biology
terrasig | October 17, 2008Scott Hensley, editor of the WSJ Health Blog, just reminded me that his colleague and blog lead writer, Jacob Goldstein, put together a neat slideshow on the fluorescent marine proteins for which this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded. I've been a bit behind in my reading of other blogs so it was refreshing to see this nicely accessible coverage.
The WSJ blog post, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Beauty of Fluorescent Protein, has the slideshow embedded. You may also go directly to the slideshow here.
(h/t Scott Hensley)
grrlscientist | October 17, 2008tags: Tiktaalik rosea, sarcopterygian, fishibian, fishapods, transitional fossil, evolution, vertebrate terrestriality, vertebrate evolution
A new study on the internal anatomy of the skull of the extraordinary fish, Tiktaalik roseae, which lived 375 million years ago, provides more evidence of how vertebrate life transitioned from water to land. The head showed changes from more primitive fish that helped adapt to the new feeding and breathing conditions presented by a terrestrial environment, scientists said.
Image: Ted Daeschler, Academy of Natural Sciences [larger view].
A paper was…
jstemwedel | October 15, 2008This is a project in Brian Switek's DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, and if it doesn't find full funding by the end of today, it's not going to happen.
Throw Us a Bone!! was proposed by Ms. P., who teaches in a high poverty high school in a rural community in south Mississippi:
This year will be my first year to teach Anatomy and Physiology. I will be walking into the classroom with virtually no resources to help bring the words and pictures from the pages of the textbook to life for these students.
My students need hands on materials to help bring the unseen processes that go on in our…
bioephemera | October 15, 2008
If you had to persuade a medieval peasant that the world was round, how would you do it? Why do you believe the world is round? And what does the American public in general think?
One of the hardest tasks I encountered as a professor was getting my students to recognize that all of their convictions - even assumptions as basic as "the world is round" or "the sun will come up tomorrow" - are built on a lifetime of accumulated experience. Sometimes the experience is direct: we've all seen the sun come up. But sometimes it's not. We often underestimate how little direct evidence we have for our…
jstemwedel | October 14, 2008There's an article in the 19 September 2008 issue of Science ("And Then There Was One") [1] that catches up with many of the 30 men and women who made up the incoming class of 1991 in the molecular biophysics and biochemistry (MB&B) Ph.D. program at Yale University. The article raises lots of interesting questions, including what counts as a successful career in science. (Not surprisingly, it depends who you ask.) The whole article is well worth a read no matter what stage of the science career pipeline you're at (although it's behind a paywall, so you may have to track it down at your…
oracknows | October 13, 2008Remember Sandy Szwarc of Junkfood Science?
It's been a long time since we've last encountered her. Indeed, it was last year when there developed a debate on whether her posts were suitable for the Skeptics' Circle. At the time, I was conflicted. In many ways, Ms. Szwarc seemed to be a skeptic--at least, when it came to most topics. However, when it comes to one topic, she is a crank, and that is the topic of the relationship between diet, obesity, and health. It's not obvious that she is a crank, and it took my reading her blog over several weeks before I came to the inescapable conclusion…
revere | October 10, 2008The health concerns about bisphenol-A (BPA), a component of hard polycarbonate plastic, has been extended once again (see here, here, here for previous posts on BPA). BPA, a ubiquitous contaminant of human bodies, leaches from water and baby bottles, the lining of tin cans, dental sealants and many other sources. BPA also looks a lot like potent hormones, like estradiol and the synthetic estrogenic agent, diethylstilbesterol (DES), the cause of transplacental carcinogenesis in humans. So there have been plausible concerns that BPA might increase the risk of cancer in humans, especially in…
tfk | October 8, 2008Green fluorescent protein is a standard tool in molecular biology. Researchers insert the gene into an animal's genome, and then watch for a characteristic green glow when a particular region is activated. By finding cells where the gene inserts near another protein of interest, it is possible to use that glow as a marker for the point in development or in a biochemical pathway when a particular gene is active, thus allowing scientists to trace the pattern of gene activation within an organism.
The scientists winning the Prize for developing these techniques:
Osamu Shimomura, 80, an…
aardvarchaeology | October 7, 2008A rare piece of irate e-mail.
Hi Mr. Rundkvist,
This is Gregory from the US. I was reading your thoughts on Dr. Moller and the Exodus Case. You criticize Moller for not trying to disprove his hypothesis. Tell me; do evolutionists try to disprove their theory? You know they could if they tried. It is the scientists job to gather evidence for his hypothesis. But you lefty liberals don't want to believe in the Bible, so you go to great lengths to discredit scientific evidence that supports the Bible, no matter how irrational you sound.
1. Yes, biologists make a lot of experiments to see if…
bioephemera | October 6, 2008Today's NYT describes a new strategy for Down Syndrome screening. The new test, developed by a company called Sequenom, screens the mother's blood sample for fragments of RNA produced from fetal chromosomes.
Dr. Lo looked for genes on Chromosome 21 that were active in the fetus but not in the mother. That means that any such RNA found in the mother's bloodstream comes from the fetus. The Sequenom test then looks at spots where the version of those genes inherited by the fetus from the father might differ from the version inherited from the mother. If the baby has the normal two copies of…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This teacher's proposal has only 26 days left to be funded, but only $25 has been donated so far! Mrs. R, who is starting her second year as a teacher, needs another $513 to add a special science lesson to her curricula. I think that Mrs. R has shown a lot of initiative by completing summer workshops that prepare her to teach science in her classroom, and when you read her proposal, you will find that she is especially…
scientificactivist | October 6, 2008The winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have been announced, and the prize has been awarded for early discoveries that have subsequently led to vaccines or treatments of two widespread virus-caused diseases. Half of the prize was awarded to Harald zur Hausen "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer" and one-fourth each was awarded to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." For more, check out the official press release or the more detailed description of the prize-winning…
bioephemera | October 5, 2008
Before heading to the Apple Store SoHo for our blogging panel last Wednesday, I dropped by evolution ("science and art in SoHo"), a store recommended by Pam of Phantasmaphile.
Evolution is clearly NYC's prime destination for the amateur natural historian, an east coast cousin of Berkeley's Bone Room. They offer skulls (real and replica), butterflies and beetles in cases, minerals, shells, memento mori carvings, skins, ammonites, coprolites, meteorites, tusks, teeth, arrowheads, and other things one never dreamed one needed. A sphere of elemental copper? Natural hematite magnets? A wallet…
bioephemera | October 3, 2008
fanfin seadevil
The Deep: Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Claire Nouvian
photographed by David Shale
For anyone who does not yet have a copy of Claire Nouvian's beautiful book, The Deep, here's a chance to win it - through Oceana's Freakiest Fish of 2008 contest. The book also has the Dumbo octopus in it. Is the Dumbo octopus' cuteness the perfect antithesis of the fanfin's hideousness? Would they annihilate each other if they collided? Discuss!
dumbo octopus
The Deep: Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Claire Nouvian
photographed by David Shale
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This is a rural high-poverty school in North Carolina. The teacher is a bird watcher who also lives with pet birds, and she seeks to instill this love for birds into her students. In this proposal, she and her students will learn about the diets of owls by dissecting owl pellets and examining the remains of insects and bones from small animals that the owls cannot digest.
"Whooo's in the Forest?" Part II
I teach a…
bioephemera | October 3, 2008A recent PLoS Genetics paper triggered a sea change in the way genetic data is handled by research institutions like the NIH, the Broad Institute, and the Wellcome Trust. The paper, which came out last month, demonstrated that it's possible to identify a single individual's DNA in a pool of DNA from thousands of different people - something previously assumed to be about as feasible as finding a needle in a haystack.
Using the cumulative effect of tens of thousands of tiny differences in each individual's DNA (called SNPs), a team led by David Craig were able to determine if a specific person…
grrlscientist | October 2, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
One of the highest poverty areas in America is in Washington DC, our nation's capital. That's just disgusting. But we do not need to let the kids who live there succumb to the rampant despair of broken dreams, poor health and poverty. This proposal seeks to give these kids wings by teaching them about birds. Birds are a magical gateway into biological sciences; drawing kids into learning about the wonders of evolution and behavioral ecology and conservation. I know…
bioephemera | October 2, 2008
Squid Suckers
Jessica Schiffman and Caroline Schauer (Drexel University)
Honorable Mention, Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2008
The September 26 issue of Science contains the annual S&E Visualization Challenge winners. The feature is pay-only, but the winners are summarized in a free slideshow here. Winners and honorable mentions include short films, web interfaces, photos, micrographs, and digital illustrations (unfortunately, as in previous years, traditional media is somewhat underrepresented). The type of content varied too: the picture above is an artificially…
grrlscientist | October 1, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Mrs. G is seeking supplies for a microbiology lab. I, as a microbiologist, recognize the value (and the intense fascination!) of teaching students about the natural world, particularly microbes!
I teach 7th grade Science in a school where the majority of the students are classified as Title 1, meaning that they need remedial help with their basic skills. Even without that classification, students this age are hard to motivate, especially in the content area of…
bioephemera | September 25, 2008Shelley Batts, Nick Anthis, and Tara Smith authored an article on science blogging which appeared yesterday in PLoS Biology. In their words,
We propose a roadmap for turning blogs into institutional educational tools and present examples of successful collaborations that can serve as a model for such efforts.
The article gives solid examples of how blogging has facilitated scientific collaboration, in fields from plant genetics to science policy. I don't think anyone disputes that blogs can open the lines of communication and enable interactions across research groups, institutions, and…