Sandra Porter
sporte
Posts by this author
June 28, 2007
X71396, U37840, AF242849, Z11977, K03291, AY568721, NM_113475, NM_001056982, NM_001048464, NM_001060543, NM_001060540, NM_001061783, NM_129923, NM_129922, NM_001067252, NM_001056384, NM_001053908, NM_001058687, NM_001059721, NM_001062013, NM_111344, NM_115302, NM_001056908, NM_112085
June 26, 2007
I'm seeing these things everywhere. Well, okay, maybe not everywhere. But I have seen lots of these in both Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Is this a coincidence?
This is a hand-sanitizer, with instructions on how to cough safely.
June 22, 2007
What happens when a biologist tries to talk with the IT group? Needless to say, they don't speak the same language.
Reposted from the archives.
Imagine this. You've been sequencing DNA for a few years now, perhaps ESTs, or something else, and storing files on your local network. Your system…
June 21, 2007
If we asked any biologist to pick the five most important techniques in biology, that list would certainly include PCR.
PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction. It's used everywhere. We use it to amplify DNA for cloning, we use it for diagnostic tests, for DNA sequencing, for identifying…
June 20, 2007
Quoth Dr. Stemwedel, from Adventures in Science and Ethics.
In the case of Universities and four-yr colleges, I completely agree. If you're looking for job training, go to a community college.
This post is in response to one of the comments from the other day. This commenter expressed frustration…
June 19, 2007
Know your biology!
I get asked often about the type of bioinformatics training that students should get and whether it should be a special course or not.
And I answer that I think teaching bioinformatics in the absence of biology is like teaching Microsoft Word in the absence of writing.
There…
June 4, 2007
Do course evaluations have to be a popularity contest? Or can they be useful tools for improving a class?
tags: teaching, student evaluations
A few days ago, evolgen lamented that his students weren't giving him useful information on their end-of-course evaluations.
I'm not surprised.
When I…
June 3, 2007
Nodal point is hosting the eleventh issue of Bio::blogs with two special editions. The first special edition, at Bioinformatics Zen covers tips and tricks for bioinformatics. The second special edition is on personalized medicine and can be downloaded from here.
Eye on DNA is hosting Gene Genie,…
June 1, 2007
How does grass grow in the extremely hot soils of Yellowstone National Park? Could a protein from a virus help plants handle global warming? Okay, that second sentence is wild speculation, but we will try to find the answer to our mystery by aligning our protein sequence to a sequence from a…
May 31, 2007
I want my genome sequenced, too!
Apparently, it's become a popular thing to get your genome sequenced. Craig Venter was the first. Jim Watson's genome (of Project Jim) was ceremonially released this morning (courtesy of 454), and now George Chuch, Larry King, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Google…
May 30, 2007
I never thought that writing a blog would provide such a wonderful chance to learn from the community. In these past few days, I have learned so much from readers about finding and accessing information. Now, I want to share their knowledge with those of you who might not be checking the comments…
May 29, 2007
It was a quiet day at the Seattle FolkLife Festival.
But there were signs that PZ might be lurking about.
At least a few people seemed to think so.
Did they think this guy was PZ in disguise?
May 29, 2007
The first research assignment for our Alaska NSF Chautauqua course has been posted. Your task is to find a wound-inducible plant gene, learn something about it, and post a description in the comment section. We've already had one excellent answer, but I know there are at least 54 wound-inducible…
May 28, 2007
Is the case for open access truly "open and shut"?
Will open access impede science by limiting genetic studies with families?
tags: genetics, genetic privacy, bioethics, open access
Microsoft's brave new world
The April ALPSP conference began with songs for the open access choir. Microsoft's Lee…
May 27, 2007
An introduction to our Alaskan NSF Chautauqua course and a pre-course assignment.
I don't know how well this will work, but I thought it might be interesting this year to experiment with blogging about our course and sharing some of our experiences with the rest of the world. Here's your chance…
May 25, 2007
for our overly enthusiastic comment filter. Thankfully, a reader alerted me to the problem.
I've gone through the spam bucket and you should see them now. My, answers though, may take a little more time.
May 25, 2007
tags: plants, bioinformatics, sequence analysis, viruses, fungi
How does grass grow in the extremely hot soils of Yellowstone National Park? The quest continues.
Read part I, part II, part III, and part IV to see how we got here.
And read onward to see where will we go.
In our last episode, I…
May 24, 2007
tags: PubMed, PubMed Central, medical informatics, bioinformatics, finding scientific articles
I meant for this to be a three part series, but in part II, I learned that one more experiment had to be done. I had to know if the articles I found in PubMed Central were the same articles that I found…
May 23, 2007
Okay, gossip really isn't my thing and I'm not going to make a habit of it, but I'm really kind of surprised by this. Tech crunch (as I learned from Deepak and Eye on DNA) has a post on 23 and me that is quite bothersome.
Apparently, one of the Google founders has invested in a company that…
May 23, 2007
tags: math, math for biologists
Keith Robison from Omics! Omics! and that fellow Evolgen, with a curious fixation on manatees, have been reminiscing about their college math requirements and speculating on which math courses biologists should take.
They've raised some interesting questions that…
May 23, 2007
tags: PubMed, PubMed Central, medical informatics, bioinformatics, finding scientific articles
This is the third, and last part in a three part series on finding free scientific papers. You can read the first part here: Part I: A day in the life of an English physician and the second part, where…
May 22, 2007
tags: PubMed, PubMed Central, medical informatics, bioinformatics, finding scientific articles
This is the second part in a three part series on finding free scientific papers. You can read the first part here: Part I: A day in the life of an English physician
Today, we do an experiment with…
May 21, 2007
tags: evolution, science education, Alliance for Science
A few months ago, I wrote about a contest, sponsored by the Alliance for Science, in celebration of Darwin Day. High school students were asked to write an essay on the topic: "Why would you want your doctor to have studied evolution?"
The…
May 21, 2007
tags: moon, lunar geology, NASA, astronomy, computer games, learning through computer games
NASA researchers are learning how to design video games and they're looking for high school students to help. They want students between the ages of 13-18 to play an online computer game about lunar geology…
May 21, 2007
tags: PubMed, PubMed Central, medical informatics, bioinformatics, finding scientific articles
This three part series covers the problem of finding scientific articles, compares results from a few different methods, and presents instructions for the best method.
A day in the life of an English…
May 18, 2007
tags: plants, bioinformatics, sequence analysis, viruses, fungi
Quick synopsis: A type of grass grows in Yellowstone National Park in hot (65° C), unfriendly soil. How the plant manages this feat is a mystery. What we do know, is that the grass can only tolerate high temperatures if it's been…
May 17, 2007
Dave says that your drinking container reveals your philosophical side.
Janet, being a teacher, only uses mugs that she gets as free gifts.
At Geospiza, I use the communal mugs that I find in the cupboard. Most of these mugs seem to come from now-defunct biotech companies who handed them out at…
May 11, 2007
Do you want to learn how to use some cool biotechnology and bioinformatics methods in your college or high school class?
If you're on the East coast, the best place to go is the Fralin Biotechnology Conference at Virignia Tech, July 18-21st.
(Yes, it's the same Virgina Tech, and that's why I…
May 10, 2007
tags: moose, bioinformatics class, willows, plant genes
PZ's morning post about a bear killing a moose in someone's yard (they do live in Alaska, after all), reminded me that it's time to make an announcement about our upcoming course.
No, no, no! We're not going to kill any moose on the premises…
May 10, 2007
tags: crows, intelligence, birds
We don't have the sorts of wild kingdom experiences in Seattle, that they have in Alaska, but we do see nature taking its course, from time to time, right out on our city streets.
This morning, while walking the dog, I heard a gawdawful noise coming from around the…