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
August 28, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 11:35 AM • 4 Comments •
August 27, 2008
Category: viruses
Sometimes faith isn't enough.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:00 PM • 6 Comments •
August 26, 2008
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....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:17 PM • 4 Comments •
August 25, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:31 PM • 10 Comments •
August 22, 2008
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....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:00 PM • 2 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:02 PM • 6 Comments •
August 21, 2008
Category: Bioinformatics
Could annotating genetic changes in the Alcohol Dehydrogenase genes drive researchers to drink?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:05 AM • 6 Comments •
August 15, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:38 PM • 2 Comments •
August 14, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:18 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Biology (Macroscopic )
Vaccines protect wild animals, pets, and agricultural animals.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments •
August 13, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 1:37 PM • 0 Comments •
August 12, 2008
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....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:36 PM • 1 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:54 PM • 7 Comments •
August 11, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:00 AM • 11 Comments •
August 10, 2008
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....
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:42 PM • 12 Comments •
August 9, 2008
Category: molecular structures
A search for August leads to unexpected results.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:20 PM • 2 Comments •
August 8, 2008
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......
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:35 PM • 0 Comments •
August 7, 2008
Category: Science education
An excellent field guide to the animal rights organizations, their strategies, and the consequences for the rest of us.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 4:27 PM • 25 Comments •
Category: Dogs
While American scientitsts make glowing fish, Koreans make glowing kitties and cute little puppies.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:31 PM • 10 Comments •
August 6, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:21 PM • 13 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 11:00 AM • 10 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 8:30 AM • 0 Comments •
August 5, 2008
Category: Biotechnology
Could social networking help biotechnologists cope with the ups and downs of the industry?
Posted by Sandra Porter at 2:11 PM • 0 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:30 AM • 0 Comments •
August 4, 2008
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 7:42 PM • 2 Comments •
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...
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:29 PM • 0 Comments •
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