Health NewsTopoisom - Erase the Knot
For the second year in a row, Dennis Brown has won the Genome Alberta Elementary Award at the Calgary Youth Science Fair. Considering that there are probably close to 500 elementary students participating in the fair, I think it is a considerable achievement by Dennis to have been selected the winner of our prize two consecutive years. I asked Dennis to tell me a little about his experiences and project. Here is what he said:
Mountain Pine Beetle down but not out
I came across an interesting article on the mountain pine beetle (MPB) in the Globe and Mail newspaper from March 25, 2008 (After feast on B.C. forest, pine beetles face famine). It comments that the MPB has basically decimated the lodgepole pine forests in the BC interior. Having eaten themselves out of house and home, their populations should naturally decline in the next three to five years. This would bring the MPB down to normal levels ending the current threat. Is it really that simple?
My Not So Private DNA Test
How secure is my data going to be once my genotyping results are ready? Good question and it is one asked on Dr. Robert Runte’s blog. Guess I’m the guinea pig for this project and I’ll find out one way or another.
Spectacular Spider Silk – A Winning Junior High Project
I asked Sarah Hyslop, the winner of this year’s Genome Alberta Junior Award at the Calgary Youth Science Fair to tell me a little about her experiences and her project. Here is what she told me:
Is Our Identity in Our DNA ?
Sometimes you simply have to believe in serendipity.
Last night , my genotyping project, the Geee! in Genome, a Metis named Elmer Ghostkeeper, and the movie The Last Mimzy would somehow come together. Years in journalism taught me to look for connections to help tell a story and this one just fell into my lap.
Genomics - A Great Field Trip Opportunity
What do you get when two large semis pull up to Telus World of Science, Edmonton and are unloaded under the supervision of their own installation curator? You get Gee as in Genome, a perfect opportunity for a field trip. If you are a student, then tell your teachers to investigate this opportunity. If you are a parent, then phone your school’s administration and tell them about the opening of this exhibition. Alternately, take your children yourself to see this exhibit. If you are a teacher, then check out these curricular connections (Alberta – Other Provinces) and then use the on line booking to get your field trip set-up.
Your DNA Spit Kit
How much can you spit when someone actually tells you have to spit? Suddenly your mouth goes dry. That was the feeling I had earlier today when I did my 23andMe ‘spit kit’. The first 2 kits I had from deDODE and the DNA Ancestry Project were pretty easy to complete. All you had to do was use the swabs that came with their testing packages. One swab for inside the right cheek, one swab for inside the left cheek, put it into the supplied sample holder, then into the pre-addressed shipping package, and you’re done.
Using genomics to understand the mountain pine beetle epidemic
The mountain pine beetle is now a household name in British Columbia and Alberta, thanks to the devastation this little critter has caused in the British Columbia interior. The media is awash with pictures and examples of the scope and scale of the outbreak. It is a constant reminder of how a natural and beneficial forest denizen can explode out of control given the right combination of conditions. With the beetle’s recent foray across the Rockies and into Alberta’s forests, people are asking the questions ‘Where does this stop’ and, more importantly, ‘What can we do’? There is still time to try and manage the outbreak. However, Alberta has become a window, so to speak, onto Canada’s eastern forests. Without action, the potential exists for this outbreak to continue its spread.
Mikes Gene
1953.
A memorable year in the world of genetics. Watson and Crick announced they had unraveled the secret of the structure of DNA. That’s the Double Helix we’ve all learned about it in school. Now 55 years later I walked into a Best Buy store in N.W. Calgary, was directed to the PC Gaming Section and there, next door to the Harry Potter Games , just south of the language tutor and across from a selection of Microsoft Office packages, I found the DNA Ancestry Project. A package that has taken the work of Watson and Crick, added a home saliva sampling kit and for $139.99 I can send off a DNA sample and according to the box at least, look back 150,000 years into my past. Now why it is in the PC Gaming section is beyond me. I don’t even need a computer for this. All I have to do is spit.