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
Consequences of missing data
Either I've been missing something or nothing has been going on. —Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Missing data are everywhere. Subjects may decline to participate in a survey or fail to answer sensitive questions. A cell culture might fail due to contamination. Instrument failures or mishandling of a sample may lead to missing observations. But why are missing data a problem?
This month, we begin a series of articles about practical and statistical aspects of missing data. We'll see that missing data can increase variability and introduce bias and we will ask whether anything can be done to mitigate these consequences. It turns out that, in the case where we know nothing about the missing subjects, no mitigation is possible. We must accept higher variability and, if we have a suspicion that the missing subjects aren’t completely random, possible bias as well.
Tanujit Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Fitzmaurice, G., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2026) Points of significance: Consequences of missing data. Nat. Methods 23:1661–1663.
Double Robustness
It is not certain that everything is uncertain. —Blaise Pascal
We have already explored how we can mitigate bias caused by confounding variables in observational studies using propensity score (PS) matching (PSM) and propensity score weighting (PSW). However, any statistical model is only as good as its assumptions and, if it is specified incorrectly, it can itself produce biased estimates of the treatment effect.
This month, we explore double robustness, a powerful statistical concept that provides a valuable “safety net” against the risk of an incorrect model. It offers two opportunities, instead of just one, to obtain a valid estimate of the treatment effect — making it possible to draw credible causal inferences from observational data without having to depend on a single set of modeling assumptions.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2026) Points of significance: Double Robustness. Nat. Methods 23:868–869.
Nature Biotechnology cover
My cover design on the 7 April 2026 Nature Biotechnology issue shows the dendrogram that represents a cluster of uniquely expressed (or downregulated) genes in human naive stem cells induced from such cells. Within each dendrogram block, the genomic barcode sequence (sampled from Supplementary Table 1) is depicted with a Code 39 barcode. The highlighted barcode is one of those used for cell isolation.
Ishiguro S. et al. A multi-kingdom genetic barcoding system for precise clone isolation (2026) Nature Biotechnology 44:616–629.
Browse my gallery of cover designs.
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.
