Public Library of Science articles in the news

The PLoS, http://www.plos.org/, In the News sections always has an interesting collection of articles to peruse. Yeah, it’s mostly biology based, but where else can you get Habsburg Inbreeding, Chimp Meat-Sex Barter, and Red Faced Drinkers?

PLoS journal articles currently receiving widespread media attention: Silent Heart Attacks, Spanish Habsburg Dynasty Inbreeding, Semantic Enhancement of PLoS Content, Sound Amplification, Bird Flu, Evolution-Proof Malaria Insecticide, Sub-Groups of Neanderthal Population, Chimpanzees Trade Meat for Sex, Back Pain Evaluation, Pancreatic Cancer Biomarkers, Reducing Amazon Fires, Breakthrough Against Malaria, Drinkers’ Red Faces and Cancer Risk, Romanov DNA, Map of Science, UV Light and TB Spread, and Herpes Virus Reactivation.

Michael Roston does not know the difference between Google Hot Trends and most popular searches overall

Over on True/Slant, Michael Roston opines:

Read it and weep, Internet-using America. The fifth most common search on Google earlier this morning, via Google Trends, was ’swine flue.’ Not ‘flu’ as in influenza, but ‘flue’

Hmmm. I guess he doesn’t understand the difference between Google Hot Trends and Google’s most popular searches overall. From their FAQ:

 Hot Trends reflects what people are searching for on Google today. Rather than showing the most popular searches overall, which would always be generic terms like ‘weather,’ Hot Trends highlights searches that experience sudden surges in popularity, and updates that information hourly.

For the actual comparison of flu to flue, look here: http://www.google.com/trends?q=swine+flu%2C+swine+flue&ctab=0

It’s about 1.00 to 0 with flu in the lead.