Microsoft Excel blamed for gene study errors - BBC News
Researchers trying to raise awareness of the issue claim that the spreadsheet software automatically converts the names of certain genes into dates.
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The researchers claimed the problem is present in "approximately one-fifth of papers" that collated data in Excel documents.
The trio, writing for the Melbourne-based academic institute Baker IDI, scanned 3,597 published scientific papers to conduct their study.
They found 704 of those papers contained gene name errors created by Excel.
Ewan Birney, director of the European Bioinformatics Institute, does not blame Excel and told the BBC: "What frustrates me is researchers are relying on Excel spreadsheets for clinical trials."
The Excel gene renaming issue has been known among the scientific community for more than a decade, Birney added.
He recommended that the program should only be considered for "lightweight scientific analysis".
Sounds like a Mathcad opportunity to me ...
Stuart
