Blog Archives
Defense Against Infectious Disease megapost
Here we go, Standard Level and Higher Level in one big post:
As always, North Harris College has a great set of links to immunology animations.
Here’s the core, for everyone:
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Antibiotics:
Antibiotic action from HHMI
Antibiotic resistance from Sumanas
Interferon, an antiviral medication from the University of Illinois
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Antibody prodution:
Simple animation from ccbmd.edu
Retro-style animation and explanation from CellsAlive.com
More detail (better for HL) from McGraw Hill
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HIV & AIDS:
Have a go at the Rediscovering Biology online text and animations
Here’s an in-depth look at the HIV virus from rnceus.com
And a good look at the HIV life cycle from Sumanas
You should really read this article on social and economic impacts of HIV
The resources for HIV out there are prolific, so go find them if you’re still curious!
And to set your mind at ease, the best HIV website: www.avert.org
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Additional Higher Level content:
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Start off with some of these resources from Bio-Alive.com
Blood clotting:
Explanation and animation from HowStuffWorks and ADAM
And from the Indiana Haemophilia and Thrombosis Centre
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The Specific Immune Response
Great introduction by RM Chute
This one from McGraw Hill is really clear (we don’t need the bit about cytotoxic cells), and CancerResearch.org have these animations about the cellular response and humoral response.
Here’s a nice one about the action of antibodies from edumedia (but you’ve got to pay), and a better one on the action of immunoglobulins (antibodies) from WHFreeman.
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Monoclonal Antibodies:
Here’s a simpe YouTube explanation:
Good animations from McGraw Hill and Sumanas.
And when you’re through all that, have a go at a Virtual ELISA test from HHMI
You might even feel like a pregnancy test.
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Vaccination
Here’s House MD to knock some sense into you:
And on more serious note – the NHS has a very clear website with animations.
Girls might want to know more about the HPV Vaccination and its protection against cervical cancer.
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And for more readers and in-depth stuff:
The Media’s MMR Hoax from BadScience.net is the perfect reader for discussion of the perceived dangers of the MMR jab. You could pair it with this video (edited by an anti-MMR activist).
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Go for Rediscovering Biology’s Emerging Infectious Diseases online course.
Or find out more about parasitology, check out the Atlas of Parasitology or check out this video:
Ben Goldacre: Bad Science Interview
Dr. Ben Goldacre is the author of the excellent Bad Science blog and column in the Guardian newspaper. His new book, BadScience, is out now and in it he explains how (with many, many examples), Science is misrepresented in the media and how some ‘quack’ disciplines present unscientific data as fact.
NewScientist has a review of his book here, and there is a short interview with Ben on their channel:
He has helped produce some teaching materials for schools, which are available here.
Top posts for IB Bio students to read:
2. The Media’s MMR Hoax (Wakefield trial, autism and vaccines non-link)
3. The Man Behind the Mop of Death (false-positive MRSA results from a garden-shed phony)
4. The Huff (statistics)
5. Anything to do with dodgy fish-oil trials, quack homeopaths (especially evil AIDS-denialists), BrainGym and nutritionists.
It’s all good.