Take a very, very, very Close Look at this Nature Publication - or- What a Presidential Portrait Has to Do with a Heap of Feces

Updated 28/01/2019

While this website concentrates on finding relevant publications from the world of Critical Care, there are always papers from other fields that attract our attention.
Recently, a remarkable detail from a publication of an even more noteworthy journal has been brought to our notice. I admit I rarely read articles on 'Nature', but this article is worth a very close look after all.

Chiou L. et al. have published an article about a noninvasive genomic sequencing of populations from faeces in this years January issue of Scientific Reports of 'Nature'. In this article, they deal with the problem that it is difficult to obtain high-quality samples for genomic studies from wild animals. They, therefore, describe a cost-effective method for enriching host DNA from noninvasive faecal samples.

And in fact, it is worthwhile to have a closer look at the faeces sample in this article as Nature has placed a portrait of Mr Trump in a rather delicate position.​

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Finding the hidden Trump-Portrait, here's how:

Update 28/01/2019:  The authors have reacted and changed the resolution of the image so that a closer zoom is no longer possible. Following instructions refers to the previous publication.​ 

1. Open the article in pubmed (just to proof, it's no fake news): 

Chiou KL et al. Scientific Reports, 2018 January 31: Methylation-based enrichement facilitates low-cost, noninvasive genomic scale sequencing of populations from feces​ 


2. It's OPEN ACCESS! Open the article via the full text links on the top right.
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3. Download the pdf version of the article.


4. Go to page 3, figure 1. Spot the heap of feces right behind the pavian?
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5. Zoom in on that heap of feces... zoom in closer... even closer!

This publication impressively demonstrates the interdependence of science and politics.

Remember, sometimes the unexpected lies in the detail.

Did the editors of Nature actually realise this?

Update 28/01/2019: Well, obviously they now have!


OPEN ACCESS: Chiou KL et al. Scientific Reports 2018 January 31: Methylation-based enrichement facilitates low-cost, noninvasive genomic scale sequencing of populations from feces