Aaron Shapiro

Abstract Despite decades of study, large parts of the mammalian metabolome remain unexplored1. Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics routinely detects thousands of small molecule-associated peaks in human tissues and biofluids, but typically only a small fraction of these can be identified, and structure elucidation of novel metabolites remains challenging2,3,4.

When I recently received my new iPhone 4, I took great delight in organizing my apps into folders, finding new apps in the app store, and seeing how beautiful various apps looked on the new screen. Then I used it for a couple of days and realized, not counting pre-loaded Apple software, I use exactly five apps: The New York Times, Dropbox, Pandora, MenuPages, and Skype. Why am I wasting time collecting and organizing all these apps? We’re in an app bubble.

Haunting images of abandoned shopping malls seem to say something about the unstoppable decline of the analog shopping experience in an increasingly digital and mobile world. What e-commerce has done to physical shopping in the last decade mirrors what Barnes & Noble and other big-box retailers did to independent stores beginning in the mid-’90s.