Join me LIVE in a conversation about what YOU want to see in a science video
Are you learning when you watch a science video online or are you on autopilot, waiting to be entertained
and hope to absorb information passively?
What do you want in a science themed video? Do you want a lot
of animation and fancy CGI, a charming host, real life activities you can do yourself, to see others doing science? Join others
who have opinions, too.
If you have a Google + account (which you can easily get with a gmail address. Learn more. ), you can speak with me on a Google + hangout where I will be live online along with others who are interested in this topic.
Join Fraser
Cain, publisher of Universe Today, Pamela Gay, an astronomer and podcaster, and me
tomorrow evening Monday, March 26th at 8pm CDT for a hangout hosted by Jerry Nguyen and
Liz Neeley of SciLingual to discuss how we can take science video production and viewing to the next level. If you can't make it, it will
be made available on youtube for viewing at a later time.
For those less familiar with my work, here's
why I'm one of the guests:
I produce videos myself. Most lately are popular science book recommendations.
I do this a service to literacy in general as well as to science literacy. This is my latest book recommendation:
I also create demonstration videos, and while I haven't made a new
one in about a year, I have spent this time rethinking how to present them and looking to up my production values, hopefully
with some assistance.
For those not familiar with my amateur work, I've done several videos using science
to destroy gummy bears (and gummy bears to explain science), using cookies to explain the different blood cells and to share
scientific concepts we see in make-up products. I want people to understand how scientists think and do their work. I've learned
a lot about what NOT to do in video work, but also a lot about what makes a video successful. Here is a combination
of many of my videos with a chemistry theme:
I've hosted videos that are shown internally in some of the largest
scientific companies in the world. I also do voiceover work for textbook animations and look forward to expanding on this!
My dream is to narrate some of the very books I review!
I'm not done producing
videos yet. My future plans include a Gummy Bear destruction mash-up video, and more science IN cosmetics videos where I collaborate
with scientists, communicators and make-up artists to give you the best information possible. In the works are videos about
weak acids and bases (like the famous baking soda and vinegar volcano) in cosmetics, how the hot field of genomics is hoping
to improve skin care and how the physics of optics combined with materials science makes your skin look flawless!
Think
of videos you see online. What are some of your favorites?
The folks at NOVA PBS have made a great short video that shows everyone how they can extract their own DNA using common
household items! It does work, and you don't have to use only strawberries or chicken livers, it's (almost) 100% you!
Before you try it on your own, you might like to know the first DNA to be isolated was accomplished in Germany in 1871,
isolated from pus on bandages from a hospital, by Friederich Miescher. He isolated compounds that were rich in phosphorus
and nitrogen, but not sulfur (proteins have sulfur, nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA do not).
Pus is loaded with white
blood cells that are first on the line of defense in case of an injury or inflammation, called neutrophils. If you want
to learn more about neutrophils (and how they are used in forensics to differentiate
between a male and female victim, among other fun facts), you might want to watch my video about them in the Blood Cell Bakery Series . The image to your right is a single neutrophil. The blue stained structure is the nucleus, which has a funny shape
compared to the images in your textbooks, but this helps these cells squeeze out of blood vessels to damaged tissues quite
easily.
If you follow these instructions, you are isolating DNA from
the epithelial cells in your cheek, and probably some from the bacteria that naturally inhabit your mouth. Having isolated
DNA in the lab, I thought I should I explain here what the purpose of each step is, as some people have asked me about them.
The steps in this video are similar to steps used in the lab, although in the lab we work hard to obtain very pure samples
for analysis and manipulation.
Notice you only require three solutions: salt water, detergent and isopropyl
alcohol.
To obtain any biological specimen, you will want to use salt water in your preparation as
it is an isotonic solution, meaning you won't destroy the cells right away due to an osmotic disruption. (If you want to know
more about osmosis, check out Gummi Bears demonstrate osmosis) In addition, the presence of salt during your prep will neutralize the charges on the sugar phosphate backbone, making
it less soluble in water.
The detergent breaks apart the cell and nuclear membranes. The chemical structure
of soap molecules are able to disrupt the cell membrane. It is essentially poking holes in the fatty (lipid) membranes of
your cells, wrapping up the lipids and carrying them away. It also will help unravel the DNA. Check out the description on Wikipedia for more info!
The alcohol causes the DNA to clump together and drop out (precipitate) of
solution so you can collect it. This has to do with the electrostatic attraction between the sodium ions you added in your
salt solution and the phosphate ions that are on the DNA backbone. Ultimately in salt water, the sodium and phosphate ions
are not going to be very close together. But in ethanol, the sodium and phosphate come together easily. The phosphate's negative
charge is hidden, which makes the DNA (and RNA) less hydrophilic (water loving), and it will then drop out of solution into
that stringy mess you try to spool up onto a stick or a stirring rod much like you would a spider's web on a stick (a slimy
one, for sure).
This will not be a very clean prep for two reasons: 1) you will most likely also have the
DNA from the bacteria in your mouth in the and 2) there might also be a lot of carbohydrate mixed in as well.
In
the lab, we refine our salt solutions, work with various temperatures and use equipment like centrifuges to get the best possible
sample. After that, we can manipulate and analyze the DNA for many purposes useful in forensic and molecular analysis.
But for you, it is fun that you've managed to retrieve what seems invisible, even though we see it working all
the time. A great website for all things DNA, including how and why to extract it, is at Learn Genetics, one of my favorite websites!
If you give this a try, send along your photos and tell me all about it! I'd
love to hear how it worked for you!
Crater, the new book by author of book that inspired October Sky
"October Sky" is one of my favorite feel good movies!
Here's the trailer to refresh your memory!
According to Rotten Tomatoes:"NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam, Jr.'s autobiography provided the basis
for this drama about a teenager coming of age at the dawn of the space race. In 1957, Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a
high school student in Coalwood, West Virginia when the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. While
most of his friends and neighbors react with fear or distrust, Homer is instantly fascinated and begins studying everything
he can find on jet and rocket design. While many of Homer's friends are puzzled by his new obsession, several new friends
share his enthusiasm, and with the encouragement of his teacher (Laura Dern), Homer and his fellow "Rocket Boys"
begin designing and launching their own homemade missiles. However, Homer's father (Chris Cooper) takes a dim view of his
son's interest in rockets and is convinced Homer's future should be the same as his own, working in the local coal mines.
October Sky mixes the drama of traditional family conflicts with a nostalgic glimpse of life in the mid-50's and a look at
the earliest days of our journey into space."
Now, Homer Hickam has written a new book, a fictional sci-fi one. According
to his website:
"A mining colony on the moon. A teen sent on
a deadly mission. And a secret bigger than two worlds.
It's the 22nd Century. A tough, pioneering people mine the moon for Helium-3 to produce energy for a desperate,
war-torn Earth. Sixteen-year old Crater Trueblood loves his job as a Helium-3 miner. But when he finds courage he didn't know
he had and saves a fellow miner, his life changes forever. Impressed by his heroism, the owner of the mine orders Crater to
undertake a dangerous mission. Crater doubts himself, but he has no choice. He must go.
With the help of Maria, the mine owner's frustrating but gorgeous granddaughter,
and his gillie—a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime mold cells—Crater must fight both human and
subhuman enemies. He’ll battle his way across a thousand miles of deadly but magnificent lunar terrain before vaulting
into the far reaches of space, there to recover an astonishing object that could mean the difference between life and death
for every inhabitant on the moon."
Watch this amazing
book trailer! One would think it is for a movie, it's so well done!
Lest anyone new should come to my site and be overwhelmed by lists and
lists of awesome science blogs in my last few posts due to my Science Online 2012 "blog calls", I thought a quick
catch up on some of my book recommendation videos are in order!
I have a major change in my summer compared to previous years. Five
years ago, I was called upon by GAMES (Girls Adventures in Math and Engineering Sciences) at the University of Illinois to design a Bioengineering camp. I really enjoyed sharing with the young ladies how biomedical engineering can improve
our lives. Now that I am no longer affiliated with the bioengineering department and GAMES recognizes my talent for making
complex topics accessible to young people, I have been pulled in to assist with the new Environmental Engineering
Camp.
"Environmental Engineering is about designing solutions for preventing pollution and for cleaning up the environment
if it does get polluted. Environmental Engineering campers will learn about: • sustainability and how the environment,
culture, society, and economics are all linked, • different kinds of pollutants and the cycles they follow as
they move through the air, water and soil, and • what
environmental engineers do to help protect human health and the planet. The campers will learn through lab exercises where they design, build and test pollutant cleaning devices;
field trips to environmental monitoring sites, and other interactive activities."
Other camps include Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, and
Chemical Engineering. (Alums, FYI, Marina Miletic, my friend and faculty in charge of Chemical Engineering has moved and will
not be in charge of the chemical engineering camp).
If you have or are a high school aged girl who would like to attend a sleepover camp and learn engineering concepts
at one of the top engineering schools in the country, she might want to check us out. We have girls attending from all of the country and world! Scholarships
are available, too.
Let's check out some of my book reviews.
First, we go way back to before the holidays and share about another great compendium book called The Physics Book".
This is my nephew quite excited about receiving both "The Math Book" and "The Physics Book" by Clifford Pickover for Christmas!
The next review with
Amanda is about a fabulous book called Math Girls. What an eye-opener to read a bonafide math textbook plus romance novel!
Having left the lab,
I notice I haven't made any other videos besides book reviews. I'm figuring how to resolve that issue currently! I have, in
the editing bin, some footage filmed of products that utilize weak acids and bases in skin and health care products, I just
need to pull those together. I also plan to present a video of how comparative genomics works by using some of the latest
skin care innovations to explain it!
Remember, if you are
missing me here at JLS, you can always follow me on twitter @sciencegoddess or check out some of my posts that go up at Scientific
American (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid)
It looks like I've reached an approximate halfway point in blog calls. I was slowed down by one of those winter illnesses
and now, in order to finish, I probably need to visit about 25/day. Not sure I will completely reach the end before the conference
begins Thursday, January 19. We will see what can be reorganized in the schedule to make time and I'll give it a try. :)
Thanks to all of you who are supportive of my endeavor to visit the blogs for the attendees of Science Online 2012. I have
been learning quite a bit about who posts on which topics and have gathered some very cool information.
There have been
blogs I haven't been able to leave comments on as their commenting system was down, non-existent or I had to be a subscriber
to the site (read $), so I apologize if I didn't leave a comment in those cases!
In Victorian Days, common etiquette insisted socialites pay a call to
residences and leaving a calling card. The resident of the house could decide whether to receive the caller or not. If received,
the visit was usually short, about 20-30 minutes. This social practice allowed one to meet and know members of their community
and for neighbors to know who they were, too.
This is distinct from "making house calls", which are usually
done by professionals, such as a doctor or a veterinarian.
In
modern days of the internet, where there's the opportunity to meet people from all around the world, paying a call in person
is quite impractical. However, if they have an online presence such as a blog, one can pay a blog call and
leave a "calling card" via a kind comment on their site (and usually your website is linked as well). A greater
kindness is to then share with your social media community that you had visited and enjoyed the visit! (Ed Yong and Bora Zivkovic already practice this to a certain extent and are tireless supporters of good science communication.)
I've decided extend my own brand of etiquette with fellow attendees of the Science
Online 2012 conference.
Each January for the past few
years, I've attended Science Online, a conference for people who communicate science via the internet, whether one maintains
a blog or merely uses social media, there are a lot of ways to communicate.
This year sees a larger venue and the ability to enfold more attendees and while I have a fair idea of many of the
science communicators, I know there are many more I don't know well, or know their work well, and thought I would like to
"get to know them" before I see them in person.
So
to that end, I've begun a 4 week run of paying blog calls and saying "Hi". Then I will share with my twitter followers
which post I read and commented on.
Every 50 or so calls,
I'll post here my tweets so you can learn who is out there in our "Science neighborhood".
How else to begin this post but with an explanation of where I have
been for five months? Well, July was very exciting, I witnessed the launch of the last space shuttle (which I posted about over at Scientific American), I ran the girls bioengineering camp (GAMES) which focused on bioengineering
for diabetes diagnosis, monitoring and management. I also taught a Biotechnology Summer Insititute, and saw the launch of
my new blog at Scientific American. Workwise at the university, I also taught my Human Genome and Bioinformatics course for
the Masters of Science Teaching Program.
Since then, I've
been turning my focus to learning new material for my next course, Evolution and Human Health, leaving me little time for
book reviews and other filming for the present time.
Seeing we are coming up upon the holidays and you may be
looking for some scientific gifts for the youngsters in your life, I'd like to present some suggestions for you!
Even though my reviews have slowed down, I did grab a quick session to talk about
two new children's science and nature books, both by authors who illustrated them themselves!
First is James Nardi's
charming and relaxing book, In Mouse's Backyard, which tells all about the environment one can find
just by stepping outside and looking closely. Written in verse and illustrated by Jim's own hand, it features electron micrographs
and descriptions. Adults and children can learn from this book! It is just the kind of book I would have loved as a young
girl!
Ankylosaur Attack! is Daniel Loxton's second book written and illustrated by him
and tells the story of a young tyrannosaur out on his own.
I also read a page from each book!
A while back, I
recommended the amusing book, Pat Schrodinger's Kitty, a book of Quantum Physics for babies, by Tiffany Ard. Today, I highly recommend her very nerdy COLORING BOOK for Very Young Scientists I can't wait to get my hands on one myself!
Naturally, my favorite is the
white blood cell (neutrophil) which really wouldn't need much color since they are named for the fact they don't pick up much
stain when prepared for viewing under the microscope.
You
can learn more about these cells, including how they are used to determine the gender of a victim at a crime scene and why
so many can be found in pus in my video about them from my series "Blood Cell Bakery":
I recently interviewed Ken Murphy for Scientific American about his video called the History of the Sky. I will add a link to that interview as soon as it is live there. As an artist using technology in service of art, he is
big into Maker Faire and has created a few kits where kids can use technology to create bugs and their own light kit. Click
on the kits to be taken to the Amazon page where you can grab one of these.
I also recently test drove and
shared with my youtube viewers and upcoming app for the iPhone that helps you share science with you kids with items you can
find around your house called KidScience! It was due out this fall. I don't have the latest on the release date, but will let you know as soon as I do! Take a look:
I hope you will
share the gift of science with a special young person in your life!
Oh my! It looks like it has been a month since I have posted anything
here. The day job has kept me quite busy! In the meantime however, I have kept quiet several good pieces of news. First,
was the opportunity to cover the Clinton Global Initiative America in Chicago for Scientific American. I found myself drawn to the assignment as the meeting had a segment specifically
dealing with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education. The goal of the CGI is to bring together government,
business and community outreach leaders to figure a way to work together to further common goals. To that end, I interviewed
people with a passion for STEM education, who make tangible strides in the communities they work in in supporting and encouraging
STEM education. The rest of the story will have to wait for the Guest Post at Scientific American.
Early
in June, I also found out that I was one of 150 people chosen, out of 5,500 registrants, to attend the NASA tweetup (a meet
up for people who follow NASA on twitter) for the very last space shuttle launch! Atlantis is slated to launch at 11:26am
on July 8th, to deliver a satellite and rendezvous with the space shuttle. The day before, I will be touring the Kennedy Space
Center and speaking with engineers, scientists, technicians and astronauts. I will also be allowed with in 600 meters of the
launch pad. I am looking forward to this fabulous experience and to meet some great people I have been following on twitter
for quite some time!
I made a video introducing myself and explaining what the tweetup means to me. You can see
that HERE. One of my very first science memories was, as a very young girl, I was playing outside on the evening of July 20, 1969 when
my mother yelled out the door "Do you want to come in and see men walk on the moon?" to which I remember yelling
"Yeah!" and came running in! It was hard at that age to imagine that people were really up there on the moon and
not falling back to the earth!
I had two local news features done. First was with WCIA news at 5pm, and you
can see that video clip HERE. Second, was a very enjoyable interview with Kevin and Sarah of MIX 94.5, which you can listen to HERE .
My recent tweets have been focusing on the final launch of Atlantis and some of the science of space
travel.
Here are some of the links I've been able
to share:
What
do I most appreciate about the NASA space program and the space shuttle? It is the fact that ingenuity and creativity of humans
who are trained in science, technology engineering an math are able to safely transport humans to space and back.
AND, for the big news I've been dying to share with you for MONTHS!
Scientific
American is rolling out their new blogging community and I am proud to say that I am a part of it. For someone who has read
Scientific American (SciAm) for a good part of her life (the magazine is over 160 years old, the oldest American magazine)
and as someone who has a passion for communicating science, I could think of no greater honor than to participate in this
well established, high quality publication in the online world.
I will be co-hosting a blog called PsiVid, about science in video format; online in the form of the short videos one can see on youtube to the longer science films
being created all of the time. Dr. Carin Bondar and I will be collecting videos, interviewing the creators and asking for feedback from producers, scientists and of course,
you! Feel free to stop by and see what we are all about HERE.
Joanne Loves Science is here to stay! Psi-Vid is in addition to my outreach here, but I will be certain
to share with you what I am doing over there on occasion.
Mariette DiChristina's (Editor-in-Chief) welcome post.
Happy Reading, everyone. I hope you
enjoy the links to the NASA information in honor of the very last shuttle launch and will visit Scientific American often
to enhance your appreciation of the world of science.
I have been quite busy with large number of projects, which include
filming videos for a science company and of course, setting up my new course on the Human Genome and Bioinformatics. Soon
I will be preparing to teach a hands-on cell biology module for BioNanotechnology Summer Institute, and of course for the girls bioengineering camp, GAMES. And our iGEM synthetic biology team will be starting their project imminently. It will all be here before I know it!
Lots of science reading news. First, the Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science
Reading Contests have begun again. In collaboration with Jeff from www.scienticity.net (ok, he's doing the lion's share this
year!) we encourage kids ages 8-12 and teens ages 13-18 to read a book in the field of science, technology, engineering or
math and make a short video review. Last year, we gave away an iPod touch and a nice pair of binoculars as well as books and
other small prizes. You can see last year's winners here!
Both contests have Facebook groups which will link you to
further contest rules and information!
I have begun a new series featuring authors who have
written at least three popular science and technology books. My first is about Steven B. Johnson, who wrote one of my favorite books, The Ghost Map.
The second featured author is Carl Zimmer. His video is above, and also here:
I have been reading a lot
lately. Some reviews filmed but not processed include:
As you can see, there have
been some changes to my website (if you are a regular visitor, I'm sure you noticed). I hope to make it a more pleasing, intuitive
experience for visitors.
I've been a #Scimom for 63 years. I know I don't look that old. The kids keep me young!
I really do need to
chime in here before the month of April ends. It seems there is something of an event called #scimom around the internet.
Being a mom and a lover of science. I want to address how one might raise kids that love learning and by default, will probably
love science.
It's ok if my kids don't end up choosing science as a life's vocation. They just can't HATE
science. In other words, if my kids don't choose science as their career, I'm perfectly fine as long as each has something
they are passionate about and find ways to use their natural talents.
You may wonder if our house is a never
ending splay of science experiments, terrariums, pets,
particle colliders and ecosystems? Yes and no.
Pets. Check.
Spontaneous science experiments. Check.
A slug named Mr. Slugglesworth, in his terrarium (may he rest in peace). Check.
For
the remainder, it depends on if you consider the teen son's room an ecosystem and the tendency for items to fly through the
house at the hands of boisterous children a potential particle collider.
I have four children, currently ages 19,
17, 15 and 12. Boy, girl, girl, boy. While they are not done being raised, I think I have enough experience behind me
to share what I think has "worked" so far. If these kids came in series (and not in parallel-ish-ness), I'd have
63 years experience raising kids! Significantly older than my age.
A bit of trivia:
All of the kids, except # 3, were born at 38 minutes past the hour. These same
three were born in the pm. Child # 3, fittingly very much her own person, was born on 48 minutes past the hour and in the
am, inconsiderately keeping me awake all night (I still love you, don't worry, dear!). We affectionately tease her about being
just a little different.
More trivia:
After all kids' birthdays have been had in the year by July, the ages of the boys add up to the same age as the girls
ages added. Did I figure this out? Not me! The kids did.
So what? These numbers are unique to my
children and they know it. They love to play with words and numbers. They were continually surrounded by words and numbers
and enjoyed games played on paper and out loud.
Finding the similarities and connections, as
above, are part of how I wanted to help them create a curious world view where they
1) look for similarities
2) look for differences
3) make connections between unlikely items or ideas
4)
ask "what is this an example of?"
5) ask "what
is an example of this?"
6) wonders"if there
were no limitations with what I could do with an item, what would I do with it?"
7) make observations and can articulate clearly what they are seeing and even "guess"
some hidden attributes
Needless to say, dinners were filled with guessing games and lighthearted fun. Car rides were
the opportunity for observations of the world. Every event is an opportunity to learn and a chance to stretch your knowledge.
I liked to institute little challenges. "I'll bet I can read this book before you do!" of "It's been so long
since I've done a times table, let's race and see who wins, I'll bet you'll beat me!"
I am a big believer
in helping kids discover their talents and learning styles. I believed in stimulating different parts
of their brains so thought it was a good idea to require that each kid play at least one instrument and take up at
least one sport or dance.
This has been successful in allowing each child see what they are capable of
doing and maybe where their limitations lie. Natural talent has been unearthed and either cultivated or tossed aside.
This one should come as no surprise! Instill a Love of books--have
books everywhere. It is very important that kids are surrounded by books. Visits to bookstores, especially to a defunct
independent bookstore and libraries were (and still are) the norm for my kids. I am always happy to hear "Can we go to
the library?" (Yes, they have computer time, GameBoy privileges and TV time, but they have been fairly good at balancing
these things, thankfully!)
Ultimately, how can one get a child to want to learn? Find what
they are curious about, interested in and passionate for, and use that (or those) as the basis for teaching all of the other
topics such as reading, writing and math. It makes everything so much easier. Without curiosity and passion, learning will
be drudgery.
Don't forget to be curious about the world yourself. Be willing to find the
answers to things you don't know the answer to and articulate it out loud so kids see you solving problems. Be willing to
help your kids find the resources they need to explore a topic they are interested in.
Let your
children out in the world and let it influence them!
Ahem. Bragging mom alert. :) My eldest son was an absolute
genius at geography and even participated in the Nat Geo Geography Bee several years in a row, placing quite highly several
times at the state level. I thought for sure this would be his destiny.
And then he was bullied by a tornado at
age 12. Somehow this set something in motion inside of him that led him to pursue Atmospheric Sciences. He will be a junior
at the U of Illinois this fall and is an intern for the USGS water survey. I would never have guessed this would happen, but
he's doing quite well and seems comfortable with his decision.
Let your children experience a
lousy chemistry teacher and a great physics teacher.
OK, maybe not, but this is what has inspired my eldest daughter to pursue science. Seeing how different
teachers teach can give them perspective on how they best learn. If they have been given the tools to think about how they
think, then these differences in teaching styles will make them better students.
In these "63 years",
I have lived an long life with these human youngsters. Sometimes they are very trying, require WAY too much driving, have
managed to knock the 'chaperone' out of me (don't ask about the bus ride to Disney) and maybe cost more than I wish they did, but they bring me an amazing amount of joy to watch them become the incredible
people they are.
My new position at the
University of Illinois involves creating online courses for the Online Master in Teaching
Science-Biology degree. The first
course up is one I'm creating about the Human Genome and Bioinformatics. While looking up information that might be useful
for middle school and high school teachers, I found some great sites with games and stories about bioinformatics I thought
I would pass along to you.
Bioinformatics is a field of study that helps biologists manage, store, and use massive amounts
of biologic data, including information from DNA and protein sequences. To become a bioinformatician, one would have to know
a bit of molecular biology and a lot of computer programming skills. This is a very hot field, so if you are good with computers
and programming and are willing to learn molecular biology, you are almost guaranteed a career after some training.
In the meantime, I have found
some very fun and easy ways to interact with biological data without being a bioinformatician or
researcher. Each of these examples access very commonly used FREE databases. How can a member of the public access such high
end scientific information for free? Because we pay for the research with your tax dollars! We pay for scientists to do the research and place the
information on these websites to be available to you as well as other researchers. Knowing a little molecular biology yourself,
you can learn more about diseases and how protein and DNA sequences are involved. We have a lot more to learn, but feel free
to look on and interact as our knowledge grows.
Would you like to see
your name in DNA? How can we do this? As we know, DNA is transcribed, or read, to become mRNA (messenger RNA). This mRNA is
then translated by tRNA (transfer RNAs) to become a protein. This is the "central dogma" of biology. DNA always
makes proteins, never sugars, carbohydrates or lipids. But those proteins can help the cells store, make and use the other
products!
Proteins
are long chains of amino acids. Amino acids can sometimes have long names such as "aspartic acid" and "threonine"
so scientists came up with a way to shorten them. First, they made three letter nicknames such as asp or thr.
Even that is quite long when reading some protein sequences, so they shortened them to individual letters such as A and D.
Did
you know that the first amino acid to be discovered was from asparagus? In 1806, two French chemists isolated a compound from
asparagus, which was subsequently named asparagine (Asn or N)!
Since there are only about 21 standard amino acids, it is simple to assign
a single letter of the alphabet to the amino acids. With a few letters left over, some letters won't have corresponding amino
acids.
We also know that each protein matches a three letter codon of DNA (or a few redundant codons), so we can, just for
fun, translate your name to DNA and search all the protein sequences we have, and then tell you what protein your name is!
deCODE is supported and created by EMBL-EBI (European Molecular Biology
Laboratory- European Bioinformatics Institute)
Click on the above
image, which will take you to the deCODE website, enter your name, your pet's name, your grandma's name...anything, and see
what protein it becomes! Mine is similar to a protein called P46093iGPR4_HUMAN which is probably a G-protein coupled receptor
(I recall that a GPCR crosses the entire cell membrane in eukaryotes, senses the environment and sends signals into the cells.
It is a part of big superfamily of proteins with many different functions). To turn your name into protein, to DNA and back
to protein takes quite a bit of computing power and is a fun way to see bioinformatics in action.
The nice thing about the deCODE
exercise is it will tell you what it does at each step. Give it a try!
Click on the Gene Boy image below
and head to the website to "play" with it. You might also check out their other fantastic resources. I highly recommend
this site if you want to learn how to manipulate DNA sequences.
If you are a REAL gamer, then
you simply must try FoldIt! Proteins are not just
long strands of amino acids. Based on their chemistry, they tend to fold into fairly predictable shapes. By playing FoldIt,
you may actually be able to help scientists predict how proteins are folded (possibly even the ones you found using your name).
Click on the image below to go to a page where you can watch this well made video about how the game is played. I love that
you can "Solve Puzzles for Science"!
Maybe instead of playing games,
you happen to enjoy reading. There are two websites I suggest that are full of great stories about proteins that are important
in our lives. The stories then connect you to the databases to tell you more about the disease, disorder or protein associated
with those, if you care to explore.
Protein Spotlight
is affiliated with the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The author
has also written books with the stories about proteins, including one for children called Journey into a Tiny World that can be purchased for a small price (physical copy) or download for free (e copy). As the the website says,
"This is the tale of two molecules - Globin and Poietin - who set out to save a little girl's life." Be sure
to check out PDB's Protein of the Month, too!
"Coffee Break is a resource at NCBI that combines
reports on recent biomedical discoveries with use of NCBI tools....Each vignette also highlights the NCBI tools and resources used in the research
process. These tools include PubMed, PubMed Central, Entrez Gene, and MapViewer.Coffee Break articles should be fun and informative reading for molecular
biologists, clinicians, and students, and may serve as teaching aids for college and graduate students."
I do really enjoy both Protein
Spotlight and Coffee Break!
Finally, I have a fun bioinformatics app on my iPhone. It is called "Molecules" . This app is also
a service of the Protein Data Bank listed above. I've had fun with it and most everyone is intrigued by seeing the 3D protein
molecule images rotating on the screen.
These activities should keep most of you busy for a while.
Science Fair Season and Great Science Moments/Teachers
It's science fair season!
There are many, many science fairs to become involved in, some beginning in your school, then moving to regionals and state
and even national levels. Most of these have begun, so if you haven't participated yet, you may not have a chance until next
year.
An
exception to this is the Google GLOBAL Science Fair! Depending on the science
fair project you want to complete, you still have time! The deadline is April 4th. Not much time, but doable!
This science fair is unique in that you run your experiment and create a presentation that you film and submit (two minute
video), or you can create a twenty slide presentation. Check out the rules HERE
They have a pretty snazzy introductory video for the contest featuring a Rube Goldberg device: Take a look!
This video courtesy of Unruly Media.
What's in it for you? Of course, you will have an opportunity to showcase
your science talent and interest, but there are also some incredible prizes! There will be 3 finalist winners, one in
each age category 13-14, 15-16, 17-18. One of of the 3 finalist winners will be selected as the Grand Prize winner.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PRIZES which include a National
Geographic Expedition to the Galapagos Islands (I'm jealous already), a $50,000 scholarship (wow!) And that's not all! Luckily
there is a web page set up for this...check it out!
If you want to enter, here is the video to show you how.
While I can't enter, maybe one year I will get to be a judge! We can all dream! It would be great fun.
I promise I'll be keeping my eye out for the winning projects.
Have you ever had a great science (or math) moment in school with a teacher
(or at home with a parent) that is so memorable that you want to share it with the world? I love to hear these kinds of stories!
I have set up a place for you to do this athttp://www.facebook.com/joannelovesscience
How did this begin? It all started
with some banter with Jeri Ellsworth (@jeriellsworth) on twitter before our appearance Dr. Kiki's Science Hour (see March
10 post) where I asked people to share their favorite stories!T The response was overwhelming and encouraging. So many people
like science, even if just for a moment!
Here we are recorded from our 50 minute conversation. Jeri was an amazing substitute host,
and I was quite smiley! We talked about science education and some of my background, which does NOT include being a SUPER
model by any stretch! :)
If you join the science
fair, or know someone who has, I'd love to hear about your project and experience!
I'm toying with the idea of "Theme weeks" where
I will post something everyday of the week every one or two months on a topic of interest! I'm open to suggestions!
US Science Education Discussion on Dr.Kiki's Science Hour and Book Updates
I have been a very busy reader lately and want to share about some great books I've been enjoying
and hope you can delve into very soon, too.
First of all, I will be on Dr. Kiki's Science Hour today (March 10, 2011) with the fabulous self taught electrical engineer, Jeri Ellsworth.
Check out this video about batteries, one in a series explaining electrical engineering to the masses:
Dr. Kiki is out on maternity leave, so the two of us gals will cause a little mayhem by discussing
the state of science education in the US. I'm not an education policy expert by any means, but have always been interested
in how to best explain science to the general public (hence this website).
Jeri and I started a flurry of
activity on twitter by asking people to share memorable science teachers or specific science moments!
So
far, informally, I see the following trends:
Most share a story from 7th, 8th or 9th grade.
As expected, explosions and guts are very memorable.
People really appreciate a teacher
who listens, cares and believes in them!
People like the funny or unexpected.
More on this at a later date!
Onto books:
In
education, I just read the book by Teach for America's founder Wendy Kopp, A Chance to Make History:
What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All A very revealing look at what it takes to have teachers and an education system with the power to transform the
life of children in the poorest and underserved areas of the country (and world). Great leaders are important!
In
science, I have a couple of recent video reviews including the new one up above about two tenacious diseases, MRSA and Cancer.
Probably not good reads for someone who is nervous about their health!
It means that many websites will feature extra activities, including videos to watch, like these here at NBCLearn, where you can learn various aspects of chemistry.
You can visit a lot of chemistry websites. Check out the Chemistry Blog Roll in the middle left of this blog for starters, if you like.
You could even make it a point to read a great book about chemistry! I have several
to recommend, but you can start with the books I review in my new review as seen under My Latest Book Review . Perhaps you notice the new background? I'm giving it a try.
Maybe you could learn that cats can teach us a lot about chemistry, too! I found a delightful site calledMaster Organic Chemistry with a post that caught my eye, written by James. I have grabbed excerpts from this post:
"Behold: a cat in my neighborhood.
In the picture on the left, she’s lying down, whereas in the picture on the right, she’s
sitting and scratching. She’s changed her shape, but you recognize her as the same cat. Why’s that?
Beyond the fact that the markings are the same, we know intuitively that cats can move their limbs
around – they have a certain freedom of movement.
Depending on what they’re
doing at the time, whether sleeping or scratching or looking out across the street, they’ll move their limbs to adopt
different orientations."
He goes on, with some lolcat images to explain high energy conformations and low
energy conformations and continues with the most unusual image to represent what molecules CAN and CAN'T do, much in the way
what cats can and can't do without some gruesome manipulations:
"Here’s two more pictures
of cats in my neighborhood.
Now is THIS the same cat? No way – kitty on the left is normal whereas the one on the right looks
like it paid a visit to the Island of Dr. Moreau.
Unlike conformations, which can be
interconverted by movement of the limbs, here the connectivity is different. The leg and tail are switched.
No matter how they move, they cannot interconvert. The limbs are in a different configuration.
However, they *are* similar. If we did some (very morbid) major surgery but if we just switched
the leg and the tail back, we’d clearly obtain the same cat. In other words, their constitutents -
that is to say, their limbs - are the same, but arranged in different orders. Let’s go out on a limb and call them
constitutional isocats."
Go visit and learn more if
you like. For those not quite up on their chemistry iso- means "same" and the proper term he substituted
isocats for is isomer. Isomers are molecules that have the same number of atoms but differ in the way the atoms are arranged.
Here is one more LOLcat poster explaining science:
Most of us know at least of protons, neutrons and electrons in atoms, but may be less familiar with quarks.
Every proton is made up of two UP quarks and one DOWN quark (there are six flavors of quarks all together, but their
names are about all I know by heart), hence why these cats are labeled U for up and D for down.
How are protons
important in chemistry? Do you know? The number of protons in an atom is known as the atomic number, which determines
the chemical element to which the atom belongs. For example, the atomic number of Gallium, from which "disappearing
spoons" are made (and you can link to a video to see this happen in my video review) is 31; this means that each gallium
atom has 31 protons and that all atoms with 31 protons are gallium atoms.
Watch a gallium spoon disappear!
My personal goal for this International
Year of chemistry is to make more videos featuring the chemistry of make-up. I've explained the chemistry of mascara and of nailpolish. I've got some good ideas coming up.
Science Online resources from workshops and panels
After my exhausting hospital ordeal, I mustered enough strength to fly
out to Raleigh, North Carolina for this years Science Online conference (many thanks to Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker for their marvelous efforts again this year). This is where those
of us who use the online environment to share about science come together to discuss current issues and generally share a
lot of ideas. This conference is run as an "unconference" style where the attendees create the content and topics
of the workshop. We do this on our own wiki and it is a successful event each and every year!
Thursday night was the keynote talk by Robert Krulwich. You may have seen him on TV or have
heard him on the NPR as one part of the team of RADIOLAB. You might want to check out their innovative podcasts that help people sneakily and enjoyably learn science.
Friday included a morning full of optional tours. My roomie and co-presenter
for a few workshops, Carin Bondar, and I instead took some time to have our photo taken (many thanks to Louis) together for a future video blog project we have in the works. More on that when the opening day draws closer.
Since Carin and I both create videos, we volunteered to host a workshop on amateur
video making. The portion I presented was based on questions I receive on a regular basis about making videos from people
who watch mine on occasion. In case people were unaware, I do everything for my videos. It would be great to have a team of
helpers, but they'd have to work for free at this point. I do not claim to know everything about video making and I consult
web resources quite often.
This powerpoint presentation contains the information we presented. It is in pptx format, so not everyone will be able to easily
access it if the ppt program is not up to that level.
Carin and I also presented a First Annual Science Online Film Festival, Video: from YouTube to
TV to Hollywood and back: Mini Science Film Festival. We have some great entries. Here are the links to the videos eligible for voting with 1st,
2nd and 3rd place videos listed as such. Thanks to those who attended and voted!
Carin and I are keeping our eyes out for great entries for
the next Science Online Film Festival, and also for featuring on our new project, so feel free to suggest some to us or to
start making some yourself!
I also hosted with The Science
Comedian, Brian Malow, a panel called The Entertainment Factor - Communicating Science with Humor as well as assisting
on a panel about How to explain science in blog posts with too many co-panelists to list, and finally, Perils
of blogging as a woman under a real name with wonderful
co-panelists Sheril Kirshenbaum, Anne Jefferson, and Kathryn Clancy
Saturday night's banquet included a marvelous talk by Canopy Meg (Dr. Meagan Lowman), a performance by The Science Comedian, and our presentation of the three top videos in the Science
Film Festival.
As always, I had a wonderful time and
enjoyed meeting many people I only speak with online! I could not possibly list them all here!
Upcoming next post, my review of three chemistry books and an introduction to the International
Year of Chemistry!
Hospital Stays: A Giant Biomedical Vocabulary Test and a Survey of Bioengineering!
Many people get sick
to varying degrees and may require hospitalization. I just recently spent a week in the hospital in a lot of pain, ending
in surgery. Not wanting to merely whine about the experience, I will use this opportunity to highlight the field of biomedical
engineering and also use it to help you navigate the complex world of biomedical vocabulary. You might also learn a bit of
anatomy, physiology, and chemistry as well.
Back to
my story, but first, lets look at the accessory organs of digestion in the abdomen:
The largest organ of the body is the liver (and when doctors and
scientists talk about functions and parts of the liver, they usually include the prefix hepato-, or hepat-,
“liver” from the Greek).It is responsible for filtering the blood that comes from the small
intestine. It helps to metabolize the components of your meal. It also produces a product called bile (chole- is
the prefix used for bile. You might recognize this prefix in the words cholesterol and cholera). Bile helps to make fat from
your meal in your intestine mix better in the watery secretions for digestion. Extra bile from the liver is stored in the
gallbladder for easy release into the small intestine upon signals that food is in there. Bile has a yellowish color due to
bilirubin, from the breakdown of erythrocytes(erythro-, “red”, cyte-, “cell”)
You might check out my Blood Cell Bakery video about red blood cells here. Bilirubin is what gives urine its yellowish color. It is what makes a very old bruise appear yellow as the blood that was
under the skin breaks down. Too much bilirubin can cause a symptom called jaundice when levels are very high in the body in
certain illnesses.
Jaundice
Bilirubin molecule
The pancreas (pan- "all" + kreas
"flesh") is an absolutely critical organ. It has two portions that can be discerned microscopically. One is an EXOCRINE
(exo-, “outside”, + krinein, “to secrete”) component. Digestive enzymes that are
produced by the pancreas are sent through tubes called ducts into the small intestine. These enzymes help digest fats, starches
and proteins. Recall that I filmed a gummy bear video to demonstrate the properties and the role of one protein digesting enzyme, trypsin.
Another component of the pancreas is the ENDOCRINE (endo- “internally” + krinein"to secrete”) portion.
This part of the pancreas secretes, into the BLOODSTREAM, the important hormones insulin to help decreased
blood sugar levels, and glucagon, which will help the liver raise low blood sugar.
The
pancreas under a microscope.
The pale area is the ENDOCRINE
portion
Darker pink is the EXOCRINE portion.
NOTE: the pancreas and the gall bladder both
have ducts that fuse to one duct called the COMMON BILE DUCT that drains into the first portion of the small intestine (the
duodenum) This plays an important role in my story.
Lets step back to about eight years ago. I had a terrible pain, like a band around my midsection over a Memorial
Day weekend. Turns out I was having a gallbladder attack. I was a bit young for it, but this would not be unheard of. Upon
further diagnosis with ultrasound (high frequency sound waves used to create images, the same technique used to see babies
during pregnancy, see this video of how ultrasound works), I was told I had numerous pigment stones; tiny, black stones in my gallbladder. Presence of stones in the gallbladder
is referred to as cholelithiasis (from the Greek: chol-, "bile" + lith-, "stone"
+ iasis-, "process") and are usually made of three components: bilirubin, calcium, and cholesterol. My
gallstones were a result of my body breaking down the pale, small, and less effective red blood cells I create due to a genetic
disorder and tendency toward iron deficient anemia and were thus mostly comprised of bilirubin. Someone with cholesterol issues
will most likely have the large cholesterol stones.
Ultrasound of gallstones in a gallbladder
All imaging techniques used in medicine
are examples of bioengineering.
Having my gallbladder removed surgically was
not what I wanted to do at that time. I’d have an occasional attack, where a stone would travel down the bile duct with
difficulty but endured the few hours of pain with a sense of resignation.
Mid-December 2010, I was not feeling well. I was having
the classic symptoms of a gallbladder attack. It lasted for several hours, and by the evening I had some jaundice in the sclera (whites) of my eyes and dark urine. These
are bad signs, I knew it, but wanted to go to the NCBI bioinformatics workshop the next day in Chicago. I attended the workshop
during the day, checked into the hotel and in the middle of the night, experienced more pain. In the morning (I won’t
say I slept), my skin was also slightly yellow, but I rationalized I was just to be sitting at a computer, so will get through
the workshop and drive home, and if I still felt poorly, I’d go to the doctor. I did place a call to the nurse just
to make sure I wasn’t being too foolish (oh, I was).
As soon as the very informative workshop finished, I drove back home with severe abdominal pain, but
luckily never started vomiting, which is an even worse sign than the jaundice. Later, a nurse would say to me “You people
with a high tolerance for pain do not do yourselves any favors!” Don’t bother scolding me, I have already been
scolded several times.
I was checked into
the ER in severe pain and welcomed a pain relieving opiod, a powerful type of painkiller. Would you like to learn more about
painkillers? I really enjoyed this video from an organic chemist in the UK, Professor Dave at York.
I was subjected
to a CAT scan. CAT stands for Computerized Axial Tomography. This is basically an Xray machine that moves around your body
to capture full images. Here is a video about how CAT or CT scans work:
Depending
on what is to be viewed in the body, the patient is usually given a CONTRAST AGENT. Generally they are given Iodine for blood
vessels, and Barium for the GI tract. If you want to know more about iodine and barium as chemical elements, click on the links and visit my favorite videos by Periodic Videos!
The doctors determined that I did indeed have gallstones that blocked my pancreatic
duct. The pancreatic enzymes, unable to go into the small intestine, backed up and started to self-digest my pancreas! Ow!
No wonder I was in pain. This created an inflammation, which is represented in vocabulary by the suffix –itis.
I had pancreatitis.
One can have ACUTE or CHRONIC
Pancreatitis. Mine was acute.
What
is the difference between Acute and Chronic? Let’s say you break open a rotten egg.
Before that incident, the house smelled just fine. Suddenly it didn’t. This is an
acute situation. In this case, you clean it up, throw out the trash and things will return to normal fairly quickly. (An acute
health situation does not always mean it will resolve quickly or at all).
However, let’s say you walk into your older brother’s
room. There is a strange odor in there, permeating everything. Perhaps it is a mixture of dirty clothes and left over food.
This took a long time to accumulate and will be difficult to remedy. This is a chronic situation, probably lasting until he
moves out.
I was admitted to the hospital, rested for the night, then underwent a procedure called an ERCP.
This stands for Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography. Even I hesitate to pronounce the full phrase. Look at that
phrase and see if you can recognize some word roots. Perhaps you know Endo- means “inside”. Traditionally, in
medicine this means inside the digestive system. Scop- is obviously a scope for viewing. An endoscope is used to view
inside the digestive tract.
How about retrograde?
This word comes from retro-, "backward" + gradi , "to go, step". The scope is a long
tube
placed in the mouth (thank goodness I had a drug called Versed to help me relax and not remember this event!), snaked down the stomach and into the small intestine and then up into
the common bile duct through an opening called the ampulla of Vater.
Let’s tackle the long last word. We have Chol- for “bile” or “gallbladder”
+ angio- “blood vessels”, + Pancreato—“pancreas” + “graph”-image.
It seems they want to image the pancreas and gallbladder and the associated ducts. They did this with contrast agent (iodine)
and an X-ray machine.
Lucky me, they found the stone had cleared and put a stent
in my pancreatic duct! A stent is like a tiny scaffold that holds open the duct so in case a stone was trapped, it could pass
back out. Stents are great little wonders of bioengineering. They are like a little wire scaffold that holds open the duct!
Most of you have probably heard of them for holding open blocked arteries to the heart.
The next day I was imaged using MRI, or Magnetic
Resonance Imaging. Here is a video demonstrating the science behind the MRI.
I was
given a contrast dye for the MRI, through my IV, made of Gadolinium. Again, you can visit Periodic Table of Videos to learn more.
So how was this acute case of pancreatitis treated?
Essentially, they gave my digestive system a rest for nearly
a week so the pancreas
would not be stimulated to work and send out more digestive enzymes. You rest your digestive system by not eating. It
took several days before I even cared about food. I was given painkillers that helped with the pain, but gave me nightmares
and an inexplicable desire to watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (my favorite is Lisa, fyi).
By the end of the week, I had my gallbladder removed in a procedure called a laparascopic cholecystectomy
. You have been introduced to a few of the word roots, so I’ll just add the other ones. Lapara- is from the
Greek for “flank” or “abdomen”. chole + kystis, bag, ektomē, “excision”.
They removed the misbehaving gallbladder by making four small
incisions in my abdominal wall where they inserted the scopes and other surgical tools used to cut and extract my gallbladder.
No, I didn’t ask to save the gallbladder. Sorry folks. I have no attachment to it after the ordeal I experienced, and
my curiosity to see it was not all that great, but like watching “Real Housewives”, I blame that on the drugs,
too.
One more cool thing…no stitches
or staples, just amazing superglue was used to close my incisions. Wow.
I am slowly regaining strength and I look forward to my fabulous time at Science Online 2011,
my most favorite conference—an unconference for science communicators from around the world, trying to figure out how
to best relay science information and learning in the online environment! I will be running a workshop on Video production
with Dr. Carin Bondar, and also run a online science film fest with her as well. I will also be on panels to help describe how to explain science
in blog posts as well as the perils of blogging as a woman under your own name.
On Saturday, December 4th, I was asked to be keynote speaker at the
University of Illinois sponsored First LEGO League Competition where youth ages 9-14 participate in an event where they create a LEGO Mindstorm robot that can accomplish prescribe
tasks and run a maze. Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) and LEGO's Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen joined forces to
create FLL.
Students
also research a topic based on a theme. This years theme was Body Forward, and the kids had to design a novel new solution to a medical condition of their choice and tell us what was superior about
their idea to other ones that exist. I was also able to assist with the judging of the research project. It was indeed a marvelous
experience. I appreciate that this contest is about Engineering! The students were also assesed on their ability to work as
a team and their understanding of the FLL Core Values, which includes something called Gracious Professionalism. What a positive way to approach a challenge!
Here is my introduction, presented by Kathleen Nibeck, one of the tireless First Lego League coordinators
(along with Heather Thompson) Thank you ladies for your hard work!
"Joanne Manaster is a biology and bioengineering lecturer at the University of Illinois.
As long as she can remember, she has always loved science. It was her passion, even when, before she could drive, she was
discovered as a fashion model at age 14, the very age of some of you here today.
Her favorite science topics include studying the tissues of the body under the microscope
and manipulating mammalian cells in culture dishes so they can help us discover new drugs and new ways to help the body regenerate.
Currently, she is designing a college class to help future science teachers understand the sequencing of the human genome
and how to store all of that information so we can learn from this vast project. While Joanne and many of the adults here
may never have their genome sequenced or ever need to take advantage of tissue engineering, she trusts in the power of science
and technology to move us forward and that the young people in this audience will reap the benefit of new discoveries in the
field of regenerative medicine.
For that
reason, she focuses a lot of time on science outreach to young people and curious older adults, too! She does this through
her website Joanne Loves Science where she has a large selection of book reviews of popular science books as well as videos
of quirky science experiments and demonstrations that include cats, cookies and gummi bears. She is active in science outreach
through the Science Olympiad, science fairs and GAMES, as faculty member for the bioengineering camp for young ladies in middle
school. She also encourages young people to read via her Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science contest she recently held
and will hold again next year.
When
she is not doing science or telling everyone she meets about it, she can be found helping her own four not-yet-genetically-sequenced
children with their various activities."
----------------------------
Thanks to a lovely interview by Sock Robot at Sock-it-to me for some of the wording in the introduction! Don't forget to check out their socks, which do include space, mad science and even gummy bears!
And, as long as I'm giving holiday gift
giving ideas, don't forget Giant Microbes. One of my own teens wants this as a gift. So many to choose from, I think she couldn't decide! As a mammalian cell biologist
and histologist, this page has my favorites! (Folks, fyi, I didn't get paid or get anything from this. This is my own endorsement)
-----------------------------
And now, my 10 minute speech, created specifically for the participants!
"As I was thinking of what
to say today, I thought I could do a few things:
1)Tell you how jealous I am that you get to make robots from Legos and explore
regenerative medicine and biology, and I didn’t get to at your age. Then I would run off the stage and cry in the bathroom.
But we know that is just immature. I’m still jealous, but I won’t have a tantrum.
2)Jump up and down excitedly
seeing so many young people involved in science and technology. Hmm, science is cool, but I never really was much in the way
of a peppy cheerleader.
3)Tell you a journey to becoming a scientist by relaying some highlights from my childhood.
There has never, EVER been a day in my life where
I have not thought about science. OK, maybe I didn’t always consider what I was doing science, but it most certainly
was!
Let’s look at some things that
happened when I was in your age range.
When I was 9 years old, Pluto was
still very much a planet and we thought Jupiter had 9 moons. We have now demoted Pluto as we understand more what Pluto is
made of and changed our way of defining planets. In the time since I was nine, we have developed better astronomical imaging
technologies made it so we can find more of Jupiter’s planets. We now know of 63!
If one of you can name all 63 of Jupiter's moons from memory, I will go buy you
a donut at the cafe in this building..... :) (no takers by the way)
-----------
At 10, I was limping around in an
archaic plaster cast on my left foot because I had ripped a tendon
off the bone of my 5th metatarsal while playing basketball. (I don't play basketball any more) This was a significant
event as the fascination with how my body, with the help of doctors, was going to heal this. I changed my mind from wanting to be an astronomer
to wanting to be a physician. Little did I know what an impact on my future goals this desire to understand our regenerative
capacity this would have.
-----------
Have you ever heard of an invasive species coming in to an ecological region and wiping out another species?
When I was 11, the Air Force sent my family to invade the tropical island of Guam, but we didn’t destroy
any species, although there was a valiant attempt to rid our house of giant tropical cockroaches that
pretty much enjoyed flying directly into my hair!
Guam had a lovely bird there called the Guam Rail. They were shy birds and I never saw one in person, but had seen an old nest on the ground. They were flightless birds whose
eggs were laid on the ground. When the brown Philippine rat snake (or brown tree snake) was introduced to the island accidentally, the eggs of the rail became the snakes preferred
meal which effectively caused the near extinction of a species of birds. I was witnessing this first hand.
-----------
Guam had wonderful places to explore; the beach,
the boonies, tide pools, waterfalls, the reefs. At age 12, I spent many hours doing this, fearing jellyfish
and sea cucumbers that would squirt out sticky strings all over you if you stepped on them, I was also inordinately concerned about coconut crabs that I thought might come from nowhere and pinch me. The most
convenient place to hang out for hours was the boonies
behind our military housing complex. I observed the ecosystem of the area, which included many large spiders, including the
banana spider that was as big as my hand. I was scared of it, but my curiosity would win out as I would sit and watch as they
built their giant webs and devour prey. I had one encounter with a wild boar, which could have been a heart pounding experience.
It didn’t see me, so I was able to get away quickly before I was forced to run for my life, as everyone told me I would
have to. And then there was the time my brother, sister and I upset a large beehive. We DID run for our lives that time! Bees
do swarm to attack, just like in the cartoons!
----------
There wasn’t so much on TV back then. At age 13, thanks
to unimaginative programming at the
cable stations’ movie channel, I watched Buck
Rogers in the 25st Century every morning that summer, filling my mind with ideas of future technologies allowing
us to travel to space and back, fearing for a nuclear war that would devastate the earth and wondering why we could hear explosions
in space, when everything I had ever learned said that sound couldn’t travel through the vacuum of space! My favorite
TV shows at that time belonged to National Geographic, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and NOVA. One program on NOVA
showed a dish of heart cells beating. They were all beating at different times. But, as the cells in the dish grew closer
together, they started to beat in unison. Somehow we could see, in a dish, cells communicating. This had a tremendous impact ultimately on what I do now.
----------
At 14, I was babysitting a couple of young miscreant boys. It was the rainy
season in Guam and a little stream formed behind the military housing complex I lived in. This rain inevitably spawned a large
overgrowth of toads, as, of course, being amphibious creatures, they begin their lives in the water. More water means more toads. These two mischievous
imps decided that throwing some of the overabundance of toads
against the large white
washed cinderblock wall of our military housing would be a “fun” experiment. It was a scene of carnage; guts and
blood all over the wall, their hands, faces, and clothes. I was appalled by the cruelty of what they had done and sent them
to work with a hose to clean everything up off the wall and sent them in to clean themselves up. Not feeling ill by the sight
of guts and squishy things was probably a good indicator that I would make a great biologist.
-----------
These
examples are just the beginning of a life in science. I do notice a striking difference in the descriptions of my journey
up to that point and what you are participating in now. Perhaps you noticed that mine events were solitary endeavors? Of course,
I had friends, but really, I pursued my love of science on my own. You, on the other hand, are exploring science and technology
in groups, guided by adults. Those opportunities didn’t exist where I was at your age. I would have loved it! This opportunity
to work cooperatively really reflects how science and engineering is carried out. It is no longer a solitary pursuit locked
in a lab. It is a collaboration and meeting of minds and grappling with ideas together to come up with marvelous new ideas
and promises for the future. I am thrilled to witness this evolution of science and technology and I look forward to what
each of you have to share with me as I come around to your projects today!"
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse at my science themed childhood! I look forward to seeing some
great projects at the World Festival of FIRST LEGO League Competition in April in St. Louis!
On twitter, I have had
many people send me the link to the "Molten Potassium Chlorate and Gummy Bear" video, presumably assuming I have
not seen it. If one delves into the "favorites" on my youtube channel, buried within is that very video. It was
the original inspiration for the series of Gummi Science videos I have created.
Viewing that video more than a year ago reminded me of sonicating (using high frequency sound waves to decimate) a
gummy bear at a student's request, so that was the first video I made, which you can watch HERE.
These were followed by several others that are on my Gummi Science page.
My most recent gummi experiment, combined with a book review of Steve Spangler's book Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments That Make Science Fun is finally ready. It has been three months since I created and posted a video, in part due to the demands of my new
position here at the university. I walk through determining the density of a gummi bear and other ways we use density gradient columns in a cell biology lab. My original reading of the volume
displacement of the gummi bear was amended upon looking at my video, so I had to make a few changes in post production. I've
switched from AVID video production (on my old PC) to Final Cut Express on my new Mac, so am learning new things. One
thing I learned is that for voice-overs, the Mac is notoriously weak on the built in mic input, so portions with voice-overs
are quieter. Will prevent that next video. I'm learning video production by trial and error each time.
I have given thought to many, many experiments I could do with gummi bears. Some I have even filmed. I have some footage
of coating one in gold and palladium and putting it in the Scanning Electron Microscope (the one that gives us great images
of pollen grains and flies eyes!), but haven't had a chance to process the footage yet.
I tried to electrocute a gummy bear, but all
i learned was that they are excellent insulators, which makes for quite a boring video. In the attempt to make it conduct
electricity, I added one to salt water and came up with THIS video.
By
popular request, I put a GIANT 5lb gummy bear in water to see if it will expand. Again, this is something I filmed but
have not processed. I'm sorry to say, the results were very disappointing. My advice to those wishing to expand gummi bears
in water is to use only Haribo brand. Those might have more gelatin and less starch, making it able to hold water and not
turn quite so "slimy" on the outside.
I've expressed an interest many times in using a laser to see if they are able to cut a gummy bear
in half. Someone on twitter obliged with a video demonstrating the ability of a laser to create a gooey mess, and not exactly
cutting it in half (as in the famous James Bond scene). It is fascinating the resistance of a simple candy to such power. Take a look! All that's missing is the science behind
how these lasers work and the power of this particular laser. I think I will have to do some research!
A few weeks ago, I gave a workshop on the science of skin care and make-up to a large group of young ladies. One of
the concepts I spoke of was the optical physics of color absorption. As you know, when you look at a color, it absorbs every
other except the one we see. The interesting fact is that it absorbs MOST STRONGLY the color opposite of it on the color wheel
and this is the science behind using color correcting make-up. Red and green are opposite of each other on the color wheel,
making green the best color correcting make-up to apply to red discolorations such as capillaries, pimples and other redness
because green absorbs red most strongly. I will caution that green concealer must be applied properly or you can end up looking
an unfortunate greenish hue, rather than healthy.
Also, yellow works well to disguise violet discolorations like those undereye circles many of us
want to diminish.
You may be wondering what this has to do with gummy bears! Lucky for us, BioPhotonicsWorld created a gummi bear video that demonstrates the absorption and reflection of different colors of light. I like this
video as it thoroughly discusses the science behind all of this. Even better, it starts with green and red gummy bears and
green and red laser pointers. I wish I had thought of making this video!
As I attempt to share with you on this website, science can be used to explain everything around
us, as everything inherently exhibits chemical and physical properties and many things have some relation to biology. The
concepts any physical object can demonstrate seem almost limitless, including gummi bears!
A very revealing look at what it takes to have teachers and an education system with the power to transform the
life of children in the poorest and underserved areas of the country (and world). Great leaders are important!
A reality check on what is going on in the nation's colleges and universities.
by Maryn McKenna
by Siddhartha Mukherjee 
by Sheril Kirschenbaum
by Hannah Holmes (I wrote one of the blurbs, by the way! :)
by 
by Penny LeCouteur and Jay Burreson and 
by 
Before that 
placed in the mouth (thank goodness I had a drug called 
