education
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009tags: How DNA is Replicated in a Living Cell, biology, molecular biology, DNA, streaming video
I still remember when I learned how DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) replication occurs, and it was like a lightning bolt from the sky: it changed my view of the world and a molecular biologist was born. This video uses the latest research to create an animation of how DNA is replicated in a living cell [1:54]
DNA replication is a fundamental process underlying biological inheritance that occurs in all living organisms to accurately copy their DNA. This process occurs through a "semiconservative"…
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: Fledgling American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Fledgling American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, photographed at Bear River Bird Refuge in Utah. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 27 July 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L lens.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: Faith Is Retarded, religion, faith, delusion, streaming video
Clearly Christianity, as with all religions, has been a necessary cog in the machinery of human social evolution. But it is a crutch that we no longer need. It is time for us to move past this primitive mindset and into a world based on reason and logic. [5:50]
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009It is rare when I manage to break my own blog. Like most people, I have managed to break my blog by doing truly stupid things like deleting the main template, for example, but I've never managed to break it by adding a plugin to Firefox, so this is the reason I mention it here: so no one else will do the same thing I did and then find themselves dead in the water for a couple days as a result.
The Sage-Too plugin -- an RSS blog and newsreader -- was the culprit. The strange thing is that adding this plugin not only destroyed my ability to publish blog entries using Firefox, but it also…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Common Moorhen chick, Gallinula chloropus, photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 9 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: TEDTalks, laptops, future success, Nicholas Negroponte, streaming video
(TED follows Nicholas Negroponte to Colombia as he delivers laptops inside territory once controlled by guerrillas. His partner? Colombia's Defense Department, who see One Laptop per Child as an investment in the region. This project will have a bigger and more lasting effect on the damages created by poverty, destitution, crime and violence in the world than any other single thing I can think of -- how about you? [6:31]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,…
bioephemera | August 14, 2009
It commemorates Hans Christian Ãrsted, who discovered the relationship between electricity and magenetism. Re-enact Ãrsted's experiment here.
But what about that other Hans Christian, Hans Christian Andersen? Here's what the Guardian had to say: "while there's nothing wrong with fairy stories, they haven't contributed much to the development of electric motors."
Ouch! :)
gregladen | August 12, 2009.... Have you ever had this happen: You are minding your own business, teaching your life science course, it's early in the term. A student, on the way out after class (never at the beginning of class, rarely during class) mentions something about "carbon dating." This usually happens around the time of year you are doing an overview of the main points of the course, but before you've gotten to the "evolution module"...
Jeanne d'Arc was a very influential 10th grader. I understand she gave her Life Science teachers a very hard time. This is the only contemporary depiction of Joan of…
grrlscientist | August 12, 2009tags: Prothonotary Warbler, Protonotaria citrea, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Prothonotary Warbler, Protonotaria citrea, photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | August 12, 2009ZapperZ links to an interview with David Saltzberg about careers for students with an undergraduate degree in physics. As is often the case, ZapperZ proclaims himself "disappointed" with things that I think are about right. In particular, he writes:
[W]hen asked on why one should major in physics, is the best that can be answered is that "... you really like it.. "? What happened to the fact that the skills one acquire majoring in it can be quite useful in one's career, be it in science or outside of science?
Actually, I think that really is the best reason for majoring in physics. Or any…
gregladen | August 11, 2009Hot off the presses from the NCSE:
Are state science standards worthless? Are kids learning about evolution or being spoon-fed creationist pseudoscience? What's the proper role of state science standards in American public education, anyway?
To get some answers, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) conducted an in-depth survey of 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The good news: Current state science standards cover evolution more extensively than they did 9 years ago.
According to the report, 40 states received satisfactory grades for the treatment of evolution in their…
bioephemera | August 11, 2009Remember the first time you learned sterile technique, or how to make a bacterial spreader, or how to blow up a distillation apparatus? Well, now you can relive the disorientation and anxiety nostalgic fuzzy feeling with benchfly.com, a site that offers video tutorials on various lab tasks, like making a bacterial spreader using a glass rod and a bunsen burner.
Overall, looks like an excellent resource for teachers. But wait - how'd this one slip in there?
Now that is a productive use of glass and alcohol!
drorzel | August 11, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Ethan Allen, a program manager.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I manage education and outreach (terrible term, hate it) for two different Centers here at UW the Center for Nanotechnology and the Genetically…
grrlscientist | August 11, 2009tags: Common Nighthawk, Chordeiles minor, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Common Nighthawks, Chordeiles minor, photographed at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | August 10, 2009The question is inspired by a Washington Post op-ed by a former teacher who is leaving teaching. It's a very depressing piece, and, if nothing else, reinforces my suspicion that, to the extent charter schools have demonstrated better results, those results are largely due to unsustainable demands on teachers.
But that's not what I want to talk about. The former teacher writes (italics mine):
There is yet another factor that played a part in my choice, something that I rarely mention. It has to do with the way that some people, mostly nonteachers, talk about the profession.
"Why teach?" they…
drorzel | August 10, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Joel Boyce, a high school science and math teacher in Canada.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I'm a high school science and math teacher.
2) What is your science background?
I have a B.Sc, majoring in…
grrlscientist | August 10, 2009tags: Green Heron nestling, Butorides virescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Green Heron nestling, Butorides virescens, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Richard Ditch, 9 June 2009 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2009:06:09 07:35:02
Exposure Time: 1/350
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 9, 2009tags: Green Heron, Butorides virescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Green Heron, Butorides virescens, photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | August 8, 2009My talk was Friday morning at 10am, on the title given above. This wasn't my choice-- when I volunteered to be on programming, I said some general areas that I'd be willing to talk about, and left it at that. Somebody else made up the title and description for the talk, which made it very slightly like PowerPoint Karaoke. Happily, this is a topic I can easily discourse about, but I think in the future I'll try to remember to suggest more specific talk titles...
I've posted the slides for the talk on SlideShare, and will attempt embedding them below:
Worldcon09
View more presentations from…
grrlscientist | August 8, 2009tags: Bateleur Eagle pair, Terathopius ecaudatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Bateleur Eagle pair, Terathopius ecaudatus, photographed in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 31 August 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D2X 200-400 NIkon VR lens, at 400 mm. ISO 400, f4.5, 1/250 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.