My thoughts on biology, teaching, life, and exploring the living world via the digital one. Only my opinions are represented by these postings, they do not represent the viewpoints of any funding agency or Geospiza, Inc.
I am a microbiologist and molecular biologist turned tenured biotech faculty turned bioinformatics scientist turned entrepreneur. My passion is developing instructional materials for 21st century biology (Geospiza Education).
e-mail digitalbio at gmail.com
October 31, 2007
Category: Chemistry & Biochemistry
When purified, it glows with an unearthly light. You can't go "chemical free" and try to escape it. It's part of our bones and it forms the backbone of our DNA. A tool for good, a tool of war, essential for gardening, and infamous as a pesticide; phosphorus is truly an amazing element. Amazing too, are the stories about it's...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 11:14 AM • 3 Comments •
October 30, 2007
Category: Halloween
What strange things happen in the lab on Halloween? Read part I and part II to find out what's going on. (Reposted in honor of Halloween) "All those beauties in solid motion All those beauties, gonna swallow you up Hi hi hi hi hi hi One time too many Too far to go I - we come to take you...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:20 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Science education
I missed my chance to get my own DonorsChoose challenge together, but that doesn't mean that you have to miss your chance to contribute and, of course: WIN FABULOUS PRIZES!!!! WIN FABULOUS PRIZES!!!! WIN FABULOUS PRIZES!!!! It's easy. Just head on over to one of these pages On Being a Scientist and a Woman (Her teachers still...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:18 PM • 0 Comments •
October 29, 2007
Category: Halloween
Strange things happen when it's Halloween week in the lab. (reposted in honor of Halloween) Catch up on the story by reading part I....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:01 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Science culture
What's the difference?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:37 PM • 9 Comments •
October 28, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
Metagenomics is a field where people interrogate the living world by isolating and sequencing nucleic acids. Since all living things have DNA, and viruses have either DNA or RNA, we can identify who's around by looking at bits of their genome. Researchers are using this approach to find the culprit that's killing the honeybees. We're also trying to find out...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:24 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Halloween
What happens when it's Halloween in the laboratory?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:33 PM • 2 Comments •
October 27, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
Sequencing the dirt: see how it's done
Posted by Sandra Porter at 7:00 PM • 0 Comments •
October 26, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
We have lots of DNA samples from bacteria that were isolated from dirt. Now it's time to our own metagenomics project and figure out what they are. Our class project is on a much smaller scale than the honeybee metagenomics project that I wrote about yesterday, but we're using many of the same principles....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:20 PM • 0 Comments •
October 25, 2007
Category: Microbiology
Dying bees and DNA sequencing
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:15 PM • 1 Comments •
October 24, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
Would you like to have some fun playing with chromatograms and helping our class identify bacteria in the dirt?...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:05 PM • 0 Comments •
October 23, 2007
Category: web resources
The NASA Earth observatory has some amazing photos of the wildfires in California. I've put a small version of one image here, but you should go to the NASA site and see the high resolution images. The fires are horrible but the images are fantastic....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 11:13 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: teaching
It's hard to teach bioinformatics when schools work so hard to keep us from using computers....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:04 PM • 14 Comments •
October 21, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
Welcome Bio256 students! This quarter, we're going to do some very cool things. We are going to use bioinformatics resources and tools to investigate some biological questions. My goal, is for you to remember that these resources exist and hopefully, be able to use them when you're out working in the biotech world. I don't believe that bioinformatics is a...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:30 PM • 2 Comments •
October 17, 2007
Category: teaching
If like me, you were a little disoriented and confused when you visited Second Life and traveled through orientation island, then you may like this....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:50 AM • 0 Comments •
October 16, 2007
Category: Bioinformatics
A few weeks ago, I did some "back-of-the-envelope" calculations to explain to a reader why genome sequencing costs so much. I estimated that, if JCV's genome were sequenced at the cost advertised by university core laboratories, his genome would cost about $128 million. That was an estimate, of course. But what did it really cost?...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:06 AM • 8 Comments •
October 15, 2007
Category: Science education
Our adventures with presenting posters in Second Life.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:34 PM • 6 Comments •
October 14, 2007
Category: Science education
Bora and I are giving posters in Second Life. Here's how you can attend.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 10:38 PM • 21 Comments •
Category: Genetics & Molecular Biology
October is a month of darkness, mystery, and dread. Only one holiday brings joy in October and even then, October joy is distilled through fear and apprehension. In the early evenings the sun hurries home and once familiar objects loom ominously in the dark. Giant spiders appear out the fog, lurking on webs that span our walkways and doors. Even...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:32 PM • 0 Comments •
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