Sandra Porter
sporte
Posts by this author
December 26, 2007
Genetics textbooks abound with stories of European royalty and the hazards of having children after you've married one of your cousins. It struck me as an interesting parallel that the lion is such a popular symbol in so many royal coats of arms. Like the royal families of Europe, certain lion…
December 24, 2007
This wasn't in the lab, but it was an accident, and it was funny later on.
Normally, I wouldn't think twice about storing bacterial cultures in a refrigerator. After all, bacteria on a petri plate, inside of a plastic bag, are kind of stuck. They can't get out of the plates, and even if they did…
December 23, 2007
You're not likely to see the Twisted Chipmunk Christmas Song on the big screen this weekend.
But, if you liked White Trash Christmas, you'll enjoy this irreverent holiday video.
From the Seattle animators, formerly known as ToonedIn, now Global Wonder Entertainment.
December 22, 2007
White Trash Christmas.
This is the perfect antidote to the Frosty, Rudolph, and The Little Drummer Boy overdose.
From the Seattle animators, formerly known as ToonedIn, now Global Wonder Entertainment.
December 20, 2007
You can get a jump on the Darwin Day festivities.
Once again the Alliance for Science is sponsoring an essay contest for Darwin Day. If you download their suggestions for good essay writing, you can get your essay done over winter break and have a good crack at winning on those cash prizes!
The…
December 19, 2007
In which we're reminded that database searches are experiments, too.
One of the trickiest things with bioinformatics experiments is repeating them. This challenge isn't related to the validity of the original results, the challenge is that, unless you made your own database and kept it in the same…
December 18, 2007
How do you go about researching a genetic disease?
This multi-part series explores how digital resources can be used to learn about Huntingtin's disease. Reposted and updated from the original DigitalBio.
A bit of backgroundAlice's Restaurant is a movie with an unforgettable song that mostly…
December 17, 2007
No, you can't have a glow-in-the-dark kitty.
But never fear, the SciBlings and I have other ideas for holiday gifts.
If you really have your heart set on glowing animals, and you don't live in California, you can get a tankful of lovely glowing fish, genetically engineered with a different version…
December 16, 2007
Maybe there's something a little bit odd about having a gingerbread construction contest to raise funds for researching juvenile diabetes.
Maybe these gingerbread houses aren't environmentally proper or particularly sustainable.
But they are impressive.
If you're in Seattle over the holidays,…
December 14, 2007
Last week I posted an image with two molecules (below the fold), one protein and one nucleic acid, and asked you about the probability of finding similar molecules in different species.
You gave me some interesting answers.
DAG made me clarify my question by asking what I meant by "similarity…
December 13, 2007
Reposted in honor of the "glow in the dark" kitty clones.
Last year, I wrote about photographs of jellyfish that were altered by newspapers, scientific publishers, science education companies, and me (for the purpose of the article) to make it look like the jellyfish glowed.
Those jellyfish do…
December 12, 2007
From the original lolcats:
moar funny pictures
December 12, 2007
This is a-mewsing.
(Photo Credit: Gyeongsang National University)
When Genetic Savings and Clone shut their doors it looked like wishful cat owners were going to be out of luck and short of kittens.
Never fear, the South Korean scientists at Gyeongsang National University have come to the…
December 10, 2007
And I was. It was the dreaded Seven Random and Weird things meme! It's on the loose and I've been tagged.
The rules are:
Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include…
December 9, 2007
These people have dogs and won the contest.
What contest?
I suggest you take a look.
December 8, 2007
Lots of new and curious gift selections are available this year for those of you who had a dog or know a dog owner. All kinds of interesting doggie presents are showing up, like doggie DNA tests and special nutrigenomic doggy diets.
And of course, nothing tops the gift of fake testicles for the…
December 7, 2007
This is a fun puzzle. The pink molecule is a protein and the other molecule is a nucleic acid.
If I gave you the amino acid sequence of this protein, or the nucleotide sequence of this nucleic acid, what is the probability of finding a similar sequence in a different species (picked at random…
December 6, 2007
I know it's strange! I never thought I would actually go to web sites (intentionally!) to watch computer ads. But the Mac guy is so cute! And the ads with Mac and PC are sooo funny!
I think these little film clips rank right up there with Steven Colbert and The Office.
What think you?
December 6, 2007
or E. coli, or perhaps a little Giardia (just to loosen things up, of course), or maybe even Herpes.
All these scary pathogens become works of art, when Infectious Awareables puts the images on neckties.
And what could be funnier than a pair of boxer shorts full of Gonorrhea?
December 5, 2007
If you like ham and bacon, you might be interested in this. GenomeWeb reports that researchers at the University of Barcelona have developed an assay that tests 46 SNPs and can be used to trace the origin of your pork dinner.
According to GenomeWeb, the test identifies both the breed and origin…
December 5, 2007
Judging from their groans and moans, I think sometimes that it's hard for kids to grow up with two scientists as parents. Still, over the years our kids have come to accept (and ignore) that we seem to babble in some kind of strange code peppered with discussions of DNA, software, and lately…
December 5, 2007
Do you wonder what the SciBlings drool over during the holiday season?
Here are some gift ideas from Janet, Shelley, Greg, Ed, Mo, the Bleimans, and me.
And you can probably guess what Steve suggests.
December 4, 2007
How do you use science outside of the lab?
People say that transferring knowledge and skills from one subject to another represents one of the highest levels of learning. They also say that it hardly ever happens. Perhaps this explains some of the more astounding things that we hear from Nobel…
December 3, 2007
'Tis the holiday season and, according to ancient lore, the time when miraculous events are most likely to take place.
One of those well-known and miraculous events of ancient days was the birth of a son to a young girl, who, although she was married (Okay, I'm not sure about this part of the story…
December 2, 2007
Usually, I wait until the end of December to take care of holiday-related shopping and shipping. This year, I've resolved to do better. This year, I'm hoping to ship holiday gifts before Christmas.
Fortunately, my SciBlings have come up with lots of great holiday recommendations to help you…
December 1, 2007
The grocery store magazine covers all say that home made gifts are big this year. So I thought, some of you might like to channel your inner Martha Stewart and make gifts with a science theme.
I'm here to help to you make a merry mug with one of our favorite molecules. Yep, we're talking caffeine…
November 26, 2007
GenomeWeb reports that Rite Aid drug stores on the West coast are now selling kits for doing paternity tests. The kits are made by Sorenson Genomics in Utah.
Sorenson Genomics calls it the "peace-mind-test." Really!
Each kit contains a swab for collecting cheek cells from the inside of your…
November 22, 2007
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.
technorati tags: Thanksgiving, food science, microscopy
Copyright Geospiza, Inc.
November 20, 2007
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…
November 19, 2007
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…