From NewScientist (10 September 2016, paywall):
PREVIOUSLY, Feedback discussed how scatty naming conventions were confounding attempts to compile stool-related research (27 August).
Now scientists have uncovered a new categorisation error: 20 per cent of scientific papers in genetics journals contain mutations produced by contact with Microsoft Excel.
Writing in Genome Biology, the authors say that the popular spreadsheet program introduces transcription errors to many genes, converting septin 2 (SEPT2) to a date, and so forth.
The bug was most frequently found in files of supplementary data, “an important resource in the genomics community that are frequently reused”. Feedback reminds geneticists that it’s important to sanitise your tables – both in the lab and beyond.
Makes me want to run screaming around the block, bewailing the use of inappropriate tools by supposedly smart people.
