Blog Archives
LifeSaver Bottle: Michael Pritchard at TED
TED2010 is on right now in California, so it’s a good opportunity to look at some of their best talks of the past year. This one is short and inspirational – how to meet the UN’s Millenium Development Goal to “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water and sanitation“ – for just $8bn! 
Michael Pritchard’s LifeSaver bottle is a solution to clean water needs. For just $150, it can filter even the dirtiest water, in remote areas, or following disasters such as the Haiti quakes. Spurred on by the problems following the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, see Pritchard demonstrate the technology at TED 2009:
There’s a nice little link there to cell theory and magnification, also.
This year, who is going to be worth watching? Check out the list of presenters here.
Cell Division (mitosis) and Tumours
The presentation has been updated to include a lot more information on tumours – though it is not all essential for the exams, it is a good health class and an introduction to some degree-level cellular biology concepts. There are loads of links to videos and animations if you click on the shadowed images.
Essential Biology 2.5: Cell Division (mitosis)
Here’s a lovely mitosis video:
Virtual Urchin – Tutorials from Stanford
Here are some flash tutorials from the team at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford. They make good use of the properties of the sea urchin’s gametes for studies and learning experiences:
Fertilisation and Development
“Gametes of sea urchins yield exceptional experiences in the classroom; teachers and students alike are riveted by being able to observe fertilization, cell division and embryonic development. The gametes are easy to use, the developmental stages are readily seen with the microscope and the rapidity of fertilization and early cell divisions allows the student to ask questions and obtain answers within the bounds of a normal classroom schedule. The utility of urchins for inquiry-based science is unrivaled.”
Head on over there to have a go at some of their labs, including a neat microscope tutorial, practice with microscope measurements, fertilisation and development and a ocean acidification investigation.
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Essential Biology 2.2 Prokaryotes
Click4Biology Prokaryotes
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MrT’s terrible pun:
If you get salmonella from a 3 day-old bacon sandwich, does that mean you’ve contracted a porkaryote?
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Essential Biology 2.3 Eukaryotes
Click4Biology Eukaryotes
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BioCoach Cell Structure and Function topic
The Biology Project Cell Biology page
Wiley Science tutorial (Flash)
Bacterial growth populations from umich.edu
Don’t forget the great resources at Learn.Genetics.
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Review quiz on Quia: Cell Theory, Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. (for my class only)
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And here’s a nice timelapse of bacterial growth:
Here’s a story of a giant bacterium, from NotExactlyRocketScience
BBC Cell Series
Dr Adam Rutherford presents Cell, a three-part series on the history and great discoveries in cell biology. WhyEvolutionIsTrue has HD-quality full episodes here:
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ToK issues and ideas of academic honesty abound in the series.
What is life and where does it come from?
How do we know that living things are made of cells?
What motivated (and still motivates) the great discoveries?
How and why did Virchow plagiarise Remak’s work on cell division?
What are the ethics of new and future developments in cell biology?
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*More downloads also available from RapidShare.
Stem cells used in trachea transplant
Doctors have successfully used stem cells in a rejection-free transplant of a trachea.
This is a great example of internationalism in science – the patient was Colombian, the hospital in Barcelona, stem cells cultivated in Bristol and the final stage of the windpipe construction completed in Milan.
Check your understanding:
Did they grow a new trachea from scratch?
How did they prevent rejection of the tissue?
There is a good short reader on the NewScientist website.
The original research paper was published by The Lancet.
Bio-Alive: a huge resource of animations and videos
Bio-Alive Biology and Life Sciences has a massive set of links to online tutorials, videos, animations, interactives, lectures and games. Huge. Loads.
One of the highlights has to be the video archive of surgical operations!
Follow these links for IB topic help:
Cells: animations – tutorials – virtual labs – lectures
Chemistry of Life: animations – tutorials – lectures
Genetics: animations – tutorials – virtual labs – lectures
Evolution: animations – tutorials – virtual labs – lectures
Or just visit their page for masses of links.
Cell Division
Again, there is a load of resources on the internet for this topic, many of which have been linked in the presentation below:
Here’s the Click4Biology page.
Membranes
This is quite a long presentation covering membrane structure and function and passive transport, active transport and vesicle transport:
There are many links in the presentation – clicky clicky!
The internet is awash with decent animations and video clips for this topic – your best bet is to enter the search term “_____ transport swf” and see what comes up.
i-Biology 