On the cusp of Memorial Day

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288108/river-of-shadows-by-rebecca-solnit/9780142004104/ A book recommendation: River of Shadows  by Rebecca Solnit about Eadweard Muybridge and his pioneering method of photographing motion and the times in which he lived (died ~1900.)


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/science/salamanders-newts-fungus-extinction.html?_r=0
An article in Tuesday's science times about US scientists looking for a species of chytrid fungus that has devastated the frog population. The USGS has an Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative  that is catching newts up and down the East Coast checking for infections with the fungus.


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/computer-vision-syndrome-affects-millions/
This is from NYT on Personal Health by Jane Brody about computer vision syndrome, including burning in the eyes and double vision. This syndrome has also been detected in children and adolescents. The report was published in Medical Practice and Reviews.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/health/emmanuelle-charpentiers-crispr-dna-gene-editing.html
Another article from Tuesday's Science Times about Emmanuelle Charpentier, who was one of the three scientists "credited with starting the gene editing revolution". This is an interview with the newly appointed director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology who according to the article was barely scraping by for 25 years trying to get support for her research.



http://standuptoverizon.com/big-gains-striking-verizon-workers-new-agreement/ It looks like the verizon strike has been settled with a contract for wireless retail workers and a 12% raise over 4 years.


http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-among-us/ I recommend the exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History "Dinosaurs Among Us". It is a beautiful thing. Here is a video loop from the AMNH website.

https://youtu.be/XAzGC89n0S4

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20160601_NJ_legislature_says_diamondback_turtle_shouldn_t_be_harvested.html
This is an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer  about a bill that passed the NJ legislature that will make illegal the harvesting of diamondback terrapins. This brackish water turtle is captured and sold to Asian markets and this legislation should protect them.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scientists-dig-proteins-past

 From Science News, a report of research done at the Fred Hutchinson Center about how evolution affects proteins. This research specifically looks at the genetic ancestors of the influenza virus and speculates how the form of the protein enabled and constrained its evolution.

 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/jumping-gene-turned-peppered-moths-color-soot  Also from Science News, a report on research on the Peppered Moth, which evolved its new color "in response" to the industrial revolution's deposition of smog and soot into the environment in order to blend in. It is reported in Nature that biologists at the U of Liverpool have identified the gene, a transposable element that is found in an intron, that caused the color change. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160601132134.htm  From Science News, an announcement of the finding of the genetic cause of MS. This research was done at the University of British Columbia and is published in Neuron. The database used contains 2,000 families from across Canada.





http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/31/women-science-industry-structure-sexist-courses-careers   Why aren't there more women in research? Data obtained from the UK's Higher Education Statistics shows the numbers of females in various scientific disciplines. Women outnumber men in most disciplines, nonetheless female authorship of scientific papers has gone down since 2009.




https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/06/02/universities-need-communicate-much-more-effectively-about-science-essay From Inside Higher Ed blog, a communication about the need for academic and administrative leadership (funny that they are not considered to be the same!) to communicate more effectively about science to the "outside world".




http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/the-origin-of-dogs/484976/ An article in the Atlantic magazine recounting the origins and domestication of dogs; the latter event may have occurred more than once.


http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/cochlea  Here is an animation from Biointeractive (HHMI) about the ear.



http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-is-depression-helen-m-farrell A TED ED talk on depression. This is a short talk, less than 5 minutes.

http://now.howstuffworks.com/2015/11/09/ridiculous-history-vitamin-donuts From HowStuffWorks,
The government's War Food Administration allowed the Doughnut Corporation of America to market  an enriched product called Vitamin Doughnuts. (I grew up on doughnuts; don't knock 'em.)


http://www.rsc.org/news-events/175-stories/2016/may/women-in-science/  This is a post from the Royal Society of Chemistry memorializing the achievements of female scientists and their struggles for recognition.




http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-university-business-20160602-snap-story.html
From the LATimes, a column by Michael Hiltzik about the current train of thought that universities are businesses and the imitation of the private sector by the public sector and how bad it is. DeVry University is presented as an example.

Rainy Rainy Sunday

http://www.cimmyt.org/maize-from-mexico-to-the-world/
An article about CIMMYT's germplasm bank (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/opinion/sunday/to-write-software-read-novels.html?_r=0 From the Sunday Review of NYT, the writer comments on the importance of humanities in an age of STEM.  Much merit in this.





https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-visualizes-proteins-involved-cancer-cell-metabolism  Report of an NIH-funded study using cryo-EM to visualize cancer cell proteins at high resolution.These will be important in drug development. Glutamine dehydrogenase was visualized at 1.8 angstroms. Work was doen at NCI and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46134/title/FDA-Approves-Bladder-Cancer-Immunotherapy/ This article from The Scientists is a report of the approval by the FDA of immunotherapy for bladder cancer. It's a monoclonal antibody developed by Roche and costs about $12,500 a month, out of reach of most people.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46130/title/Immune-Defect-Detected-in-Knockout-Mice/ Again from the Scientist and kind of a big deal, I think, is the detection of a mutation in the genome of a mouse strain C57Bl6 commonly used in research. This mutation could cause immune defects. The work was done by the Ragon Institute and published in Cell Reports. Some major scientific studies may need to be reevaluated based on this finding.




http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46071/title/Image-of-the-Day--Signal-Sensors/ Image of the day from The Scientist. Cilia, cellular protuberances. Diseases are called ciliopathies and can effect things like sperm mobility (ciliary disfunction.)



https://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/mencken.htm  Here are some HL Mencken quotes from the blog Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Faculty.




http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/fighting-cancer-with-borrowed-immunity/81252754/
An article from GEN about the transfer of T cells from healthy donors to help fight cancer. This is called TCR  (T Cell Receptor) transfer and was done in Oslo and reported in Science magazine.


http://www.sciencealert.com/more-evidence-suggests-rna-is-behind-the-origin-of-life
From Science Alert, a report in Phys.org lends more evidence to the RNA first theories of life's origins. Researchers at LMU (Ludwig Maximillian U in Munich) have created conditions in which adenine and guanine can be synthesized; in which case all the conditions are present in which RNA could have been synthesized in the early world. It has already been shown that RNA can work as a messenger and a catalyst.



http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6287/758.full  Really great article in Science mag about evolutionary biology bringing its power into determining whether to prescribe high or low doses of antibiotics in order to treat microbial infections and prevent drug resistance from developing.




https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/24/podcast-biotech-has-a-gender-problem/   The STAT podcast about sexism in biotech.



http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/05/teaching-safety-skills-not-just-safety-rules
This commentary from Science magazine about the new chemistry lab safety guidelines issued last year by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the implementation of these rules.  Teaching safety as rules and compliance, it was decided, is insufficient. Students need to know how to prepare for emergencies.



 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/angelina-jolie-appointed-as-professor-at-the-london-school-of-economics-a7043911.html Angelina Jolie is a professor at the London School Of Economics, from The Independent.


http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/5/23/the-women-who-leave/ From the Harvard Crimson about Women in Science (and out of science).


https://richarddawkins.net/2016/05/the-genes-still-selfish-dawkins-famous-idea-turns-40/ Richard Dawkin's groundbreaking book, "The Selfish Gene" is celebrating its fortieth anniversary. He is a wonderful writer.





http://qz.com/689806/a-controversial-theory-may-explain-the-real-reason-humans-have-allergies/  From Quartz, Carl Zimmer's description of Ruslan Medzhitov's theories about the immune system and allergies, a channeling of Janeway's theories about the immune system. Janeway discovered Toll-Like Receptors.




http://www.npl.co.uk/news/insights-magazine-measurement-science-at-the-heart-of-big-data-revolution   From Insights magazine, publication of the National Physical Laboratory, an article about measurement  science at the heart of big data. The NPL (UK) is involved in defining data standards and "helping communities develop new measurement solutions."




http://www.npr.org/2016/05/24/479223874/we-followed-a-snowy-owl-from-maryland-to-ontario This is an npr report of a research team of bird biologists that followed the movements of wide-ranging snowy owls (using solar-powered GPS transmitters) which turned up south of their usual winter range and wound up in Canada.




http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/genome-editor-crispr-helps-trace-growth-embryos-and-maybe-cancer-next  Published online by Science magazine a report on the use of the genome editor CRISPR to trace the growth of embryos in zebrafish. This work was done by Alexander Shier and colleagues at Harvard U.



http://healthjournalism.org/blog/2016/05/rankings-reveal-which-states-are-healthiest-for-aging-adults/ The Association of Health Care Journalists blog Covering Health reports the healthiest for aging: Louisiana is the 50th.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0  From the NYT Matter column by Carl Zimmer a report on African Americans from PLOS Genetics about how migrations have left their mark in the DNA of African Americans. It may also show how genes influence their risk for diseases. The DNA of 3.726 African Americans was analyzed in this study.



http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/classroom-management-problems/ This is from a blog called Cult of Pedagogy about classroom management. Things you can do to sabotage your classroom management. "Smile when the students try to get you off track" first one; (how about laugh?) This is also available a 27 minute podcast but you don't want to play it in class.





 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/26/the-superbug-that-doctors-have-been-dreading-just-reached-the-u-s/  From Science mag, an article about the discovery of drug resistant superbugs in the US. Published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.



http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46173/title/Editing-Genomes-to-Record-Cellular-Histories/  From The Scientist, an article about tracking C. elegans cells during development to trace them back to their embryonic beginnings.  Our debt to the worm. This work was published in Science Mag.

Not Mom's Day, Not Pop's Day, Not Cinco de Mayo, What Then?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/science/humans-mastodons-florida.html?_r=0
Here is an article reported in NYT and Science Advances (journal) about the discovery made of a sinkhole in Northern Florida that contained mastodon bones and stone tools, which demonstrated that humans and mastodons coexisted in Northern Florida.


http://thescienceteacher.co.uk/working-memory/ From The Science Teacher, Working Memory and Why Teaching Science is Hard refers to a 1991 paper by A.H. Johnstone about science teaching. Suggestions are made to deal with misconceptions, put learning in context and ensure that practical work is focused.

http://hyperallergic.com/298405/blueprint-for-counter-education-republished-and-still-daring-after-all-these-years/  From the Hyperallergic blog by Edward Gomez, a report of the reprinting of a 1970 book by Stein and Miller the "Blueprint for Counter Education" about transforming higher education, an always current topic. (From the prehistoric era, (BNTT) before there were adjuncts.)


https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/10/01/understanding-dyslexia-and-the-reading-brain-in-kids/ From KQED Mind/Shift, an article about dyslexia and the reading brain; Child Development Professor Wolf writes and lectures about phoneme awareness, knowing the sounds that correspond with words and letters.





http://zinnedproject.org/materials/eugene-debs-canton-ohio/  From the Howard Zinn peoples' history voices project, a youtube recording by actor Mark Ruffalo of Eugene V. Debs Canton, Ohio antiwar speech for which he was convicted of wartime espionage. He served ten years in prison and his voice fortunately lingers on as the voice of a true patriot and an eloquent spokesperson for the working class.


https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funded-study-reveals-how-differences-male-female-brains-emerge   An NIH-funded study  on nematode worms done at Columbia U is investigating how sexually dimorphic behavior emerges in the brain.



http://www.scidev.net/global/disease/news/software-diagnoses-lung-diseases-over-the-phone.html
From SciDev.Net SpiroCall software diagnoses lung function over the phone with rates of accuracy similar to actual spirometry. The future of medicine in underdeveloped areas.



https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/should-we-synthesise-human-genome This is an article from Cosmos magazine written by 2 Stanford U geneticists about a recent behind closed doors meeting about the synthesis of the human genome.

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/07/22/unpacking-the-science-how-playing-music-changes-the-learning-brain/  From KQED Mind/Shift, How Music Changes the Learning Brain. This is a report of research done at Tufts University.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwX9-Z7iPQ&feature=youtu.be From National Center for Science Education, a link to a recording of Sir David  Attenborough reading Charles Darwin.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funds-new-studies-ethical-legal-social-impact-genomic-information This is a report on several NIH-funded studies to study the ethical, legal and social questions resulting from the advances in genomics research. These studies are funded through the National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI) Centers of Excellence.

http://www.ragoninstitute.org/study-of-potent-hiv-antibodies-yields-hiv-vaccine-insight/ From a report by the Ragon Institute, a South African blood donor's blood produces natural neutralling antibodies which may become the basis for an anti-HIV vaccine. Some of this work was done in collaboration with the Ragon Institute.




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/science/eske-willerslev-ancient-dna-scientist.html An article from NYT about a Danish scientist who is using ancient DNA to reconstruct 50,000 years of human history. He recently sequenced the DNA of a 4,000 year old Greenlander.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/science/emily-dickinson-lost-gardens.html?_r=0
Emily Dickinson's (Hope is the thing...) gardens in Amherst, Mass., are being restored.



http://gawker.com/the-horrifying-reality-of-the-academic-job-market-1776914525 The terrifying reality of the academic job market. From Hamilton Nolan, a writer at Gawker. Overeducated, maybe, underpaid, definitely.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij1qBJwPOEk&feature=youtu.be Alan Alda received the 2016 National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal for science communication.

http://phys.org/news/2016-05-scientists-evolutionary-link-protein-function.html
From phys.org,  a report of research published in the journal Scientific Reports  linking protein structures and functions across the geological record. This is ground breaking work, the linking of certain structures of protein which are conserved over time, certain loops that have been recruited to perform different functions. They called in "hierarchical modularity".



http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-the-giraffe-got-its-neck
From the NYer, the giraffe genome project, comparing the genes of the giraffe to its nearest living relative, the okapi finds 20% identity in the proteins encoded by genes. This work was done at the Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology.


https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/visual-impairment-blindness-cases-us-expected-double-2050  A press release from the NIH that as we baby boomers age, by 2050, blindness and visual impairment cases are supposed to double. Research done by SoCal's Roski eye institute and published in JAMA Opthalmology. (Here's looking at you, kid.)




http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyu-boss-told-professor-women-not-belong-science-suit-article-1.2641512 One day I'll blog about my sex discrimination lawsuit against the federal government and the USDA but in the meantime I am posting about this female malaria research who has a lawsuit against NYU School of Medicine after her boss told her that women do not belong in science.There is a federal lawsuit against Claudio Basilico as revealed in this New York Daily News article.



http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46113/title/Antibiotics-From-Scratch/ This is an article from the New Scientist describing work done at Harvard U in which the scientists developed a way to synthesize macrolide antibiotics (like azithromycin) from eight chemical building blocks, which will allow synthesis of tens of thousand of compounds.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/05/17/nearly-third-women-in-academic-medicine-experience-sexual-harassment.html From FOX news, a report that nearly one third of women in academic medicine experience sexual harrassment.




http://qz.com/686075/we-still-have-literally-no-way-to-quantify-exactly-how-much-work-women-do/
From Quartz, a query on how to quantify the amount of unpaid work women do. This is something Melinda Gates is thinking about at the Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen as posted by the American Women In Science on their FB page.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/18/fruits-and-vegetables-used-to-look-so-different-you-might-not-even-recognize-them/ This is an article from WashPost about artificial selection of fruits and vegetables. Did you know that you are eating the Cavendish banana, for example?



http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/05/19/appeal-of-genetic-puzzles-leads-to-national-medal-of-science-for-uws-mary-claire-king/ National Medal of Science to UW Mary-Claire King, geneticist.