an attempt to gain some traction and discussion.