Isn't every day National Donut Day?

Bravo. Whoever had the ingenious idea to put bacon on a donut that is what I call innovation. In honor of National Doughnut Day I thought I would find something interesting and "sweet".

ASCO is humming along without me although many of my colleagues also possess an arched eyebrow listening to another year's worth of promises regarding checkpoint inhibition. Is it me or do many discoveries make the drugs work better in the small percentage of the population where they were already working?

Show me something amazing. Don't share data generated to reach the low bar of "me too" indications. Modern science is now about the individual. If you are studying your drug in crowds not individuals--you will continue to fail. And because they work in fewer patients with specific genetic expression profiles they cost the earth--at the point of sale. Pay no mind that the research and science is not uniquely new. We still haven't caught up with the biology and why certain drugs work in certain patients and not others. But we look around and see what everybody else is charging and ask well, "why not?".

More about that next week. I have been invited to a few webcasts although my press credential was denied because I don't allow commercial support on my blog. Seems counterintuitive if the goal is to communicate and broaden our knowledge to expedite the transfer of insights and data. But enough about that--let's have a donut.

My new favorite thing (In addition to bacon on a donut) is Quanta Magazine. I will tell you a secret. When writing a presentation or speech, I go here first. There is always something you didn't know that you are better for knowing once you read an article. Take The Thoughts of a Spiderweb for example.

Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head.

If spiders aren't your thing--think of the octopus. We know they have a fairly complex nervous system but tasks are largely decentralized. The brain is the smallest part of the nervous system--the majority of the neurons are found in the arms. 

Think of the amount of donuts we could manage...