Science Education
sporte | September 5, 2007If you've read any of the many stories lately about Craig Venter or Jim Watson's genome, you've probably seen a "SNP" appear somewhere. (If you haven't read any of the stories, CNN has one here, and my fellow bloggers have posted several here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
You may be wondering, and rightly so: just what is a SNP?
Never fear, hopefully this post will answer some of those questions.
tags: DNA sequencing, DNA , SNPs, genetic testing
SNP stands for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism. That's a mouthful. It means some people, will have one base at a certain position, in a…
sporte | August 27, 2007Some of them work for Bayer.
technorati tags: biotechnology, education, biotechnology education, high school biotechnology
The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice article on a 15 year old education program in Berkeley that serves students from Berkeley High and Life Academy. Over 1500 students have participated in this program, with 862 placed in internships.
I really liked reading about some of the kids who started in the Bayer Biotech partners program and finding out what they're doing now. One of those interviewed started the program in 1992, as a 15 year old. He liked it so much, his…
sporte | August 25, 2007Why the ABRF of course!
I spend a fair amount time every summer giving workshops for college and high-school teachers on genomics and bioinformatics. One of the things that always surprises them, is the amount of lab work that's carried out by people working in shared, or core lab facilities. For example, if I was working at a research university and I wanted to sequence some DNA, maybe several patient samples, or a bacterial genome, I would send the DNA to a core lab and they would send me the sequences. I would analyze the data and write the paper.
I've simplified that process a bit in…
sporte | August 24, 2007I began this series last week with a question about a DNA sequence that was published and reported to be one the first beta-lactamases to be found in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mike has a great post about one of problems with this paper.
I think the data themselves are awfully suspicious.
So, last week I suggested that you, dear readers, go and find out why. I gave you a link to the abstract and a place to get started.
Perhaps that was too hard.
Sigh.
Okay, here's a little more help and another clue.
I highlighted the accession numbers. Post your guesses in the comments.
sporte | August 24, 2007What's the connection?
(image from Newton TAB blog)
I have to admit, I don't know.
But, I do know where you can find out.
Dr. Gerard Cangelosi, from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, will be speaking about tuberculosis, godzilla, and XDR-TB, Monday night, 7 pm at the Pub at Ravenna Third Place as part of Science on Tap.
tags: tuberculosis, informal science education, Science on Tap, Science in Seattle
sporte | August 23, 2007Charles Darwin was so fascinated by beetles he paid people to help him build his collection. The Coleopterists Society and the Smithsonian Institute want to help kids explore the wonders of beetles, too.
They're providing grants for kids, in grades 7-12 to work on beetle biology.
Applications are due by November 15, 2007.
The Coleopterists Society, an international organization of professionals and hobbyists interested in the study of beetles, has established a program to recognize young people studying beetles.
The Society has pledged to provide up to $300 each year for the Youth…
sporte | August 22, 2007I get asked this question often enough and now that's it's come up again, it seems that I might as well answer it once and for all and get it over with.
First, I want to change the question. Of course they don't need to learn programming.
A better question is would it benefit biologists to learn programming?
My flip half-way serious answer is yes, if they want to change careers.
You see, programming is really seductive when you've been a wet-bench biologist. It's like heroin. (At least I suspect it is, I know about programming, I don't have any experience with the other beyond reading…
clock | August 21, 2007Kate Seip of The Anterior Commissure and two of her colleagues have announced the formation of Science Communication Consortium:
There's been a good deal of recent discussion, both face-to-face amongst colleagues and friends and within the blogosphere itself, on how scientists can effectively communicate their work to mass media and journalists, science writers and educators, and politicians and policymakers. To address these issues, we have partnered with New York Academy of Sciences to develop an inter-institutional Science Communication Consortium in the greater NYC region.
This newly-…
sporte | August 17, 2007One time I was watching a football game on TV and they had a short quiz, called "You make the call" or something like that, and you had to watch a play and pretend to be a referee. A short video clip showed football players falling over each other. Then you were three possible calls that a refereee might make and asked to chose which was correct. After the commercial, the announcer would tell you which choice was right and explain why it was correct. I suppose this was a trick to make us watch the commercials, but I thought the game was kind of fun.
My SciBling "Mike the Mad" had a great…
clock | August 13, 2007A serious one, for advanced courses. I held it in my hands the other day (Jonathan Eisen brought a copy to Scifoo to show). I hope to get one soon. Check it out at its homepage and order yourself a copy. It looks great!
clock | August 11, 2007I have linked to and posted pictures of Eva Vertes from SciFoo before and you may ask: "Who is she? Why was she invited there?" The Wikipedia page I linked to earlier is a short stub and full of errors. So, to make it clear, see this page as well as comments on this talk she gave two years ago when she was 17:
tsmith | August 9, 2007
Apologies for the silence; as I mentioned, August is a crazy month for me. I hope to get back to some heavier science posts some point here, but those will, unfortunately, have to wait a bit. In the meantime, I did want to say a bit about last week's science discussions at YearlyKos, featuring (L-R) Ed, Sean, and Chris; More after the jump. (All photos courtesy of Lindsay).
First, a bit about what went on. I arrived there Thursday, and the first order of events was to get ready for the Science bloggers' caucus Thursday afternoon. This was pretty much a no-holds-barred, unscripted…
jlynch | July 31, 2007Sahotra Sarkar (Philosophy of Biology, University of Texas) has revived his blog in response to the creationist takeover of the Texas Board of Education.
Sarkar is the author of Doubting Darwin? Creationist Designs on Evolution and thus will no doubt have good things to say about the situation in Texas.
sporte | July 30, 2007Amateur astronomers unite! The pros want your help!
image from Astronomy Picture of the Day, Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (STScI / ESA), Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration
I learned about this from the Washington Science Teachers Assocation.
Galaxy Zoo and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are looking for your help in sorting out different galaxies. It's a cool opportunity for anyone to go where few non-astronomers have gone before and help do real science at the same time.
What does this involve?
Go to the Galaxy Zoo, peruse their tutorial, and learn how to pick…
tsmith | July 30, 2007The Danica McKellar posts (review; interview) have sparked some discussion that I want to address here. It largely centers on the issue of McKellar's approach: is it a good one? Or is it trying to replace one Bad Thing (girls' dislike of math) with another Bad Thing (encouraging them to be, as one commenter put it, "consumerist tools of the patriarchy"?) More below...
Here at Aetiology, for example, Katie commented:
One of the reasons I liked science classes was because they were an oasis from the prevailing shopping/shoes/makeup ethic at my school.
Not every girl likes the same things. I…
clock | July 30, 2007How do air-conditioners and refrigerators work? Scientific explanations for this can be cranky or patient. You choose.
revere | July 28, 2007If your country had thousands of cases of a potentially fatal disease, spread by mosquitoes, would you panic? Not if you lived in the US, apparently. Last year there were over 4200 cases of West Nile virus infections with 177 deaths. I don't remember panic gripping the nation. So I had to laugh when Canadian public health officials tell their citizens that with a particularly bad West Nile Virus (WNV) season underway south of the border, "There is no need to panic":
"There's no need to panic," Jean Riverin, a [Public Health Agency of Canada] spokesperson, told CBC News. "Many variables need…
sporte | July 27, 2007I've had some requests for some more molecular puzzles since the last one that I posted (see A DNA puzzle ). One person liked it so much he even blogged about it.
So, here's one for you to chew on over the weekend.
This puzzle is a variation of an activity in Exploring DNA Structure, a CD/lab book that I made (with funding from the NSF) and used for some educational research.
tags: DNA structure, DNA , molecular structure, biochemistry
Any ideas?
clock | July 27, 2007Last night, Professor Steve Steve took off work a little earlier and went to Oakland to see the offices of the National Center for Science Education, then went to Berkeley for dinner with the NCSE staff and fans at Eugenie Scott's house. Lots of pictures under the fold:
The logo at the back entrance:
The map of Creationist flare-ups:
Professor Steve Steve admires his official courtroom sketch with Judge Jones at the Kitzmiller trial in Dover, PA:
They have cool toys at NCSE, but we could not find the alleged Steve Steve impostor who is supposed to be there, waiting to be challanged to a…
clock | July 27, 2007The Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest by the Union of Concerned Scientists is over and the winner has been announced. Read the interview with the winner, Jesse Springer.