Sandra Porter
sporte
Posts by this author
November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving is a holiday (in the U.S. at least) when we're all reminded about the things we're thankful for. At our house, we're thankful for the opportunity to cook all day and share a meal with friends and young adults.
And, even though I haven't given my turkey an IP address, this is still a…
November 27, 2008
If you're not cooking today, why not experiment? Here's something fun you can do with Mentos and Diet Coke - and for those of you who think these experiments are too messy, you can still watch the movie.
Enjoy the music in the video, then go outside, and enjoy the show. Later, go to EepyBird.com…
November 27, 2008
Our household is very excited about Thanksgiving.
That's because this Thanksgiving, my husband is cooking a turkey in an egg. A big green egg.
Check back later today, about 5:30 pm, Pacific Standard Time, to see a picture of the turkey. In the meantime, here are some other items that were…
November 26, 2008
I suppose I should have expected this.
I thought it might be fun to see what the databases had to say about turkeys.
Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving,, turkey,, mash-up
So, I queried the NCBI databases, found a taxonomy reference, and started clicking related links to see pictures of the different…
November 25, 2008
I just love this title! It's nerdy and cute, all at the same time.
I read about this in www.researchblogging.org and had to check out the paper and blog write up from The Beagle Project (BTW: some of you may be interested in knowing that The Beagle Project is not a blog about dogs.)
The paper…
November 25, 2008
It's funny but even though I work with data on a regular basis, I can't always predict the best way to manage data until I have my own data to manage.
My classroom wiki site is no exception.
Now, that I've been seriously using a wiki with my class, I've found that I should have set a few things…
November 24, 2008
Now that I've downloaded really important applications like a timer for cooking, a program for playing with molecular structures, and an app that lets me listen to NPR on my phone, I'm ready for more.
I'm seriously overwhelmed by the iTunes App store. I found a program for learning human…
November 24, 2008
Ebola virus has impressed me as creepy ever since I read "The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story some years back by Richard Preston. (I guess he has a new book, too, Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science but I haven't been in airport for the past…
November 23, 2008
Some people, like Imelda Marcos and our new Dr. Isis, have a thing for fancy shoes.
I go crazy for gadgets.
technorati tags: iphone, DNA, molecules, molecular structure, molecular modeling, Science education
For my birthday this year, my family bought me a new iPhone! Yeah!
So, I've been…
November 23, 2008
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…
November 21, 2008
A loose spider on a space station.
Technorati Tags: humor, 'snakes, on, a, plane', spider, spiders, 'space, station'
Apparently the missing orb-weaver spider is gone from it's cage and can't be found anywhere.
And for the record, I don't know what kind of spider is in my photograph. It's a spider…
November 21, 2008
There's no question that the ability to work with information is one that will be required and valued for a long time to come. I think it's imperative for teachers to have students practice this skill whenever an opportunity comes about. The problem for many teachers is finding the time to…
November 19, 2008
Genome Web's Daily Scan noted an interesting blog post today from John D. Halamka, one of the people to get his genome sequenced through the personal genome project.
I was interested to see his post since Genome Web wrote that he was discussing data standards and we have been writing quite a bit,…
November 19, 2008
I'm sure everyone else thinks the big news today is the announcement by the Washington State Health department requiring hospitals to report MRSA cases to the state. I think the cool news is their on-line database. We'll get to that a bit later.
What is MRSA?
MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant…
November 18, 2008
In our last episode, I wrote about embedding Google forms in my classroom wiki pages.
Recently, we've been working on a project where students enter results into a Google Docs spreadsheet, via our classroom wiki. All the students were able to enter their results.
Except for one.
When other…
November 17, 2008
iGEM is all about synthetic biology, kids. It's the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine competition.
Each team in the IGEM competition has to make something using a kit of biological parts from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Teams of students use these parts to…
November 16, 2008
Hospital cases of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have risen 33-fold during the past ten years in Washington state, yet our hospitals fail to identify or track cases in a systemic fashion (Seattle Times).
The Seattle Times began a three-part investigative report today…
November 16, 2008
Last spring, in a coffee shop in Berkeley, I saw an amazing thing. It was a cup made from corn. The information on the cup says that it is made from corn, is environmentally sustainable, and 100% compostable.
My fellow ScienceBloggers have written several articles lately about corn in fast food (…
November 15, 2008
Poor PZ! Stranded without a working laptop in a strange town! This is the kind of situation that gives me nightmares, so I like to upload presentation materials to the web just in case.
Lately, I've been looking at different methods for doing this to see which ones l like the best.
A few days…
November 15, 2008
If you're going to create a new life form (even if it's only digital), Sunday Saturday seems like the best day to give it a try.
Reposted from an earlier year.
Build-A-Virus is a quick, fun, and simple game that was created and put on-line by Bioreliance, now owned by Invitrogen. This game is…
November 14, 2008
Masha Gessen was faced with a terrifying choice: cut off her breasts, and possibly save herself from cancer, or use them to feed her child.
It was late at night when I walked back to my empty dorm room at the conference. Shivering, I stood on the narrow bed, quickly shut the windows, tore the…
November 13, 2008
Well, I had to test Scribd with something. Why not use a document on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Industry?
Scribd is sort of like the YouTube of electronic paper. I found Scribd from TomJoe's post about Life on Mars. His PowerPoint talk is really much more interesting than the life science…
November 12, 2008
Is ready for reading at Submitted to a Candid World.
I never thought I'd see the day when a Tangled Bank host would compare PZ Meyers to John McCain, but I admit, it was tastefully done.
November 12, 2008
What skills does a biotechnology technician need to know?
This seems like a simple question, but people have been struggling to define biotech skill standards since the early 90's.
Complicating this question is that many areas of biotechnology require somewhat different skills. Antibody work…
November 10, 2008
Worldmapper is a web site with 366 maps of the world. These maps however, are not the kinds of maps you've seen in school, with every country shown by size. These maps are cartograms. It's a bit like seeing a cartoon version of a Thomas Friedman book. These maps present a whole new way of…
November 9, 2008
Brian Switek, from Laelaps, could probably tell you.
And, if you vote for him in the 3rd Annual College Blogger Scholarship competition, he just might.
He'll tell you why should you vote for him, too, and I agree.
And below the fold, is an inspirational cartoon.
From xkcd.
November 9, 2008
It was a wet and rainy day yesterday, and we have a dissecting microscope, so I decided to see if I could find some tardigrades.
Tardigrade photo by nebarnix
Reposted from Nov. 2006
I went outside and scraped a bit of moss and some lichens off of our deck. Then I put the lichens and moss in a…
November 8, 2008
but the red berries are RNA.
Picture below the fold.
November 7, 2008
Over 55,000 people die each year from rabies, a disease that is 100% preventable, according to Dr. Guy Palmer, who spoke last night at the University of Washington.
Dr. Palmer is from the School for Global Animal Health, a group that works towards improving global health through advancing…
November 6, 2008
Before mammals, before dinosaurs, before bacteria, or plants, there was something else; a protocell containing RNA.
The Exploring Origins Project has excellent animations of protocells, a timeline of life's evolution, and best of all- fantastic animations of the RNA world.
You can see how RNA…