Too funny or too pathetic...hummm...good question!

Lynn (AKA Babybluezephyr) wrote this in her blog:

"So I get a friend request from someone today that is a teacher at camosun, and is wanting to start a group for everyone in the class. Which in itself is pathetic."

I think I just might be the "pathetic one"...the culprit. Why ??? Well let me tell you that I teach at Camosun and that,on the 24th of August, I sent a request to my students to join a group that I created in Facebook. Why in the world an instructor like me would like to get students to join a Facebook group ? Because I need friends ?.....well...it's true that I just moved from Québec and that I left my very good friends behind...but no, it is not the reason. Because I want to be a cool instructor ? Well, I want to reach students but mostly, I want them to work together. The group I created in Facebook (for BIOL 124) is a study group that, I hope, the students will use to solve problems and understand that Web 2.0 tools are there to be used for learning and not just because to show funny pictures and talk about drinking habits - of course I exagerate a bit here. Are my intentions pathetic? Are they that funny? Well maybe for some...

Yesterday, I talked with one of my colleagues that is also a blogger. He wrote this:

Facebook is not where they go to learn. It’s where they go to socialize, relax and throw virtual food at each other.

After talking to him and reading his post I almost regret having created this Facebook group. I understand that students might not want me in their space but still many students replied to my request. When I think about it, with such a perspective, when I was 20-26 I just might have found a request to facebook pathetic....but maybe not....

Health Canada and the FDA have to regulate chicken soup!

Chicken soup....YUM. Especially my wifes chicken soup...sublime and soothing after a day of ski. Some of you were told by your grandmothers...."chicken soup is good when you have a cold". This amazing meal has health virtues that have been published in very serious journals...CHEST for instance. A quick search on Pubmed with the keywords "chicken" and "soup" gave me 77 hits...hey...not bad at all!!! Some of those studies use qui sophisticated instruments, jusst look at this one:

Measurement of the radical scavenging activity of chicken jelly soup, a part of the medicated diet, 'Yakuzen', made from gelatin gel food 'Nikogori', using chemiluminescence and electron spin resonance methods.International journal of molecular medicine. 2006 18(1): 107-111

Another publication offers a list of conditiions treated with chicken soup or soup made with other fowl. As an example here is a table from an article published in CHEST: Fred Rosner, MD (1980)Therapeutic efficacy of chicken soup. Chest, 78(4): 672-674.


Furthermore, it seems that using certain parts of chicken or fowl can have adverse effects:



Now...what do you (as a serious scientist) think of this abstract???

"A case is reported in which a previously healthy individual, having received an inadequate course of chicken soup in treatment of mild pneumococcal pneumonia, experienced a severe relapse, refractory to all medical treatment and eventually requiring thoracotomy. The pharmacology of chicken soup is reviewed and the dangers of abrupt termination of therapy are stressed"

Caroline, NL et Schwartz, H. 1975. Chicken soup rebound and relapse of pneumonia: report of a case. Chest, 67 (2) 215-216.

Finally, for your own pleasure here is a study of "sipping soup through a straw" and its effects on nasal mucus velocity...that's a gem!

Saketkhoo et al. 1978. Effects of drinking hot water, cold water, and chicken soup on nasal mucus velocity and nasal airflow resistance. Chest, 74(4) 408-410

Here is my very last question....how am I suppose to pronounce the first authors name? Is it...SAK-ATCHOO???

What are the odds?

Some people are sooo lucky! Just try to calculate the odds of this considering

1) Windspeed
2) Air moisture
3) Rotation of the Earth
4) Geographical position of the house
5) What happened a few million years back...
6) Angle of entry in atmosphere...etc...

I think you can sleep tight tonight...the odds are slim that you are going to get killed by a meteorite in your sleep...but it's still plausible...
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=meteorite&l=4

Look mom....no hands!

I just hope that people using the games with this GADGET have enough brain cells left!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evert-jan/72570274/

Can math and PCR save the elephants?

Ivory trade from elephant tusks is still going on despite its ban in 1989. Last year it is estimated that 3,000 elephants were killed. Between August 2005 and August 2006, 23,461 kg of ivory has been seized but the identification of poachers is difficult, partly because there is no way of telling where the ivory is coming from in Africa...until now!

In order to adress this issue and provide a better monitoring, Samuel Wasser and its team have demonstrated that DNA extracted from elephant tusks allows to determine if the elephant is from the savannah or the forest. These studies are based on microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA (Wasser et al., 2004, PNAS, 101: 14847-14852). In order to further identify the region where the elephants were killed, this same team designed a genetic and probalistic approach based Voronoi tesselation (Wasser et al. 2007, PNAS, 104: 4228-4233). These analysis allowed to identify a common region in Africa: most likely Zambia. Now, let's hope that Zambia will be monitored more closely and that the poachers, that decimated between 50 and 90% of the elephant population will be caught...

Another way to put a stop to elephant killing does not involve genetics or statistics knowledge...STOP BUYING IVORY!!!!

Traffic on the bridge...

Attention: Virus crossing ahead! Found this on Nature Cell Biology site. Absolutely amazing! Never heard of anything like that. Click here for a video of this remarquable finding!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanpmurphy/363818292/

Paris Hilton's phenotype

Brain researchers have identified an enzyme apparently responsible for neuronal connections. It seems that glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) prevents memory loss. This finding could lead to interesting research leads in neuroscience and Alzheimer's disease. It could also explains Paris Hilton's peculiar phenotype, a lack of GSK3? She recently forgot to renew her drivers license...and
Associated Press decided to ban the publication of this amazingly important news.

Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/149047693/

Isectomycology ?

Absolutely beautiful. Never heard of this before....silly of me not to know this existed! Natures is just perfect...unless you are the victim!

Fed up with hypocrits???

Unbelievable! I am so fed up with people saying one thing but doing the opposite... ARRGGH!!!!!





See for yourself here:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/02/28/gore-electricity.html?ref=rss

Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetalone/378293806/

A well-rounded champion!

Can you draw a perfect circle in less than a second? This Ottawa teacher, Alexander Overwijk, surely can!

Modern art, Britney Spears hair and Brad Pitt's facial tissue...

I love art, especially contemporary art. One of my favorite painters is Barnett Newman and the National Gallery in Ottawa has one of its paintings...Voice of Fire (the title)...and it is just splendid! This special painting is nothing more that two vertical lines surrounding a red one (you can see it here). The museum purchased it in 1989 for 1.8 million (CDN). Is that too much for such a simple painting (although it is 18 feet tall)?

Maybe yes....but...maybe not! It depends! Some people would not spend a dime for it. After all, all this money could have been used for social housing, homeless people, shelters....biomedical research! On the other hand, this is the price to pay for a "Barnett Newman". Why? Because there is a market for it! Still not convinced?

Let me give you a little (and disgusting) example!

You follow someone and that person blows its nose and throws the facial tissue on the ground as he walks...are you going to touch that dirty facial tissue? Chances are, you are going to stay clear of that piece of softened cellulose with goo in it. BUT WAIT....that person in front of you is...YES...Brad Pitt! If you have just a bit of marketing brains, you are going to sell it on eBay (if you can prove it comes from Brad...maybe you can extract DNA from it). That SAME facial tissue now has a market potential! You understand? Sure you do! That is probably why you are not surprized by the fact that poor Britney's (boo-hoo) hair is now on sale on the internet...for a million bucks MINIMUM.

That's a lot of money for some keratin that grew in a head full of water....but that's just me!

Picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/9658510/

And...what about YOU?

Frequently I posts teaching tips and my feelings about teaching. I am interested in sharing experiences! Anyone with good stories are VERY WELCOME to write about them. Just tell me about them and I will create a link to you blog! I just want to create an exchange blog...but not just about me! So...what about YOU????

Photo credit: this image was modified and can be found at this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/assbach/136040511/

Teaching tip #6: Open door

An open door is so much more than just a door. An open door invites for discussion, creativity and thinking. An open door is really telling your students that you care. An open door creates an opportunity for you to recall what you were then....just a kid with questions and, maybe, fear of the future! Now, there you are...a teacher, a professor, a parent or maybe.....a student! Remember where you come from. Just remember!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yewenyi/

Distance Learning...wonderful!

I started to teach a course with some students in the classroom and some in another city. It works perfectly well for several reasons:

• I am aware that the distant students are AS IMPORTANT as the students are in the class room
• I am aware that distant students need 2 to 3 seconds before they can hear me and I have to patient for their feedback
• I refer to them just as much as I refer to the students in the classroom (see first comment)
• Technical staff is ESSENTIAL for successful distance learning
• I am using tools that make sure students see where I am going...no laser pointers here!

Picture credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philipyk/

Teaching tip #5 - a quick survey tells you where they fell

You are a good teacher...not doubt about it! You care and your students know that! But did they get everything you wanted them to get? Did they reach YOUR objectives? After class, ask them to write on a sheet of paper what THEY think was the most important message of your lecture. If it was in line with your own objectives...bulls eye! If not...next time make sure to come back on the last lecture. Easy!!!

A new nail in the intelligent design's coffin!

A new paper published in Nature indicates that an increase in atmospheric oxygen levels might have "stimulated the evolution of macroscopic multicellular animals and the oxygenation of deep oceans".

This new oxygenation is considered as a very stressful event in our planet natural history because oxygen usage means free radicals production and protein (and DNA) damage. It would be very interesting to compare phylogenetic data from anti oxidant and DNA repair proteins. If this theory is right, we should be able to correlate atmospheric/ocean oxygen increase with cellular molecular protection.

Reference: Fike, D.A., et al. (2006) Oxidation of the Ediacaran Ocean. Nature, December 2006, p 744-747.

Teaching tip #4 - DO YOU CARE ENOUGH?

I read this somewhere:

"People do not care about what you know until they know how much you care".

Caring is the MOST important thing when it comes to teaching. It does not matter if you are a seasoned professor or a novice...if you do not care, it shows or it will show very quickly. Students are not idiots and they will not care either. If you should ever stop caring, take a break. You might be burned out, or begin to be. If after that break you still do not care, your flame is out......choose another career...for the students sake!

Nanotechnology as pollution?

Nanotechnology holds big promises. Nanotechnology could even, a day, revolutionize the way we treat or prevent disease, the way we look, the way we think and even the way we go to war.

Nanotechnology is as inspiring as year 2000 was, back in the 50's. It is far away but still it is already here. The problem is this, nanotechnology could, one day, be a very big problem. How do we get rid of microscopic things that do not respond to medication, antibiotics or antivirals. We already thought of creating new devices that seem promising, but have we thought of poential solution to real future problems? Some particles could be so small, there is a potential for them to be endocytosed by some tissues. They could gain access to vital organs like the brain, kidneys or liver. Günter Oberdörster is a researcher in the field of nanotoxicology and his studies prove that nanoparticles can gain access inside the body through inhalation.

At the cell level, those nanoparticles can be ingested by specialized cells called macrophages. These cells, that have evolved to destroy microorganisms, can move from blood circulation to tissues and back to blood. This way, they can transport nanoparticles to tissues. These cells, when they die, will spill this nanopollution. Nanoparticles, many of them, have a very stable form. Bucky tubes and bucky balls are made of carbon and their molecular configuration makes them as stable as diamond (which is also carbon). Once in the tissues, they could stay there for a very long time and nobody can predict what can happen.

We, humans, have this problem....we create problems to which we have no solutions. Silly human race....

Teaching tip #3: Spot the thermometer student

In a classroom it is sometimes difficult to know in real time if the students are receptive to what you say. Maybe they do not grasp what you want them to. Well, there might be hope...YES! In a classroom, some *students are more expressive than others, their body language is more obvious although they are not aware of this. Spot these students early and look at them every time you think something might be difficult to understand. Their frowning might indicate a problem...if so, repeat your concept from another angle and then ask if it is clearer....it works everytime! By the way, I call them my "thermometer students".

*PS. Do NOT tell them as they might become self conscious and you could lose their subconscious collaboration.

The biological problem with binge-drinking

Binge dinking is not a new phenomenon...especially with college students. These parties can last for days, an the impact on academic success is often dramatic resulting in failures and, lets face it, money loss.

A study by a french group found that teenage haevy drinkers can lose more than marks on a test. Brain scans of alcohol-dependant individuals aged from 30-50 years showed a definitive loss of white matter. What is important here is this, the age at which these individuals started drinking is related to decreased grey matter volume in the cerebellum, brainstem and frontal region.

Reference: Chanraud et al. 2006. Brain Morphometry and Cognitive Performance in Detoxified
Alcohol-Dependents with Preserved Psychosocial Functioning. Neuropsychopharmacology, October issue, p. 1-10.

Image by Ottmar Liebert taken from Flickr under creative commons (CC) license