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Who's your daddy? DNA tests go retail
Category: Genomics
Drug stores branch out from pregnancy to paternity.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:07 PM • 12 Comments •
Discovering Biology in a Digital World
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.
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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).
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- The Genetic Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is passed by the House
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November 26, 2007
November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Leftovers: Under the Microscope
Category: Science Art
Would you recognize your leftovers when they're magnified? Would you know turkey if you saw it at 40X? Make a guess and click an image to see the answer....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:30 PM • 3 Comments •
November 20, 2007
Interpreting DNA sequencing data: answers to the quiz
Category: Bioinformatics
Which read(s): 1. contain either a SNP (a single nucleotide polymorphism) or a position where different members of a multi-gene family have a different base? C 2. doesn't have any DNA? B 3. is a PCR product? A, B, and C. All of three reads were obtained by sequencing PCR products, generated with the same set of primers. The quality...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:20 PM • 0 Comments •
Step right up, get very own your DNA profile, only $999
Category: Genomics
The genie is out of the bottle. Personal genomes are not just for Venter and Watson anymore. Three competing companies, 23andme, Decode, and Navigenics are betting that you want to do a little better than reading your horoscopes and playing with tea leaves. They think that you want to know something about your destiny and take control of your future....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:00 AM • 4 Comments •
November 19, 2007
Scientists in Utah make transsexual worms
Category: Biology (Macroscopic )
Sexual attraction is all in your brain. At least if you're a nematode....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:20 PM • 2 Comments •
Interpreting DNA sequencing data: what can you get from quality scores?
Category: sequence analysis
Kind of like reading tea leaves, but more meaningful.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 10:10 AM • 10 Comments •
November 16, 2007
Digital Biology Friday: Animal Mitochondria and Evolution, part II
Category: Bioinformatics
You too, can compare chimp and human DNA.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:51 AM • 0 Comments •
November 15, 2007
Match the trace with the sample
Category: Bioinformatics
Can you do it? This is what bioinformatics technicians or data analysts do in diagnostic labs.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:09 AM • 4 Comments •
November 14, 2007
High school students uncover their past through their DNA
Category: population genetics
Students at Soldan International High School are participating in an amazing experiment and breaking ground that most science teachers fear to tread. Soldan students, along with hundreds of thousands of other people, are participating in the National Geographic's Genographic Project. Through this project, students send in cheek swabs, DNA is isolated from the cheek cells, and genetic markers are used...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:04 PM • 9 Comments •
Irony in RNA: a puzzle
Category: molecular structures
RNA by any other name would smell as sweet. Or would it?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:13 AM • 3 Comments •
November 13, 2007
Before practicing on real patients, you can practice in Second Life
Category: Science education
The Wired Campus has an interesting article on nursing students at Tacoma Community College. In John Miller's class, the students practice interviewing patients in Second Life. This sort of activity, of course, is one that could be carried out in a classroom, but I can see the advantages of having student interview other "people" who are for the most part,...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:53 PM • 3 Comments •
Public high-school students from San Francisco place take honors in the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition
Category: Science education
Congratulations to George Cachianes (who I've written about before), his amazing students from Abraham Lincoln High School, and collaborators at UCSF! These students, from a public high school no less, placed in the top 6 finalists, along with only one other US team. The other top teams were: Peking University (China), University of Science and Technology (China), University of Paris...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:15 PM • 0 Comments •
Collaborating on a data analysis project: students do the math with the Google Docs spreadsheet program
Category: Science education
For many years, I had my biotech students do projects where each group of students would analyze their own data, in addition to all of the data gathered by the class. I would draw a table on the white board and each group would enter their data. At the end of the class, all the groups would copy all the...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:20 AM • 4 Comments •
November 12, 2007
Serial killer or computer scientist? The quiz results
Category: Humor
Who's better at telling the difference?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:13 PM • 1 Comments •
Evidence-based teaching, open access, and the digital divide
Category: Science education
Open access to educational research would benefit us all.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:29 AM • 11 Comments •
November 9, 2007
Digital Biology Friday: Animal Mitochondria and Evolution Revisited
Category: classroom activities
An evolution activity for the classroom.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:47 PM • 0 Comments •
November 1, 2007
The Halloween aftermath: graphing the candy, part I
Category: Science education
Fun ideas for your Halloween loot
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:00 PM • 8 Comments •
