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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday May 12 2015, @01:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the too-many-cooks dept.

We know that bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria. We know that they are the most abundant organisms on Earth. But we don’t know much about their genetic architecture.

A team of professional scholars and budding scientists–chiefly college freshmen–have joined forces under the aegis of SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science), which is run jointly by the University of Pittsburgh and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to study the little-known genetics of bacteriophages. In a new paper recently published in the journal eLife, the authors show that phages do not form discrete populations as previously suggested but are rampantly exchanging genes with each other to generate a broad spectrum of genetic diversity, albeit with some types being a lot more prevalent than others.

Of the nearly 3,000 authors, 2,664 were students from among 81 colleges and universities that participate in the SEA-PHAGES undergraduate science program, created by Pitt’s Graham Hatfull and colleagues and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This paper is believed to have the second-highest number in history of authors on a scientific paper, trailing only that which describes the discovery of the Higgs boson. That paper has more than 6,000 authors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150511114422.htm

[Abstract]: http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e06416

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:50PM (#182051)

    The vast majority are undergraduates. Publish or perish does not apply. They were simply doing a small fraction of the overall work through other course assignments, then submitting the work to be included as a paper greater than the sum of its parts.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @10:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @10:11PM (#182108)

    Which is a reason they shouldn't have been given co-authorship but rather mention in the acknowledgements section. Giving them all authorship in this case is the academic equivalent of giving them all participation trophies.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @06:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @06:10AM (#182246)

      Being published in a journal as a primary author is more often than not just a participation trophy too. Rarely does any paper get much readership unless there is a fad within the subject scope. Sure it is a real downer to spend hundreds of hours on a paper knowing full well that maybe a dozen people will read it after publishing, but that is the way journals go.