Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR) allow geneticists to make millions of copies of DNA - quite central to lots of synthetic biology projects, genetic testing, etc.
Mostly I'm posting this video just because it's wonderful.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Diversity of Species; Microscopy; Spike's Gallery
Diversity of Species - to the right you can see an example of the cutest species in our apartmentThere are at least ten varieties of houseplants in my apartment, and outside in the neighbor's garden I can see a couple dozen species of plants. In our apartment I've noticed some fruit flies lately, although as the weather has cooled they seem to have moved on. We adopted a kitten this week, and Ebi pleasantly boosts the number of mammal species to two. If only I'd been at my mom's house in Florida for this post, I would have felt more significant somehow; she has 5 dogs, turtles, lots of fish, frogs, toads, and grows a bunch of food in her jungle/backyard... quite a healthy, diverse environment! Is anyone counting the species of plants in their pantries/refrigerators?
Microscopy!
As I've often felt frustrated with two-dimensional scientific illustrations of cells (even if they help differentiate organelles), I was fascinated by the fluorescence images on this FSU site. As for Spike's Gallery, the user-generated/submitted content was especially impressive. Following the survey of plant species in my neighbor's yard, these fern microscope-photos made me smile.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Gene therapy, Vitamin animation, and biochemistry
While I think that everyone has made good points regarding my hopefulness and trepidation about gene therapy, my feelings are as ambiguous as ever. How about this madness, though, about a gene therapy case wherein a German patient suffering from full-blow AIDS no longer has the virus thanks to bone marrow cells which cleansed him of the disease? That is good, good news.
After reading a few classmates' comments on the short animations and their lack of explanation, I had my own dissatisfying experience with a few examples on the University of Akron site. When I happened to click on a link to an animation about Vitamins, my curiosity was sated for a while! This one was not just an abstract, simple graphic representation, but a slide show of sorts, with plenty of language presented in an organized fashion. There's an explanation about vitamins in general, and brief description of water-soluble vs. fat-soluble vitamins. The slides themselves each include atomic structure, name, function (when known) and foods in which the vitamin can be found. There is so much that officially still seems to be "unknown" about how nutrition works!
The wikipedia link on Biochemistry prominently featured the endocrine system, which took me on a glorious web-surfing tangent. The endocrine system, which involves the heart, stomach, liver, kidney, brain, sexual organs,nervous system, etc. seems to be a great way to bridge the rift between TCM and other forms of medicine. Dealing with "metabolism, growth, development... and body function," seems pretty holistic, and perhaps endocrinologists would be more likely to work in a Chinese medical framework than, say, narrower-focused specialists. I would like to do some reading/writing relating hormones and qi. How are hormones even talked about in current TCM? My understanding is that hormonal issues are well-treated with herbs and acupuncture, but I have not yet come across much discussion on the subject.
After reading a few classmates' comments on the short animations and their lack of explanation, I had my own dissatisfying experience with a few examples on the University of Akron site. When I happened to click on a link to an animation about Vitamins, my curiosity was sated for a while! This one was not just an abstract, simple graphic representation, but a slide show of sorts, with plenty of language presented in an organized fashion. There's an explanation about vitamins in general, and brief description of water-soluble vs. fat-soluble vitamins. The slides themselves each include atomic structure, name, function (when known) and foods in which the vitamin can be found. There is so much that officially still seems to be "unknown" about how nutrition works!
The wikipedia link on Biochemistry prominently featured the endocrine system, which took me on a glorious web-surfing tangent. The endocrine system, which involves the heart, stomach, liver, kidney, brain, sexual organs,nervous system, etc. seems to be a great way to bridge the rift between TCM and other forms of medicine. Dealing with "metabolism, growth, development... and body function," seems pretty holistic, and perhaps endocrinologists would be more likely to work in a Chinese medical framework than, say, narrower-focused specialists. I would like to do some reading/writing relating hormones and qi. How are hormones even talked about in current TCM? My understanding is that hormonal issues are well-treated with herbs and acupuncture, but I have not yet come across much discussion on the subject.
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