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posted by chromas on Friday August 07 2020, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the ' dept.

Scientists rename genes because Microsoft Excel reads them as dates:

Microsoft Excel’s automatic formatting is normally helpful for finishing spreadsheets quickly, but it’s proving to be an agent of chaos for geneticists. The Verge has learned that the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee has issued guidelines for naming human genes to prevent Excel’s automatic date formatting from altering data. MARCH1 (Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1), for example, should now be labeled MARCHF1 to stop Excel from changing it to 1-Mar.

The names of 27 genes have been changed in the past year to avoid Excel-related errors, HGNC coordinator Elspeth Bruford said. This isn’t a rare error, either, as Excel had affected about a fifth of genetics-related papers examined in a 2016 study.

Journal Reference:
Mark Ziemann, Yotam Eren, Assam El-Osta. Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature [open], Genome Biology (DOI: 10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7)


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 07 2020, @03:30PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 07 2020, @03:30PM (#1032942) Journal

    Microsoft product would say:

    "It looks like you are trying to edit Jeans...Wood you like help?"

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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