Good morning, As you have heard by now, our lab (like all classes at IUP main campus) is canceled for today. Please stay safe while this cold front passes. We'll resume our schedule next week, and pick-up our meiosis exercise then. In the meantime, I'll pass along a recent news article about axolotl salamanders, and efforts to decode their DNA. Axolotls are of great interest in medicine because they are the only vertebrate animal that is able to regenerate nearly any of its body parts if they are lost. Imagine if humans had the ability to re-grow lost fingers or limbs? Perhaps learning about how axolotls achieve this kind of regrowth will someday get us there. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/science/axolotl-dna-genome-sequence.html See you next week - Dr. Nealen
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Good morning all, I'm passing along here a link to a recent news article about advanced technology for the analysis of DNA, and its use in fighting crime. This type of instrument is made possible through the application of advanced electronics and engineering to human biology, a trend that is only going to increase over time. While these devices are exciting and interesting, remember also that there is risk associated with their use, in the collection/banking of personal data, and the need to safeguard one's privacy. I will occasionally pass along articles of this type during the semester. My purpose in doing so is to help you to become more aware of topics at the interface of biology and society, and also to help you assess how you obtain your science and health news. Those of us working in science obtain our scientific news, quite often, directly from the original sources: the people conducting the studies and reporting the results. They publish their findings in science journals, or present them at conferences. Most people do not obtain their news directly, but hear news via secondary sources, such as news releases from scientific organizations, or news stories from the major news outlets. These secondary reports often are then carried by tertiary outlets (smaller/other reporting sources). Along the way from source to audience, science news is normally distilled (a lot) - much of the detail is excluded or simplified, and the reports often are boiled-down to singular take-home messages, which may (or may not) be good representations of the original work. When you browse the links that I will forward, or when you access science and health news on your own, I'd encourage you to delve a little bit deeper into them, to read more than just the summaries, and to follow links back to original sources when possible. I'd also encourage you to think a little about the translation of news from source to consumer, and the reputability of the news outlets that you use. You will not be formally tested on any of the material in the news stories that I will send you, but I do hope that the material in them makes its way into our classroom conversations. This first link is from the New York Times, which provides one of the best (e.g., best funded and most reliable) secondary sources of science and health news. They do limit access to only a handful of free articles each month, so I will use them sparingly. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/science/dna-crime-gene-technology.html Have a great weekend - Dr. Nealen Good morning all, Just thought that I would pass along a recent news article about gene doping. One of the interesting items in the article is that the scientist who first developed some of these genetic methods (Lee Sweeney) is now an advisor for the WADA! https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/health/athletes-gene-editing-doping-sport-intl/index.html Cheers, Dr. Nealen Good morning all, Yesterday, I sent you all a link to a news story about 'doping' in sports, and the controversies revolving around it. That article was a useful introduction to the topic of doping in general, and it focused upon chemical doping, which is the traditional form of the problem. Our lab topic this week, however, is 'gene doping', which is a related, but more difficult problem. I'm appending below a few more links that might help bring you up-to-speed on gene doping, in particular. In lab, we'll have a reading and some questions (as usual), but I wanted to give you these reading options in advance. If you get a few minutes, scan a couple of these links - they will help put our in-lab discussion into a broader context. You can also use these readings once we gather for lab, to help with the questions we'll consider. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25687002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_doping http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-gene-doping-and-will-any-athletes-at-rio-2016-have-tried-it-63230 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8549500_Gene_Doping_in_Sports See you tomorrow - Dr. Nealen 'A devastating blow to the reputations of some of the biggest names in British sport' - BBC Sport3/5/2018 Good morning all, As we prepare for a lab on 'doping' this week, a related news article has crossed my desk this morning: http://www.bbc.com/sport/43281807 It is good to see that our topics are relevant and timely! See you on Wed - Dr. Nealen
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