sporte | October 5, 2006Zuska never fails to make people think. And she made me wonder this and made me think that perhaps we could pass some names along to future Noble committees - you know, just in case they're having trouble coming up with names of female scientists. Maybe we can be some help.
I have a few suggestions below but I would really like to see more suggestions in the comments.
My suggestions for female Nobelists are:
1. Mary-Claire King
She could fit in two categories - The first category would be medicine for her discovery that a common disease, i.e. breast cancer, should have a genetic cause…
sporte | October 5, 2006PZ tells us that the people in Kensington have strong opinions about who discovered North America, and you can learn about them at the Kensington Runestone Museum.
But I can top that. I saw an authentic Viking ship replica in Duluth, MN. And if you're ever in Duluth - better remember this (whether you believe it or not is immaterial) - It was Leif Erikson, in 1000 AD, not Christopher Columbus.
sporte | October 4, 2006This may seem strange to anyone who hasn't lived in Minnesota, but when I was a child, kids in my elementary school used to have fist fights when it came to the question of which famous European discovered America.
To most children in the U.S., this is probably a very silly question indeed. Not so, to the kids I knew. Some kids were convinced that it was Leif Erickson and were ready to fight to defend the point.
Since I now live on the West Coast, it's probably safe for me to say that the first white people on the continent might NOT have been the Vikings.
NOVA's series for teachers has…
sporte | October 4, 2006Awhile back Chemical & Engineering News published a fascinating article called "The Secret Life of Plant Crystals" with some wonderful photos of calcium oxalate crystals. Special cells (called "idioblasts") produce these crystals, with shapes that are unique to each type of plant.
Even though 75% of flowering plants make these crystals, no one knows why they make them and in fact, their functions may be as diverse as their shapes. Some crystals look sharp and dangerous, like thistles or thorns, suggesting that they function to defend a plant from hungry herbivores. Other crystals are…
sporte | October 3, 2006Some of my fellow ScienceBloggers have been hotly debating the role of male science faculty in perpetuating a climate that's chilly and hostile to women. From one end of the ring, we've heard the classic complaint "It's not my fault, I didn't do it." From the other end, we hear: "It is your fault because you're not doing anything to change it." And, in the middle, we have a rational and thoughtful referee, pointing out that both writers see things from different perspectives.
I think the question boils down to this:
Are you automatically part of the problem if you're not part of the…
sporte | October 1, 2006Welcome to the fourth edition of Bio::Blogs!
This is the carnival where we explore topics at the intersection of computing, biology, and sometimes a bit human behavior.
In this edition, we consider issues with annotation, agonize over standards, explore the question of whether or not it's possible to tame those wild and wooly computational biologists and make them laugh their way into writing programs that other people can use, give the Perl fans something to do while waiting for that program to run, and much, much, more.
Today, we'll begin on the biology side of spectrum and work our way…
sporte | September 28, 2006On Tuesday night, we learned about a new animal. It's shy, elusive, endangered, and a bad choice for a sixth grader's animal report.
It's the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
They have an FAQ page and photos, so it must be true.
sporte | September 27, 2006Over the summer, a few ScienceBloggers were pondering the question of why students disappear from science courses, never to return.
James Hrynshyn wrote that we're teaching youngsters the wrong thing. Zuska boldy pointed out the things that many of us think but don't say out loud. Chad Orzel noted that science is hard and shared his thoughts about why students leave. Stein Sigurdsson, on the other other hand, proposed that students leave because science is not hard enough.
Just this week, ScienceBlogger Mike Dunford provided part of the answer to the disappearing student question, when…
sporte | September 27, 2006We went on an excursion last weekend to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Pacific Science Center. None of us could resist going downtown to look at written texts over 2000 years old. Uncovered in 1946, by a Bedouin shepherd, the scrolls have had an interesting history over the past 50 years, most of it out of the public eye. Only recently, have a large number of scholars and members of the public been granted access.
We're still kind of amazed that they came to Seattle.
I'm fascinated by archeology, but I was also interested in how DNA analysis is being used to study the scrolls and…
sporte | September 26, 2006Razib inspired me to share some of the story behind why white people are considered derivatives.
Reposted from the Classic Digital Bio.
No red herrings, here! Lamason et. al. found a single gene that controls human skin color while studying pigmentation in zebra fish (1).
These zebra fish had an unusual golden color that turned out to be an important clue. Lamason and collaborators found that the golden zebra fish lost their normal color because of a mutation in the slc24a5 gene. When the zebra fish have the mutant form, they produce fewer melanosomes.
A short language lesson
Fewer…
sporte | September 25, 2006Like computers? Like biology? Want to find a way to combine the two worlds?
Bio::Blogs, a carnival at the intersection of biology, computing, and math, will be hosted here October 1st.
For those of you who are wondering what this all means, it means that on Sunday, I will post a collection of links to interesting stories that are somehow related to biology, computers, or math, or various blends thereof. That means I might include stories about computer science, software engineering, genomics, bioinformatics, and whatever strikes me as interesting when I sit down Saturday night, put on…
sporte | September 22, 2006As they say, there's nothing like travel to learn new and unexpected things.
Especially from cab drivers.
One of my ScienceBlog Sibs, Shelly, spends time talking with cabbies about earwax, but I seem to invite other kinds of lectures.
Often times, my driver are Sikhs. So perhaps you can guess the topics.
Can I have Indian religious holidays, for twenty, Alex?
And other times I learn about the challenges of adapting to life in the U.S.
But not yesterday.
After a short plane hop over the mountains, I got to listen to a cab time lecture on clean energy. We were having a nice chat…
sporte | September 22, 2006and what is the volume of the sea?
This sounds a bit like the beginning of a poem but it's really the answer to the question we posed last week on a Digital Biology Friday.
We can see, in the sequence window, that two strands are both labeled 5' on the left side and 3' on the right. We call this direction "five prime to three prime."
But, when we look in the structure window, we see that the two strands are oriented in the opposite direction relative to each other. The 5' end of one strand is located across from the 3' end of the other strand.
(Note: I added the arrow and labels, this…
sporte | September 19, 2006Modified from the original post.
Playing around with molecular structures is one of the more entertaining activities that you can do with digital biology. I've become totally entranced with molecular structures, both because they're a fascinating art form and because every structure has its own story.
I learned this because I ended up writing 69 different structure stories for the "Exploring DNA Structure" instructor guide. This was never in my original plan but my friend Charlotte Mulvihill wrote to ask me about the functions of different structures. I blithely replied that sometimes the…
sporte | September 15, 2006Today, we're going to look for rainbows in double-stranded DNA and see what they can tell us about DNA structure.
First, we're going to get a structure for a double-stranded molecule of DNA and open it in Cn3D.
1K9L
If you want to do this at home and you haven't already downloaded a copy of Cn3D, you may want to read these instructions and get a copy. These directions also show how to download and open the structure. It's pretty simple once you've given it a try.
Hide a strand
Next, we're going to hide one of the strands. To do this, look in the menu bar for the Show/Hide menu and open…
sporte | September 13, 2006Reposted and slightly modified from Classic DigitalBio.
Some people say that science takes the magic out of everyday life.
Not me!
I've learned some things by reading Science (1) that might give some people nightmares, especially young children. Remember that scene in "The Wizard of Oz" when the trees get ticked off and start hurling apples at poor Dorothy?
Real plants do defend themselves.
Those "Wizard of Oz" trees would really defend themselves by giving poor Dorothy a tummy ache
Pardon me a moment while I apologize to enforcers of precise scientific language.
Okay, okay, real apple trees…
sporte | September 12, 2006The Ask a Science Blogger question of the week asks if organic foods are really worth the hype. I'm afraid my answer can't fit into one blog post.
Let me start by telling you about my garden.
This year my garden has been a home to local wildlife, but during the years that I do garden, I have a semi-organic garden.
I don't use any pesticides but I do occasionally break down and use Miracle Grow and, sometimes Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). Overall, though I don't see any justification for using chemicals that might be harmful to fish or other animals in my garden, so I don't.
Even in the…
sporte | September 11, 2006A long time ago, I saw a Star Trek episode where the crew encountered aliens who lived at a different frequency. I may have this backwards, but I think the aliens moved so quickly that no one knew they were there. And until problems struck, our heroes were happily oblivious to the existence of the others.
The Plants In Motion movies remind me of that episode.
Since plant movement occurs much more slowly than movements we can easily observe, we tend to think that plants don't move. These movies prove that idea wrong. Filmed with time-lapse photography, these short movies show seeds…
sporte | September 9, 2006"And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard, And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. "
- BoB Dylan
Tired of Simpson reruns and the exploits of Friends?
[From the WSTA]
NOVA is broadcasting an entire series of shows on hurricanes, Katrina, and what the experts predicted would happen should a hurricane ever hit New Orleans. Check out the schedule below.
NOVA Presents "Storm That Drowned a City"
Broadcast: Tuesday, September 12, 2006http://www.pbs.org/nova/orleans/
(NOVA airs on PBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Check your local listings as
broadcast dates and times may vary. This…
sporte | September 8, 2006Why do I love Cn3D? Let me count the ways.
What does Cn3D do? (Hint: say "Cn3D" out loud).
Seriously, Cn3D is a program that draws lovely pictures of molecular structures by using experimental data from techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Surprisingly (to some), and in contrast to many bioinformatics programs, Cn3D is really easy and fun to use.
Have you ever used programs like MS Office? Using Cn3D is at least 10 times easier.
An added benefit is that you don't have to try and find old copies of Netscape or other bits of obsolete software…