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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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Sandra Porter 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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August 28, 2008

The consequences of mumps

Category: viruses

Mumps was a common childhood disease when I was a child. We grew up learning that it was better to get mumps as a child because getting it as an adult would make you sterile. No doubt that idea arose from symptoms like swollen glands, swollen testicles, etc. When I looked in PubMed though, I couldn't find much data on...

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August 27, 2008

Mumps outbreak in Vancouver

Category: viruses

Sometimes faith isn't enough.

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August 26, 2008

Science on Tap: Science communication at its best

Category: Science culture

Last night we went to a pub to hear about some new technology for diagnostic testing. A wonderful speaker, Karen Hedine from Micronics came and told us about the work that her company is doing. She brought along a demonstration machine and passed the machine and several plastic test chambers around the pub so we could all take a look....

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August 25, 2008

DNA sequencing as a school project: how do you get started?

Category: Science education

A few days ago, I wrote about a cool project that some high school students did where they used DNA sequencing to identify seafood. One question that came up from one of my commenters was how a school would start a project like this. I'm totally biased, but I think DNA sequencing (well, actually the data analysis) is one of...

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August 22, 2008

It's elemental: Chemistry movies on YouTube

Category: Chemistry & Biochemistry

The Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham has 118 short YouTube clips about the elements. Wired Campus recommended the Sodium clip (below). I liked it, too. It's not quite as funny as Mentos in Diet Coke, and but it's still cute and the narrator has a haircut like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. H/T: Wired Campus....

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High school students use DNA testing to spot fishy seafood

Category: Science education

Two teenagers, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, carried out their own science project over the past year. They visited 4 restaurants and 10 grocery stores and gathered 60 samples of fish and sent them off to the University of Guelph to get sequenced. I like this story. One of my former students did a project like this for the FDA...

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August 21, 2008

A gene by many other names and thoughts on teaching bioinformatics

Category: Bioinformatics

Could annotating genetic changes in the Alcohol Dehydrogenase genes drive researchers to drink?

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August 15, 2008

Vaccines, part II: what are vaccines made of?

Category: Immunology

Vaccines work by stimulating the immune system to respond to a specific thing. Most of the vaccines we use are designed to prime the immune system so that it's ready to fight off some kind of disease, like whooping cough, polio, or influenza. Some vaccines can have more specialized functions, like stimulating the body to attack cancer cells, kill rogue...

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August 14, 2008

Vaccines, part I

Category: vaccines

A long time ago, I saw a movie called "The Other Side of the Mountain." The movie told the story of Jill Kinmont, a ski racer who contracted polio and lost the use of her legs. I was sad for days for afterward, but also relieved to know that Jill Kinmont's fate wasn't going to be mine. I wasn't going...

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More thoughts on animal research: Pets and wild animals benefit, too

Category: Biology (Macroscopic )

Vaccines protect wild animals, pets, and agricultural animals.

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August 13, 2008

You could win an iPod and a MacBook Air and an Apple TV

Category: Announcements

if you take this survey. Wanna change the world? Make it possible for everyone to talk about science in a normal conversation? Do you have ideas for improving science literacy? Seed is interested in your ideas. Answer the survey and share your thoughts. And I've seen the MacBook Air. It's beautiful. UPDATE: if you had trouble accessing the survey, try...

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August 12, 2008

If you really want to help animals...

Category: Biology (Macroscopic )

write your Senators and Representatives about saving the Endangered Species Act. But, first read what Mike Dunford has to say. Mike describes the changes that the Bush administration has proposed in great detail and consequences for wild animals. Greg Laden has posted on this, too....

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Who's your doggie's daddy? Ancestry testing for dogs

Category: Dogs

Ancestry tests aren't just for humans anymore. We went to Petco this weekend to buy dog food and found brochures for doggy DNA testing. Now, those of you with dogs of uncertain parentage need puzzle no longer. According to Petco, their SNP test (what is a SNP?) can identify over 100 different breeds and they'll tell you which breeds are...

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August 11, 2008

Handling research animals: taking courses and learning how to be kind

Category: Science culture

The first lab mouse I touched had soft white fur and a light pink tail. It looked cute enough to snuggle and take home as a pet and I was smitten. I slipped my hand into the cage, thinking the mouse would respond like my pet gerbils or my brother's pet rat. As my hand closed around its belly, that...

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August 10, 2008

What do the little Boogers think about dog cloning?

Category: cloning pets and other animals

It justs gets weirder and weirder. moar funny pictures You can find more of the story and more puppy pictures here. H/T to Jennifer - one of erv's commeters....

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August 9, 2008

The search for August

Category: molecular structures

A search for August leads to unexpected results.

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August 8, 2008

The updated dope on the mismapped mutation in the dopamine D2 receptor

Category: Neurobiology

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a paper in Science(1) that I read on a connection between a mutation in the dopamine D2 receptor and the genetics of learning. Only, it turned out that when I looked at the gene map......

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August 7, 2008

Book review: "The Animal Research War"

Category: Science education

An excellent field guide to the animal rights organizations, their strategies, and the consequences for the rest of us.

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The five little Boogers and how they grew

Category: Dogs

While American scientitsts make glowing fish, Koreans make glowing kitties and cute little puppies.

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August 6, 2008

Support animal research, save lives

Category: Science education

When female bloggers get death threats for comparing a Batman movie to a poor business plan, and friends can have their lab fire bombed for doing plant genetics, it's sometimes a little scary to step into the fray and take a stand on controversial issues. But that's the point. We have to speak out. Scary or not, unless we speak...

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Thanks Carl, you're ruined it for me forever

Category: Microbiology

Microbiologist develop some strange habits when it comes to food. Some take a fatalistic approach. They reason that microbes are everywhere, we're going to die anyway, we might as well eat dirt and make antibodies. You know these people. They quote things like the "10 second rule" when food drops on the floor, tell you we're all getting asthma because...

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DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, part III: a case study from the classroom

Category: Bioinformatics

This the third part of case study where we see what happens when high school students clone and sequence genomic plant DNA. In this last part, we use the results from an automated comparison program to determine if the students cloned any genes at all and, if so, which genes were cloned. (You can also read part I and part...

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August 5, 2008

I pick myself up, dust myself off, and I

Category: Biotechnology

Could social networking help biotechnologists cope with the ups and downs of the industry?

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DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, part II: a case study from the classroom

Category: Bioinformatics

This the second part of three part case study where we see what happens when high school students clone and sequence genomic plant DNA. In this part, we do a bit of forensics to see how well their sequencing worked and to see if we can anything that could help them improve their results the next time they sequence. How...

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August 4, 2008

DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, part I: a case study from the classroom

Category: Bioinformatics

What happens when high school students clone and sequence genomic DNA? Background DNA sequencing is a wonderful tool for discovery and a great technique for getting students involved in molecular science. This fall, Bio-Rad will officially begin selling their DNA cloning and sequencing kit. Now, students across the country will have the tools in hand to begin their own projects...

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Pfizer will donate dollars to science education- but only if you vote

Category: Science education

Pfizer has pledged to donate up to $10,000 to the cause of science education, through Donorschoose.org, but only if enough of you, dear readers go to Big Think: Think Science Now and vote for your favorite video. If you're not familiar with Pfizer, they're a pretty well-known drug company. You probably read about one of their products every time you...

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