Need a break from studying?

If you need a quick break from studying, take five minutes, go get a snack and something to drink, and look at this.

Genetics Practice Problems

You're probably going to need to practice before the trimester, so here are four links to websites with good genetics practice problems:

From Cleremont College here.

From Kansas State here.

From the University of Arizona here and here.

Aerobic Cellular Respiration

If you liked the photosynthesis interactive diagrams, here are the animations for glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transfer phosphorylation from the same site.

Photosynthesis

Check out two really simplified and excellent interactive diagrams of the light dependent and light independent reactions of photosynthesis from Smith College. You can access the light reaction here and the light independent reaction here.

Canadian Fungus

Very often, one of the off-putting aspects of science is science reporting. Professional papers tend to be dry, technical documents that normally don't interest many people outside of professional researchers. Enter science writing. Science writers take technical information and present it such a way that it is accessible to the general public. The good ones also make it interesting for the professional scientists.

If you would like to read an interesting science story that is magnificently written, check out this story about a small town in Canada with a fungus problem. There's a link between the fungal infestation and the Canadian Club whiskey distillery that is in the town. Read it here.

Incredible image of hawks

The second picture at this page made me say, "whoa. Whoa. WHOA!"

Biology Science Project

Here is all the information you need to get started on your science project. Please keep in mind that these are the general instructions for the biology project for all of you. Your particular teacher might have more specific instructions and/or more details that they will be providing in class. Make sure you listen to your biology teacher when it comes time to talk about these projects in class!

Here are your options:

Option #1 - Write a paper on a biology topic

• You can either write a paper on a topic of your choice (provided it is approved by your teacher) or you can choose one of the options here
• Paper must be a minimum of five pages long, have at least five sources, and fit MLA standards. 

Option #2 – Powerpoint presentation

• Students will choose one of the individuals or projects listed below and discuss their contribution to biology (or you may pick a topic not on this list provided it is approved by your teacher): 
• William Henry
• Robert Hooke
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek
• Carolus Linnaeus
• Jan Ingenhousz 
• Edward Jenner
• Georges Cuvier
• Matthias Schleiden & Theodor Schwann
• Charles Darwin
• Louis Pasteur
• Gregor Mendel
• August Weismann
• Alexander Fleming
• Hans Krebs
• Theodosius Dobzhansky
• Oswald Avery
• Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
• Melvin Calvin
• Barbara McClintock
• James Watson & Francis Crick
• Marshall Nirenberg
• Robert Weinberg
• Karl Ernst von Baer
• George Beadle
• Rosalind Franklin
• Maurice Wilkins
• Raymond Dart
• Stephen Jay Gould
• Louis & Mary Leakey
• Jane Goodall 
• Robert Jarvik
• Thomas Hunt Morgan
• The Human Genome Project
• Small pox eradication program
• Students will present a Powerpoint presentation that is a minimum of 10 slides and five minutes long to the class and be available to answer questions afterward. 
• NOTE: A works cited page with at least five sources that conforms to MLA standards will also be submitted by students who chose this option 

Option #3 – Standard science fair type project 

• Students must present a topic for approval by the teacher.
• Projects will be evaluated paying special attention to use of the scientific method and untracked variables. 

Option #4 – Science Olympiad

• Your participation in a Science Olympiad event will count as your science project

MLA Standards

You will need to follow MLA standards for your science project research paper (if you chose that option) and part of your PowerPoint presentation (if you chose that option).

If you're writing the paper, there's a clear and concise summary of the general format for an MLA paper that you should follow here.

If you're doing the paper or the PowerPoint presentation, you'll need to do a works cited page. You can find instructions on how to do that here for the basic format and here, here, here, and here for more specific sources.  .

Remember, if you have any questions, ask your biology teacher!

FYI

Check out five iconic science images...and why they're wrong here.

The Cell

While the static diagrams you have in your text are great and all, go here for a tutorial on the different organelles in a cell and here for a tutorial on cell membranes. Both tutorials go in to cells in a bit more detail than you're responsible for, but they're still pretty good. You won't be disappointed!

Organic Molecules

If you're having trouble visualizing the organic molecules we talked about in chapter 3, it might help you to visit this website. It has 3D molecular models that you can manipulate.

Importance of Good Science

In chapter 1, we discussed the importance of adhering to the scientific method when conducting scientific research. This is particularly important if you are in a position where millions of people will hear your results. Enter Dr. Oz. Recently, Dr. Oz reported on his show that apple juice is tainted with arsenic. This would be bad. If it were true. News agencies, bloggers, and the FDA jumped all over Dr. Oz for his reporting of misleading results and failure to retract his statements. There's a great commentary here at Genomics, Evolution, and Pseudoscience that gives a concise report of what Dr. Oz did in his "experiment" and what he should have done. Great reading!

Polar molecules

There's a bit more chemistry in this video then you'll need for biology, but this video might help those of you who are having trouble visualizing polar molecules.

What science is and isn't

In chapter 1, we discussed the scope and limits of science. Christian apologist C.S. Lewis had something to say on the matter as well. This is from his book Mere Christianity:

Science works by experiments. It watches how things behave. Every scientific statement in the long run, however complicated it looks, really means something like, 'I pointed the telescope to such and such a part of the sky at 2.20 a.m. on January 15th and saw so-and-so' or, 'I put some of this stuff in a pot and heated it to such-and-such a temperature and it did so-and-so.' Do not think I am saying anything against science: I am only saying what its job is. And the more scientific a man is, the more (I believe) he would agree with me that this is the job of science - and a very useful and necessary job it is too. But why anything comes to be there at all, and whether there is anything behind the things science observes - something of a different kind - this is not a scientific question. If there is 'Something Behind', then either it will have to remain altogether unknown to men or else make itself known in some different way. The statement that there is any such thing, and the statement that there is no such thing, are neither of them statements that science can make. And real scientists do not usually make them. It is usually the journalists and popular novelists who have picked up a few odds and ends of half-baked science from textbooks who go in for them. After all, it is really a matter of common sense. Supposing science ever became complete so that it knew every single thing in the whole universe. Is it not plain that the questions, 'Why is there a universe?' 'Why does it go on as it does?' 'Has it any meaning?' would remain just as they were?

That. Was. Awesome.

Homework Questions For the Year

You can access the homework questions for the year at any time here.

EARTHQUAKE!

I know this really belongs on the Earth Science blog, but if you felt the earthquake today, go here and help USGS with their earthquake data.

Genes, translocations, autism, and schizophrenia (whew!)

Take a few minutes and read a good story about a gene called DISC1. This gene may be related to the formation of the corpus callosum - the structure that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It seems that when this gene is translocated, the corpus callosum fails to form leading to potential psychiatric and cognitive issues including autism and schizophrenia. It's a neat article that brings together a lot of different topics we talk about in class. You can read it here.

Whoa.

So it looks like if you want to be a doctor, you'd better know your way around a computer!

The scientific method

Since you have been studying science, probably since grammar school, you've probably hopefully learned about the scientific method. You, and most everyone that has come before you, has learned the scientific method as a series of precise steps that you must take in order for you to "do science." In reality, not a single scientist in the world uses the scientific method as you have learned it. It does however underlie every single bit of research and experimentation that they do.

Over at Neuroskeptic there is a great (and short) piece about what the scientific method really is and how you use it every time you try to figure something out. Yeah, it's summer, but it's definitely worth taking five minutes to read. You can read it here.

Pruney fingers

Just about every year when we cover the integumentary system, someone asks why your fingers get pruney when you stay in the water too long. Mark Changizi thinks it may have to do with increasing your grip, kind of like rain treads on tires. Check out Ed Yong's coverage of the story here at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Virtual pig dissection

In case you missed anything in the lab, you can refer to the virtual fetal pig dissection here.

Please Watch This!

Important information as we head towards the summer...

Sliding Filament Model

This video might help you to visualize how interactions between actin and myosin cause muscles to shorten.

Virtual Frog Dissection

In case you didn't get to finish your frog dissection in lab or need some more information, there's a good virtual dissection here.

Great pictures and a notable birthday

Canada Goose by J.J. Audubon

If you haven't seen the cover of this month's National Geographic, you need to. Also, some spectacular photos of rock climbing in Yosemite that you can see online here.

On a biology related note, today is the 226th birthday of John James Audubon. If you're not familiar with Audubon, check out his Wikipedia page here. Not only was he an incredible ornithologist, but many also credit him for starting the conservation movement in the United States.

Gut bacteria and you

A little light reading for vacation. Carl Zimmer reports on a new study that identified four distinct groups of gut bacteria (similar to the idea of blood types) found in humans. You can read about the story here at his blog The Loom.

Happy Easter!

Up and blogging

Cold Spring Harbor Labs has a new blog up and running. Check out LabDish here.

What is science?

Lytic cycle vs. lysogenic cycle

This diagram seems to help a lot of people...

From: 
"Lytic cycle: reference." The Full Wiki. Web. 24 March 2011. http://www.thefullwiki.org/Lytic_cycle.

Always save your work!

Ed Yong over at Not Exactly Rocket Science has a great article about the Miller-Urey experiment that we talked about in class. After the initial 1953 experiment, Stanley Miller redid the experiment again in 1958, but never analyzed his results. He kept the sample results in his lab, meticulously cross-referenced to his notes on the experiment and never looked at them again. When Miller died, he left all of his science stuff to his former student Jeffrey Bada. Bada had one of his students, Adam Johnson, analyze the samples and he found some very surprising results. Ed also discuses the relevance of the Miller-Urey experiment to the history of science. You can read the whole story here.

Our Primate Family Tree

Polina Perelman from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute and her team has sequenced genes from 186 species of primates and tightened up the primate family tree. You can see the tree here and check out Ed Yong's slide show at Not Exactly Rocket Science here. If you're feeling really ambitious, you can read Perelman's paper here.

Askin's Tumor

Earlier this morning, we had the chance to hear Mrs. Rachel Baumgartner Lozano speak about her story of the miraculous cure of her cancer through the intercession of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade. Mrs. Lozano said that she was diagnosed with an Askin's tumor.

So what's an Askin's tumor?

An Askin's tumor falls in the group of sarcomas called the Ewing family and is a peripheral neuralepithelioma (PNET) of the chest wall. The Ewing sarcomas are related because the all share a reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 11 and 22 and similar cellular physiology. The translocation occurs in over 95% of Ewing sarcomas.

The translocation involves moving the Ewing sarcoma gene (EWS) from chromosome 22 and attaching it to the friend leukemia integration 1 transcription factor (FLI1) on chromosome 11. This combination of genes, EWS-FLI1, codes for a protein  that acts as an abnormal transcription factor and it is implicated as a possible cause of Ewing sarcomas.

The Ewing sarcomas are very rare, occurring in only about 3 cases for every million people in the United States with 64% of cases occurring in teenagers.


Reference:
Toretsky, Jeffrey A. "Ewing Sarcoma and Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors." emedicine. 17 June 2008. web. 10 March 2011. <http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/990378-overview>

Music and the Mind

Continuing the theme of yesterday's performance of the University of Dayton's Jazz Ensemble, watch this episode of NOVA called Musical Minds. Music has a very interesting relationship with the way our brain works. If you think this is interesting, you may also want to check out Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks' book about music and the human mind.


Musical Minds from Jon Meredith on Vimeo.

Obligate collective foraging, nomadism, and highly modified queens

You may be thinking, "What's with the title?" 


Well, it's three of the evolutionary reasons for "army ant syndrome" which may be the cause of the ant death spiral (or less sensationally known as the ant mill). Check out this video. 

It's apparently caused by some wayward ants following a pheromone trail. One follows another and so on until they begin spiraling around a central point. Eventually, either the mill is broken, or all the ants die from exhaustion (check here for a concise description as well as links to primary research).

You may also be interested to read this entry by Frederic Delsuc which has a very interesting explanation about why this behavior hasn't been selected against. It seems that this is the trade off army ants were stuck with. They got collective foraging ability and paid for it with the possibility of one ant causing an entire colony to all skate right to their deaths.

Gel electrophoresis virtual lab

Since we're kind of limited as to what we can show you in the lab, it's probably worth your while to go through this virtual lab from the University of Utah's Genetic Learning Center. It will help you to understand exactly what's going on in the gel and how we can use the information we learn from the process to tell us something about the molecules we ran in the gels.

Check it out here.

Free Darwin!

Why go out and buy On the Origin of Species when you can read the original 1859 version for free here.

Octopus Brains

Check out this awesome cephalopod video while we get the blog up and running...