This week Professor Deena Engel and Vicky Steeves came as guest speakers to talk about databases and their experiences with open data. The most interesting fact I learned through the talk was that when exporting data to a spreadsheet, be wary of what can alter or incorrectly transfer data. For example, Professor Engel explained that there was a case a few years ago about DNA codes being converted into dates when exported into Excel spreadsheets and the result was that many scientific papers that referenced this data turned out to have misleading and incorrect data. Mistakes of this kind are especially large because they involve data essential to human genetic makeup that could be used to save lives. I was really surprised at this example because I’ve always taken data obtained and presented with research as undeniably correct but the fact that a simple conversion mistake can create such massive errors is a little worrisome. Overall, Professor Engel and Vicky’s talk was informative and helpful in understanding open data.