What the heck! I can do two in one day!

I can do two posts in one day, right? Why not?

This is just to divert your attention to those men and women who protect our lives and freedoms here at home. Whether we're shopping, at the food court, or preparing to drive home, these brave, yet anonymous persons are watching over us. I will admit that I feel safer doing my errands, even something like going to the mall, knowing that my life is in the hands of the most capable.

I speak, of course, of Mall Ninjas.

Saving us from the Pirates in today's society.

New Book!

Yes, it's been a week. A very busy week, but an interesting week. I got the results back from the experiment, and as I kind of expected they don't match up nicely. But I have them, that's the important thing. I also set up for a new one that'll be done a week from yesterday.
Tomorrow I hop on the shuttle and go home for some birthday celebrations. It'll be the first time off-Island in a couple of months, and I'm looking forward to it. The ride itself doesn't take long, only four hours. If I had taken Acadian Lines, it would be about 7 hours, because of a stop-over in Amherst.

I posted a little while ago about The Sandman series. Well Mr. Gaiman has a new book out, called American Gods. Also, as a side note, it's free online. On the publishers website. Really.

Also included is the option to post on your own website, which I am doing here. I'm going to start reading it, but I hope you'll join me.



Enjoy.

Jurassic Park! At a chicken farm near you!

I like dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure most people know that.
I'm watching "Dinosaurs" on Discovery right now, and they're examining the DNA of modern birds. Currently, it is thought that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, specifically the therapods like Velociraptor.
If birds are the closest relative to dinosaurs, they would have a lot of dinosaur DNA in them. (Take that, Michael Crichton!). The genes were modified and changed, some were shut down. By changing these genes back, and activating the original genes, we could theoretically create a proto-dinosaur.
An example shown is the tail. The tail in birds would grow indefinitely but there is a protein that inhibits that. By shutting off this protein, the tail will grow to the proper length. This was already performed in experiments. Ditto for chickens with teeth. They didn't add genes, they didn't mix up DNA with other animals. They simply changed the timing and the genes did the work themselves.

Is building a dinosaur possible today? No. Near future? No. Is it ethical? Probably not.

Cool? Heck, yes!

Now Randall really has something to worry about.

Doing Science

Today I was a judge in the science fair at the local junior high school. Since I speak French, I was enlisted to judge the French-Immersion students. In the 5 years since I graduated high school, this is the first time speaking French has helped me land a job, albeit volunteer. However, if I did not speak French, they wouldn't have asked me to join the judges.
There were around 75 projects by Grade 7s and Grade 8s, and each one had to be judged by three different people. As you'd expect, many appeared to be done at the last minute, many obviously had parents in the background, but there were an exceptional few that made me think about the way science is taught.

I remember learning the scientific method in Grade 6. I grasped the basics of observation, hypothesis, experiment, observations, results and conclusion. After junior high, though, this all skipped away to the background as I had my nose put to the grindstone of sheer memorization of facts. I enjoyed it, certainly. It's necessary to do it, otherwise we'd repeat the same experiments throughout history. We have to learn what other people have tried and observed. Taking in as much information as possible is important, but by doing this you're also leaning away from the methods that gave us this knowledge in the first place.

Laboratory work is vital in science education. I've always enjoyed it, thought it should supplement the usual, but it isn't until today that I realized the role it plays in science education. Just as textbook learning teaches you a history of discoveries, lab classes teach you the skills to make you a better scientist. What observations are important (all of them), how to measure accurately, how to perform experiments with a minimum of error. When I set up a series of cultures, PCRs, or DNA extractions, I set everything up in repeatedly redundant orders. This way, if I lose track of something or space out I can retrace my steps and get back into order. Another thing to be taught is the importance of repetitions and controls. Even if the activity is a simple one, like mixing baking soda and vinegar, it should be repeated and have a control included (baking soda into water, cornstarch into vinegar for example).

Fast forward to university. For the first time, we're performing real experiments. Not laboratory activities like mixing acids and bases, but real result-not-known-until-you-do-the-bloody-thing experiments like the infamous Genesis Tank. In 2nd year Cell Biology we're writing lab reports that have large amounts of data, and we're learning how to mange this data efficiently, and also how to display it effectively. The display I was most impressed with today was a person who had used multiple experimental units, and had several graphs displaying them against each other. In one glance at her board, I was able to see her results clearly.

So many people think of science of fact-drilling. But doing science is a process that also has to be learned. Right now I'm looking after fifty sample groups, each with anywhere from 1 to 50 individual tubers in each. In less than a week, I'll be sitting on a mountain of numbers which will comprise the results of our first experiment. Two years ago, I could have learned everything there is to know about potatoes and fungi in a class, and easily pass the test. But I would've broken down if faced with the huge amount of data that I'm currently about to tackle. Since then I've learned so much about set-ups, controls, statistics and patience that I'm looking forward to it and seeing what surprises lay in store for me.

It's a long post, I know. I imagine you probably wanted to hear about the projects themselves. Most of them were pretty good. Some were excellent, and you could see the pure science behind them through their rough edges. I'm glad that this school had a fair, because it gave these kids an opportunity to practice their skills, and probably gave them their first taste of the insatiable curiosity that drives us to science.

EDIT: Apparently I'm not the only person that thinks these things: Dangerous Science, from Wired.

Watching the Ottawa game

Kelly just scored 2:38 into the 1st, shorthanded and on a breakaway. With our front line back, it's fun to watch Ottawa games. Unfortunately, it shows that Ottawa can't rely on them, and should start working on their other players to encourage more scorers in their ranks.

For supper I cooked a lemon rice dish. Took 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin and fried it up with some ginger. Mixed it with a couple of cups of cooked rice. Added lemon peel, some lemon juice, salt, coriander and green onions.

At work, I'm excited to be involved in the middle of a couple of experiments. Even more exciting, for the first time, I'll be judging a science fair on Thursday. It's at the local junior high school, and since I've got some French I was picked to help. I'll be paired with an experienced judge, and travel around the French-immersion students. I'm looking forward to it (I'm so pleased to see students of science) and looking forward to seeing what people come up with. I heard about one already, where a student has tested different egg substitutes by making chocolate chip cookies with different egg-type-things.

So, lots going on this week. I know there hasn't been a post in a while, but until now there's not been really much to say.

I have finished "The Sandman" series by Neil Gaiman. I would suggest it to many people to read, but especially to those who consider themselves "literary."

Oops. As it turns out, I have to read one more in the library. I'll be pleased to. The story has been an adventure, a comedy, joyful and mournful. It's also incredibly humanizing.

The Sandman on Wikipedia

The Sandman on Amazon


Enjoy.

Somebody please put him in his place

I don't like Richard Dawkins.
As a scientist and a Christian, I hate it when he speaks for "all scientists." He decries religion and faith as mere superstition, and that only science, with its infallible logic and pure reason provides a clear view of the world. This is from the website "Enemies of Reason," the TV show that he's currently on.

There are two ways of looking at the world – through faith and superstition or through the rigours of logic, observation and evidence – in other words, through reason. Reason and a respect for evidence are precious commodities, the source of human progress and our safeguard against fundamentalists and those who profit from obscuring the truth.

As a biologist, I find his views regarding biology, evolution and genetics intriguing. I'm not totally sold on The Selfish Gene, but it's still interesting. But having him talk about religion irks the same nerve as when well-known Christian orators try to disprove evolution. It's out of your jurisdiction, and your courses are always biased.
I was very pleased when I visited The Panda's Thumb and found Dawkins under attack with his own sword. I don't know anything about this Rupert Sheldrake, but it's this that I find best describes my feelings.

However, when Dawkins and people like him promote their views in the name of science, they commit labeling fraud. Dawkins may be a scientist by trade, but when he acts and argues as a fundamentalist believer in materialism, ignoring evidence that challenges his belief system, then he commands no more credibility and scientific authority than any other kind of religious believer.

The more attacks against his philosophy, demanding evidence for his viewpoints, the better.

Nothing to say

It's true. I was expecting to have something to say by now, but it's been pretty routine at work, at home, at church and at play. It's snowing again, and people at work were hinting that there would be no work tomorrow. I have serious doubts. First, everybody was talking about how often they don't have work, yet I've seen some ferocious weather here and we still had to go to work. Second, the weather's not even due to be that bad. I'm sure the plows will have the snow off the road way before morning.
A slightly exciting bit of news is that I have a new laptop. I was unable to keep my Acadia laptop, and that made me...upset. A strike, I get no penny of the retribution they gave us, and then they're still not letting me have a computer. I was upset.
I now, from work, have a Dell Latitude D620. Acadia students, look at your laptop brand. Notice anything?
Speaking of laptops, how was that showcase that they put on? Anything good? Anybody made any decisions?