Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail
In another TED Talk from the Mission Blue Voyage, Marine Biologist Stephen Palumbi talks about biomagnification – how mercury from the bottom of the ocean food chain makes its way up into the human body, with terrible results.
With a close link to recent HPD topics on the environment’s link to health and to G3: Impacts of Humans on Ecosystems, Palumbi highlights the tight connection between the oceans and our own health as humans.It might better be entitled “Protecting the Ocean Pyramid,” or “Beach closed due to excess human fecal matter.“
The Lion, the Watch and the Hormones
Tom McFadden and the Stanford Biologists are back with another lyrical science creation, The Lion, the Watch and the Hormones. It’s all about stress, yo, including short-term responses to danger and the negative health effects of chronic stress.
Mesolens: see thousands of cells in detail at the same time
Living Water Flea, captured through the Mesolens, by Brad Amos at LMB
Currently on exhibition as part of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations, the Mesolens is a giant microscope that can show large field-of-view images of living specimens in incredible detail – thousands of living cells in focus and in detail at the same time. Until now, scientists have had to rely on low-mag light microscopes to obeserve living specimens, or use sections of dead specimens on an electron microscope in order to get high-mag images.
Mesolens vs Hooke
Robert Hooke first drew a human flea in his 1665 book Micrographia. Along with van Leeuwenhoek, Hooke kick-started microbiology, and so it is a fitting tribute that some 345 years later, LMB give us their flea images. You can pan and zoom across a Mesolens image by clicking here
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Check out this short article from Wired.com explaining how the Mesolens works, and go to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology’s official site for the Mesolens. Can you distinguish between it and a normal light or electron microscope? What advantages will this give to researchers?
The Guardian has a gallery of images from Mesolens, and there is a short video showing image density from the LMB site, as well as a teachers guide to microscopy.
Aditi Shankardass: A Second Opinion on Learning Disorders
With an estimated 1 in 6 children suffering from a developmental disorder, Aditi Shankardass asks if we can afford to ignore brain imaging and diagnostic technology when making decisions about brain-related difficulties. Another great short talk from TED, which links to the use of technology in determining brain function.
TOK link: how might the use of brain scanning technology represent a potential paradigm shift in diagnosis? Where we have relied on symptomatic diagnosis in the past, could the use of new neuroscience give a new way of knowing that replaces what we already know?
Photosynthesis Updated
I’ve split and updated the content for Photosynthesis, making it clearer where the Core and AHL/Option C students should be. Some corrections have also been made – thanks for the input from teachers who use this site.
The main pages for resources are here: Core, AHL/Option C.
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass
Viral video pop masters OK Go set an incredible engineering challenge for this music video – a giant Rube Goldberg machine that fits in with the song and is all completed in a single shot. Here is the result:
Engineer Adam Sadowsky has a really entertaining talk on TED about the ten commandments of making the video and the challenges they overcame. OK Go introduce their video at the end.
Eepybird are back – with a Rocket Car!
Eepybird, DietCoke and Mentos wizards, are back with their latest big-budget bubblicious adventure – a rocket car. There is a 3D version here, and remember – other diet sodas are also available.
Understanding Roots Gives Shoots of Knowledge
Something we go over and over in class is the relationship between the words we use in Biology and their Latin and Greek roots. There is a massive vocabulary to use in Biology*, and if you learn to break down words into their components, you might get a better understanding of the meaning behind them.
It’s a code – and if you can crack it, you can even make a good guess at the meaning of many unknown words in exam papers, textbooks and articles. Language should not be a barrier to Biology students – even those who are ESL learners.
Revision tip for the semester exams: Build a vocab list for each subtopic and rather than just define the terms, break them into their components. Can you use the roots in another word or sentence?
Here is a nice SlideShare presentation on how Greek and Latin roots aid understanding:
More resources:
Basic Greek and Latin for understanding science and medicine, Tim Moors
Glossary of Greek and Latin Roots in Science, Exploring Science Site
Greek and Latin Roots in English, Wikipedia
A multitude of lesson plans for vocabulary, from vocabulary-lesson-plans.com
Interestingly, in modern science and media, some words are formed from compounds of Greek and Latin. Here is a classic quote from C.P. Snow: “Television. The word is half-Greek and half-Latin; no good can come of it.”
*I heard a quote once that there was more vocab in HL Biology than in a Language B subject. It would be cool to find out how true that is. Can anyone estimate the number of vocabulary terms learned by a Biology student?
Lorenzo’s Oil: Grade 11 Review
Lorenzo’s Oil is brilliant for reviewing much of the content of Grade 11, and in particular the Genetics and Biochemistry components of this semester. As you watch, answer the questions on the question sheet.
More ALD resources:
Myelin Project: Augusto Odone’s Website
ALD information page, from the NIH
AccessExcellence questions and ideas for Lorenzo’s Oil
The First Synthetic Lifeform
Here is Craig Venter announcing the successful self-replication of a cell with an entirely synthetic genome:
This is one of the biggest news stories of the year, and time will tell what its implications are. It has been extensively covered in the media, and will surely be a part of school ethics discussions for years to come.The full Science paper is online here.
Search for news stories and resources to help you answer these questions:
1. In what ways is this the first synthetic organism?
2. What were the success criteria for this organism?
3. What failsafes were put in place should the bacterium become widespread?
4. What are some of the potential applications of this new technology?
5. What are some of the ethical implications of synthetic biology? Identify stakeholders in the debate and outline their point of view.
i-Biology 