think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: October 2006
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
Monday, October 30, 2006. Last week I received a letter in the mail containing a simple piece of filter paper wrapped in plastic. No, not another birthday card, this was my plasmid, the complimentary DNA I needed to make RNA probes. How we get that DNA from a piece of filter paper, create thousands of copies, and eventually make probe is an interesting technique that employs the services of microbiology’s favorite bacteria: Escherichia coli. Don’t let the name scare you. Some strains of E. coli. Cells in...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: July 2006
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html
Monday, July 31, 2006. Wheat: It's What's for Breakfast. Sponge cake. Spaghetti. Coco puffs. French loaf. All of these foods are certainly very distinct from one another (I know I’ve got to be in a particular mood for any one of 'em) yet they are all primarily a product of wheat. How does something so simple and seemingly homogenous as wheat come to make such vastly different foods? Well, that's why wheat is only seemingly. Measuring "hardness" is more complicated than it seems. Currently Kam is busily w...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: August 2006
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html
Wednesday, August 30, 2006. Worship at the Double Helix Altar. One of the courses I’m taking this year is Genomics, the study of the structure, content, function, and evolution of DNA. Our instructor, Barrie Robison, began the course with an interesting statement on our first day:. You all know the central dogma of DNA correct? Everything moves from gene to protein, with RNA in between? We all nod in agreement. Well, this class is all about messing with that concept. Seriously. These two assumptions are ...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: February 2007
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Saturday, February 17, 2007. Take a look at these two pictures of George W. Bush:. There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of difference between the two, other than that George looks more perturbed than usual on the left. Now here are the two images again right side up:. The difference is far more striking and obvious when the images are oriented correctly. You can really tell the photo on the left has been altered. Http:/ www.prosopagnosia.com. Posted by Kit at 4:02 PM. Links to this post. The First Comp...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: September 2006
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html
Saturday, September 30, 2006. Now that you know about how blood works and the important role of hemoglobin, I’d like to explore the topic of sickle cell anemia as promised. In the biology course Organisms and Environments we learned that the malaria virus is carried by a protist parasite called Plasmodium. Which enters the human body via a mosquito vector. Malaria is the end product of a parasite chain, with mosquitoes carrying Plasmodium. Which creates the disease symptoms. Enters an erythrocyte the pH ...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: September 2007
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Wednesday, September 05, 2007. My Thoughts on Science. Scientific truth is not absolute truth. Science concerns itself primarily with what is empirical. What we can test empirically though so often comes down to what we can observe and this can sometimes be limiting. A theory can reach beyond what is directly observable and still be considered scientific, but it is only considered such because it best explains the observed phenomena. So what then is truth and how can one determine reality? Even more weig...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: March 2007
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Wednesday, March 07, 2007. The Brain Behind the Mind: The Biological Basis of Character and Emotion. Seeing the Brain as Mind: A Slippery Can of Worms. Few would argue today that the brain is not a thought processing organ, and yet the idea of the brain being the physical basis for our feelings and personality -the root of what we consider "self" -is still forbidden fruit. Character in the Brain. Character is one trait that is often not associated directly with the physical brain, but just as speech, vis...
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: January 2007
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Sunday, January 21, 2007. So What's so Cool About Puffers? Well, aside from being cute and frisky little creatures, green spotted puffer fish are actually a subject of much research these days. The green spotted pufferfish, Tetraodon nigroviridis. Has a genome of 350 megabases, about an 8th the size of the human genome and the smallest genome known of all vertebrates. That’s not to say they have less genes. Http:/ www.cns.fr/externe/English/Projets/Projet C/organisme C.html#ecologie. Links to this post.
think-bomb.blogspot.com
Think Bomb: April 2007
http://think-bomb.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Thursday, April 05, 2007. Spelling, reading, and the mind's eye. And I will recall having seen the sign, but not what was written as I did not bother to translate the material. Good speed readers, on the other hand, can access the meaning of words visually. The need for translation into a phonetic mental representation does not exist, so the speed of reading is only hindered by the speed of vision and understanding. I wonder how many other people approach reading in this fashion and which is more common.
