User:Nathaniel K Drake

Profile: Nathaniel K Drake MRSB (Ed)

Welcome to my user page on Wikipedia – I have been a user of Wikipedia since its conception, and have seen it evolve to become a major hub in the research ecosystem network. I contribute as an editor to the particular niches lying within the general scope of medicinal psychoactive substances for diseases of the complex system that is the brain and the phenomenological process emergent from its activity, the mind.

Profile: Birdseye Summary

I am a Clinical Neuroscientist, Medicinal Chemist and Neuroinformatician, with a broad range of expertise in the field of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. My specific interests comprise neurotherapeutics (esp. neuropsychopharmacology) and the neurobiology of brain disease of higher function or "mental illness" (contemporary neuropsychiatry/biological psychiatry). I am a Member of the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB) and a designated NEI Master Psychopharmacologist, and I am a member of the Mental Health Charity Mind as well as the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom.

Reflections on The Free Encyclopaedia

I have been a user of Wikipedia ever since its conception, and I think it has come a long way: from the site that has all the information yet dismissed as unreliable and unciteable by my teachers over a decade ago, it has remained the former, yet it is no longer the latter: as Wikipedia's editors-in-chief – all passionate volunteers appointed in the best tradition of meritocracy based on their contributions to the free encyclopaedia – quite rightly remark, Wikipedia is the place to which everyone goes and where much research starts. Yet what are the qualities that have rendered Wikipedia a hotbed for budding research?

Wikipedia as a Hub in the Research Ecosystem

Wikipedia's use has become ubiquitous, and the peer review model that is so successful in academic discourse has also proved its mettle in the context of Wikipedia. Rather than being closed to a select group of "experts" as its commercial counterparts Encyclopaedia Britannica or Microsoft Encarta, the latter having already bitten dust, and the former, as I found to my disappointment, always being outdated and lagging behind in terms of the wide variety of information, Wikipedia, as a living document, embodies the spirit of the Internet and the era of Big Data: the democratisation of information and the death of the expert as we knew them (unerring authorities that "knew everything", in a medical context often referred to as "eminence-based medicine"), since in this time of data explosion, no one can truly lay claim to expertise that "does not expire", nor can definitive claims be made as their interpretation may always change in light of the new data from tomorrow, and anyone, layperson and expert alike, must be prepared to re-evaluate old notions in the face of new information.

Wikipedia makes possible the expeditious discovery of novel informational content, sources and niche topics that in former times may have remained in obscurity through inaccessibility. This has led to Wikipedia assuming a distinct role in the entire research ecosystem, both as catalyst or starting-platform and an ongoing quick-reference for side-topics which may be important for building the informational context of the current research question, yet whose de novo exploration would otherwise delay or side-track the actual focus of the current project. In that way, Wikipedia helps expedite and kickstart research, and has become firmly embedded into our de facto research ecosystem, just as have so many other information technologies over the last quarter of a century (ranging from the internet to electronic communication and collaboration to information databases and data-mining).

»We want Wikipedia to be a major component of a circle of research and dissemination: where librarians, academics, and publishers contribute their sources and expertise—and where Wikipedia leads its massive 500 million monthly readership back to information professionals, scholarly resources, and full texts.«

This role is now increasingly recognised, including Wikipedia's importance in redirecting enquirers to original sources for more in depth research: indeed, Wikipedia plays a crucial role in the discovery and dissemination of information resources that would otherwise be left to serendipity and chance, our best search engines and data-mining tools (of which Wikipedia is, in fact, a central one) notwithstanding. That is why major journal providers now grant specialist Wikipedia editors unrestricted access so that they may expand both the information available, in particular on niche topics, as well as the availability and thus discoverability of informational sources. A praiseworthy development as the inexorable march toward the infosphere gathers pace—is that a gallop I'm hearing?

– Nathaniel K Drake (talk) 04:44, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

The Value of The Free Encyclopaedia

I think Wikipedia's utility as an encyclopaedia and source of information is unrivalled, and I would urge anyone who makes regular use of it to take part in the fundraiser and donate. Equally, I would encourage anyone, hobbyist aficionado or specialist scientist, to contribute in the critical task of peer review which is so central not only to the massive undertaking of expansion and democratisation of knowledge that constitutes and defines Wikipedia, but more crucially, to its vetting, validation and verification. It is for this reason that I decided that it was time to turn from user to editor and start to contribute in my own areas of interest.

About Me: Scientific Researcher Profile

I am a Clinical Neuroscientist, Medicinal Chemist and Neuroinformatician, with a broad range of expertise in the field of central nervous system (CNS) disorders.

Academic Interests and Approach

My specific interests comprise neurotherapeutics (esp. neuropsychopharmacology) and the neurobiology of brain disease of higher function or "mental illness" (here to mean, the conditions seen within contemporary neuropsychiatric practice, incl. traditional ones like psychosis/neurosis in their various manifestations (e.g. hebephrenia, paraphrenia and dementia praecox/generalised anxiety disorder, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder, respectively) but also conditions more traditionally seen in neurology but now increasingly managed in psychiatric practice, such as sleep disorders, autism and dementia as well as chronic pain syndromes). My focus lies on translation 'from bench to bedside' through the integration of information drawing on the latest neurobiological understanding, research findings, pharmacogenomics and therapeutics to devise potential treatment regimens that are mechanistically rational and synergistic (complementary via addressing different biopathological pathways through distinct, physiologically targeted mechanisms of action). This work is facilitated by drawing on bioinformatics and neuroinformatics, which bridge the informational gap between the aforementioned components.

Scientific Scope and Expertise

I have formal training and experience in (and, needless to say, a passion for)

the Natural Sciences, Biomedicine and Medicinal Chemistry/Pharmaceutical Science, specifically

Neuropsychopharmacology, Medical Neuroscience, Neuroimmunology, Neurotoxicology, Nanobiochemistry, Polymeric Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine,

as well as Computer Science, Informatics and the Engineering Sciences, specifically

Computational Neuroscience, Scientific Computation, Computational Immunology, Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Simulation, in silico Complex Dynamical Biosystems Modelling, Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics,

in some of whose areas I have published.

Memberships: Academic and Otherwise

I am a Member of the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB) and a designated NEI Master Psychopharmacologist, and I am a member of the Mental Health Charity Mind as well as the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for providing all community, secondary and tertiary mental healthcare and learning disabilities services for most of North Yorkshire in the UK (from Durham and Newcastle to York and Scarborough). I further participate as a member in other learned bodies in the physical, chemical and information sciences and pharmaceutical medicine, such as the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP), which publishes the Journal of Psychopharmacology, and the Neuroscience Education Institute (NEI), which is host to CNS Spectrums: the International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine.