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Is it crazy to consider community curation?
Category: Bioinformatics
or is it just an idea that's ahead of the curve?...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:37 AM • 1 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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- Notes from the road: Bio-1, WIRED, NJBEC, and biotechnology in New Jersey
- Supporting science by directly funding teachers: DonorsChoose2008
- A sad goodbye to Seattle Central Community College biotech
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- Hey teachers! Researchblogging.org is a great classroom resource
- The first annual New Jersey Biotechnology Educators Consortium Conference
- More classroom science blogs: the collection continues
- Four Science Bloggers take over Seattle and celebrate one million comments
- Are your sperm short-lived and tiny?
- A gene that might protect us from HIV and other retroviruses
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- Sandra Porter on HealthMap: hunting for global outbreaks and learning about microbiology
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- canuck on HealthMap: hunting for global outbreaks and learning about microbiology
- Sandra Porter on A sad goodbye to Seattle Central Community College biotech
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- Sandra Porter on HealthMap: hunting for global outbreaks and learning about microbiology
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June 24, 2008
June 23, 2008
Low tide at Puget Sound
Category: Biology (Macroscopic )
It was a -1 tide on Sunday and great entertainment for people and birds....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:01 AM • 2 Comments •
June 21, 2008
The flying spaghetti monster appears at the Fremont Solstice Parade
Category: Seattle
Arrgh. Fremont is just crawling with Pastafarians. Photos below the fold....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:01 PM • 12 Comments •
I am curious: Genomics gets personal in Second Life
Category: Genomics
Are you curious about Second Life? Next week you can satisfy your curiosity and learn about the personal genomics frontier at the same time. Bertalan Meskó announced that Erin Davis (science writer) and Joyce Tung (human geneticist) from 23andMe will be giving a presentation next week in Second Life on personalized genetics....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:40 PM • 5 Comments •
June 20, 2008
Yep, it's a dog eat dog world, alright
Category: Dogs
"Let this sleepin' dog lie, son. Dog-gone it, I'm dog tired. I'm tired of leading the dog's life and fightin' likes cats and dogs against cats and dogs, a young pup's doggin' my trail tryin' to become top dog. I'm going to the dogs in a dog eat dog world, son. I... I'm so far over the hill... I'm...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:15 PM • 0 Comments •
Biologists vs. the Age of Information
Category: Databases
It's pretty common these days to pick up an issue of Science or Nature and see people ranting about GenBank (1). Many of the rants are triggered, at least in part, by a wide-spread misunderstanding of what GenBank is and how it works. Perhaps this can be solved through education, but I don't think that's likely. People from the NCBI...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:51 AM • 21 Comments •
June 19, 2008
A receptor for dopamine and a mismapped mutation
Category: Genetics & Molecular Biology
Right or wrong, the word "dopamine" always conjures up images in my head of rats pushing levers over and over again, working desperately hard to send shots of dopamine into their tiny little rodent brains....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:52 PM • 9 Comments •
June 18, 2008
Where are the curators? Why did they miss this? What is the responsibility of the community anway?
Category: Databases
In a recent post, I wrote about an article that I read in Science magazine on the genetics of learning. One of things about the article that surprised me quite a bit was a mistake the authors made in placing the polymorphism in the wrong gene. I wrote about that yesterday. The other thing that surprised me was something that...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:19 AM • 16 Comments •
June 17, 2008
Some people never learn: the genetics of learning from our mistakes
Category: Genetics & Molecular Biology
And learning from mistakes in genetics.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:11 PM • 7 Comments •
June 16, 2008
How much is that doggy in the window?
Category: Dogs
Pet cloning is back! Pets are funny things. Some owners find their pets to be closer than some human friends, other owners never really bond with their pets at all. BioArts, a California biotech company, founded by ex-CEO of the now defunct Genetic Savings & Clone, is counting on the strength of those human-dog emotional bonds ....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:30 PM • 5 Comments •
June 14, 2008
Blogroll amnesty
Category: Science culture
A few months ago, I made a new page for a more complete blogroll. Now, that my class is over and I have a break from traveling around leading workshops, I'm ready to add some links. Other bloggers; Bora, Mike the Mad, PZ, Janet, DM, and Abel; use a nice technique called "blogroll amnesty" where they offer other writers a...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:10 PM • 7 Comments •
June 12, 2008
Career pathways in biotechnology
Category: Biotechnology
Students in the United States take many convoluted and unnecessarily complicated paths when it comes to finding careers in biotechnology. If Universities and community colleges worked together, an alternative path could benefit all parties; students, schools, industry, and the community. The image below illustrates the current paths and the approximate time that each one takes....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:52 PM • 9 Comments •
June 11, 2008
Metagenomics: a summer internship position and post-doc search
Category: Metagenomics
Hey students: if you are looking for a summer internship in marine metagenomics and you can get your application together before June 16th, Jonathan Eisen posted information about an open position on his blog. It also looks like he's looking for post-docs (see the side bar on the right of this page.)...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:25 PM • 2 Comments •
June 9, 2008
Velociraptors and the really important stuff to learn in school
Category: Biology (Macroscopic )
What are you learning in school?...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:07 PM • 2 Comments •
June 4, 2008
Pepper viruses populate people poop
Category: Metagenomics
Have you ever wondered what kinds of viruses can be found in human waste? Mya Breitbart and team have been sequencing nucleic acids from fecal samples in order to find out. You might expect that we'd find viruses that infect humans or viruses that infect the bacteria in our gut. I wouldn't have expected to learn the result that they...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:07 PM • 6 Comments •
Flash animations of Sanger DNA Sequencing
Category: web resources
I'm in Berkeley right now at the annual Bio-Link Summer Fellows forum. We're getting to hear talks from people in the biotech industry, listen to enthusiastic instructors describe their biotech programs and ideas, and try out new educational materials. Yesterday, two speakers (Damon Tighe and Jason Baumohl) from the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, CA, gave a fun talk...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 10:30 AM • 2 Comments •
June 3, 2008
Finding a job in life sciences: Dr. Elaine Johnson talks about the easiest way to a biotech career
Category: Bio-Link
A little over ten years ago, Dr. Elaine Johnson obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to start Bio-Link, an Advanced Technology Education center, focused on biotechnology. Since that time, Dr. Johnson has become a national leader in biotech education, enlisting the country's top educators and industry captains to ensure that community college students receive a quality education and the...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:08 PM • 0 Comments •
June 1, 2008
Teaching in the digital world, part 1a. Excel, Open Office, or Google Docs?
Category: teaching
Which program is best for a college course?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:19 PM • 25 Comments •
Medicine 2.0 Carnival: Web 2.0 technologies and the practice of medicine
Category: Science culture
This month's edition of Medicine 2.0 focuses on connections. You'll learn how new technologies are empowering patients by connecting them with their own health records, connecting patients and paramedics with doctors, and connecting doctors with each other. Nothing connects like Web 2.0. Let's hit the Midway!...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:03 PM • 3 Comments •
