The cover of the album is based on my information graphic of gene expression designed for Scientific American Graphic Science.
bb 3000
Curious machines explore the mysteries of a tumor cell. If you listen carefully, you can hear them hum to themselves and each other. It’s their way of talking.
micro centrifuge
A compact and low profile centrifuge with whisper-quiet operation and extremely fast acceleration and braking. The motorized latch secures the lid and rotary knobs allow fast parameter selection.
Relative centrifugal field (RCF) is the centrifugal force generated by a rotor of radius `R` (cm) spinning at a speed `S` (rpm). It is expressed in units of the Earth’s acceleration due to gravity, `g = 9.8 \, \text{m} / \text{s}^2` and given by `\text{RCF} = 1.118\times10^{–5}RS^2`
MAXIMUM RCF
16,000 g
CAPACITY
24 × 1.5/2.0 mL tubes
SPEED
800–13,200 rpm
automation
Robots automate liquid handling with interchangeable single or eight channel pipettes that can accommodate various tips. They are used to normalize samples, set up chemical reactions, or SPRI bead-clean samples prior to loading sequencers.
CAPACITY
30 tracks
WASH TIME
45 sec/cycle
TIP VOLUME
10, 50, 300, 1,000 μL
PRECISION
1%, 0.75%, 0.75%, 0.75%
server room
Computational pipelines and databases process more than 100 terabases of sequence per month.
BASES SEQUENCED
2,825,069,728,668,255
CORES
30,000
Dell Intel E5
HPE E7 2.5Tb high-memory servers
STORAGE
24 PB
EMC Isilon X410
EMC A2000
NetApp 9000
DDN GS12K + GridScalar
NETWORK
40 Gbps
Brocade MLX Layer 2
Ruckus ICX Layer3
mini centrifuge
This compact centrifuge provide a quick method to spin down samples from the walls and caps of microcentrifuge tubes.
MAXIMUM RCF
2,000 g
CAPACITY
6 × 1.5/2.0 mL tubes
SPEED
6,000 rpm
thermal cycler
The thermal cycler was instrumental to the Human Genome Project.It is used to amplify DNA libraries prior to loading onto DNA sequencers.
RANGE
–5°C – 105°C
ACCURACY
±0.3°C
DENATURE
5' 95°C
CUT & KILL
60' 37°C
5' 70°C
Happy 2026 π Day—
Art for the 5%
Celebrate π Day (March 14th) and enjoy the art — but only if you're part of the 5%.
Go ahead, see what you can't see.
Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency
Authentic and accurate images of Ishihara's test plates photographed (and lovingly color-corrected) from the 38-plate Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency.
I also provide the position, size, and color of each circle on each test plate.
Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression
What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry? — William Blake, "The Tyger"
This month, we look at symmetric regression, which, unlike simple linear regression, it is reversible — remaining unaltered when the variables are swapped.
Simple linear regression can summarize the linear relationship between two variables `X` and `Y` — for example, when `Y` is considered the response (dependent) and `X` the predictor (independent) variable.
However, there are times when we are not interested (or able) to distinguish between dependent and independent variables — either because they have the same importance or the same role. This is where symmetric regression can help.
Luca Greco, George Luta, Martin Krzywinski & Naomi Altman (2025) Points of significance: Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression. Nat. Methods 22:1610–1612.
Beyond Belief Campaign BRCA Art
Fuelled by philanthropy, findings into the workings of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have led to groundbreaking research and lifesaving innovations to care for families facing cancer.
This set of 100 one-of-a-kind prints explore the structure of these genes. Each artwork is unique — if you put them all together, you get the full sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins.
Propensity score weighting
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. —Mr. Spock (Star Trek II)
This month, we explore a related and powerful technique to address bias: propensity score weighting (PSW), which applies weights to each subject instead of matching (or discarding) them.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2025) Points of significance: Propensity score weighting. Nat. Methods 22:638–640.