Science

Invasion of the Next Generation

May 17, 2012
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Invasion of the Next Generation

Tomorrow – or rather today by the time I finished writing this –  I will be opening my bench and my blog to a small group of very enthusiastic 14-15 year old students from Didcot Girls’ School. They will help me with my plant cell biology research over the course of the next few months,  accompanied by their teacher,  Nuffield Education/Science and Plants for Schools Fellow Vicki Cottrell and their school technician Lynn. As part of her secondment Vicki is going to be a weekly visitor at Oxford Brookes over the next months, whereas we have planned five visits in total...

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“You don’t know how lucky you are!” – PCR in the old days

March 9, 2012
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“You don’t know how lucky you are!” – PCR in the old days

Recently I gave a workshop about online engagement and blogging in our Faculty. The result of this was a bunch of new tweeters and new science blogs on the block. To keep the momentum going, we started a “Breakfast Blogging Club”, with a meeting every two weeks. Why the name? Because we meet in the mornings for coffee and pastry and because it abbreviates to BBC – makes it sound more “serious” to say you are joining a BBC discussion than a discussion about blogging! One of the things we decided was to have a monthly theme to which...

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Happy International Women’s Day 2012!

March 8, 2012
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Happy International Women’s Day 2012!

“Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.”  Gertrude B. Elion, Nobel Laureate 1988. A few days ago, Prof Alice Roberts, the first Professor of Public Engagement, tweeted about the still shockingly low number of female professors in science. In my opinion, there are two main reasons for the low numbers of female scientists in academia. The first one is linked to inspiring girls and female...

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Glowing “Kryptonite Sushi” – would you eat it?

March 5, 2012
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Glowing “Kryptonite Sushi” – would you eat it?

Yesterday I came across this video that demonstrates how to make Glowing Sushi, using genetically modified zebrafish to produce a fluorescent “kryptonite roll”. When I first watched the video, my main question was: Why would you want to use fluorescent GFP fish in sushi?! You would have to shine a UV light on your sushi roll while you eat it in order to get the glow effect. Surely there are better ways to enjoy your food than lighting a UV torch into each others mouths to see glowing chewed food. I also felt a bit annoyed. Things like this...

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How to make your own CSI gel electrophoresis apparatus

February 8, 2012
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How to make your own CSI gel electrophoresis apparatus

This video explains how to build a gel electrophoresis apparatus, prepare an agarose gel and use it to separate food colouring dyes – and you can do all that in your kitchen! Very cool!

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Hello. I am a regular person!

January 29, 2012
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drawing1

This morning I stumbled across this delightful website (via Esther Wojcicki): “Drawings of Scientists“. For this project, 7th graders prepared drawings of scientists together with a description of how they imagined a scientist to be like. Then they visited FermiLab where they got the chance to meet and talk to “real” scientists. After that, they put their thoughts on paper to produce a “before” and “after” image series. Seeing these drawings did not only make me laugh but also made me happy. It was great to see how the childrens’ perception of scientists changed from a man with glasses...

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The Science of “Sherlock”

January 23, 2012
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The Science of “Sherlock”

  Over the last weeks the BBC has aired season 2 of its fantastic mini series “Sherlock” with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. It is fantastic for a number of reasons, but mainly: The story, which transports Sherlock Holmes into London in the 21st century and manages to incorporate social media (for example, John Watson has a blog here), The actors – Sherlock combines the logic of Dr House and the bluntness of Sheldon Cooper from “The Big Bang Theory”, and Watson’s final speech in the last episode made me tear up. The presence of science in every episode....

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I’ll Have The Moss Terrine and Some Lemming Mc Nuggets

December 13, 2011
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I’ll Have The Moss Terrine and Some Lemming Mc Nuggets

On my search for new topics for the Advent Calendar I was researching what reindeer like to eat. I imagined it would be plants adapted to the cold Northern climate where they live – but I was only partially right. Read on for the schocking truth about the reindeer diet! In winter, reindeer feed on lichens. Lichens are “dual organisms“, as they are a symbiosis between a fungus and green algae or cyanobacteria, bacteria which perform photosynthesis. The reindeer’s favourite lichen is Cladonia rangiferina (the “Reindeer Lichen”, or Reindeer Moss). This moss grows only 3-5 mm per year! It...

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How lasers work!

December 6, 2011
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How lasers work!

How does a laser really work?

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Cells, coffee beans, sperm and a mouse party – and it’s all interactive!

May 8, 2011
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Cells, coffee beans, sperm and a mouse party – and it’s all interactive!

Do you have ten minutes to spare and would like to learn how to extract DNA or perform a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a virtual lab? Or maybe explore the inside of a cell and learn more about the functions of cellular components? The Genetic Science Learning Center has put together a fantastic interactive website with tons of learning resources, which are not only suitable for budding geneticists but really for everyone who would like to know more about the basics of genetics, molecular biology and cells. I had a lot of fun with this interactive model of...

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