Health NewsLinks for BioEducators
Over lunch at the BioEducators workshop this weekend there was some discussion about bioscience teaching resources. Not the lack of resources because there was no shortage of ideas and examples being passed around, but rather a place to find and share these resources.
Based on what everyone had to share, what the presenters suggested, and a few additions on my own that I have bookmarked here are some sites worth visiting.
We also talked about the value of a Wiki to share resources and we can only hope something like that comes to fruition.
In the meantime check these out, post a comment to add some more, and I'll keep compiling them and create some new webpages with the links.
You can also e-mail us directly at info@genomealberta.ca if you have any ideas.
Avoiding the Heartbreak of Psoriasis
Dr. Shane Green put some of my data up in a presentation for BioScience teachers today so I thought it might be a good idea to get the new information up tonight so without further ado.....
Welcome to Mikenomics 2.0
23andMe is using a new Illumina chip to analyze your spit kit. They introduced it late last year and new users or accounts automatically have their anaylsis done with the new chip when it was introduced, but those of us who signed on early felt a bit left out.
Never fear said 23andMe.
For just the cost of shipping the spit kit they did a new analysis but thanks to a mention on Oprah they immediately fell behind in getting the work done. This is the second time 23andMe has found itself overloaded and apolgized for being behind so a word to new users - don't take on an analysis unless you have lots of patience.
I've posted the raw data and a summary for you and teachers in particular may find it a good example to use in class.
Neanderthal DNA revealed (partially) on Darwin's 200th birthday.
Today, February 12, 2009 represents the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. It is also the 150th year since the publication of his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species. Earlier in the week I attended the “RB Church Lecture in Biotechnology” presented by Dr Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for his life’s work in HIV and Aids. Both Mike and I have blogged his presentation. Today, Darwin’s birthday, there was a major scientific announcement made simultaneously from Leipzig and Chicago and streamed live over the web. I was lucky enough to tune in. The topic was the Neanderthal Genome. This has been a great week for cutting edge genomics.
Twittering A Nobel Lecture
Yesterday I had the honour of being part of a public lecture by Dr. Luc Montagnier, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine. He was speaking at the University of Calgary Health Sciences Centre to what can only be described as a packed house. In fact, the folks at the Med School say it was the best attended public lecture they had hosted. Not only was the lecture theatre full, but another 100 or so stood out in the foyer watching and listening via closed circuit.
I sent out Twitter postings throughout the lecture and got some interesting feedback from some far flung corners on the exercise. The micro-blogs can be a bit cryptic at times and at other times the science zoomed over me but for a record of what happened, read on.
This picture was taken by Bruce Perrault and is courtesy of the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine. For more pictures visit our Picasa site.
Global Genomics – Impact on Alberta: A Roundtable Discussion
This morning I was lucky enough to attend a roundtable discussion sponsored by Genome Alberta. There was an impressive list of attendees, but the major reason for the excitement was the presence of Dr Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for his life’s work in HIV and Aids.
After walking across the Plus15 and winding my way to lecture hall 3, I was delighted to be greeted by Dr, Robert Church at the coffee stand. We spoke briefly of the event about to unfold.
Nobel Discussion on Twitter
This morning we had the honour of hosting a roundtable discussion with Dr. Luc Montagnier, co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Though it was an invitation only event it wasn't a confidential briefing so I Twittered some of the hi-lites tagged #Nobel. By going to www.search.twitter.com you can look for those postings but they don't stay up for a long time so I've done a simple cut and paste so you can see my list of comments done on the fly.
They are in reverse order with the oldest and the bottom and the last one for the morning at the top. That is they way they roll out on Twitter but if anyone has a brilliant idea to change the order I'd really like to hear it.
Gerry Ward will likely do a more complete blog entry later and we'll post pictures on our Picasa photo-sharing site shortly.
Matt Ridley’s The Agile Gene
I love the way Matt Ridley picks a theme when he writes a book, and carries it all the way through. In his best known book, “Genome” he wrote it as an autobiography of a species in 23 chapters. One chapter was for each pair of genes and one chapter for the sex chromosomes.
Ridley starts off The Agile Gene pointing us to a famous photo taken at the Solvey conference on Quantum Physicis. He then has us imagine a photo of twelve hairy men who did not meet, but if they had, would have represented the same impact from the perspective of nature versus nurture. He then takes us through the contributions of each of these scientists along with their collaborators, their supporters and the controversies associated with their individual ideas.
