It has been a while since the last update… well, just come across a funny website which can be useful in some ways.
By reading a number of titles from other people’s work, you will start to appreciate what works in your own setting and what does not.
This is not a new idea, but look at this funny experiment done at Harvard. I just can’t stop wondering how much we are missing when we are staring at our experiments with our own preconception…
Most People Are Not Observant – Watch more Funny Videos
Please share/finalize your ideas for
From Smithsonian.com
The test hens responded more quickly to the tidbitting males that had the normal or stationary wattles, less quickly to the one with the extra floppy wattle (….) and slowest to the male lacking wattles. After the hen’s attention was gained, though, she reacted about the same to each of the four animated chickens. Smith suggests that the wattle helps a rooster gain a hen’s attention when he is tidbitting, rather like a human guy wearing flashy clothes while doing his best dance moves to try and pick up chicks.
goes to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, Jack W. Szostak.
“for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”
link to Nobel prize.org
link to the press release
Some interesting work here, the full winner list is available from their website:
PEACE PRIZE
Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
REFERENCE: “Are Full or Empty Beer Bottles Sturdier and Does Their Fracture-Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull?” Stephan A. Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael J. Thali and Beat P. Kneubuehl, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3, April 2009, pp. 138-42.VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE
Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
REFERENCE: “Exploring Stock Managers’ Perceptions of the Human-Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Association with Milk Production,” Catherine Bertenshaw [Douglas] and Peter Rowlinson, Anthrozoos, vol. 22, no. 1, March 2009, pp. 59-69.ECONOMICS PRIZE
The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks — Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland — for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa — and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.
MEDICINE PRIZE
Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California, USA, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than sixty (60) years.
REFERENCE: “Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis of the Fingers?”, Donald L. Unger, Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 41, no. 5, 1998, pp. 949-50.LITERATURE PRIZE
Ireland’s police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means “Driving License”.
MATHEMATICS PRIZE
Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000).
REFERENCE: Zimbabwe’s Casino Economy — Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, Gideon Gono, ZPH Publishers, Harare, 2008, ISBN 978-079-743-679-4.
We will all read two short articles about Cystic Fibrosis:
Each one of us will then pick one of the following topics, elaborate the discussion by reading an additional latest reference of your choice and present the major ideas in the lab meeting. (Liyun, as a physician for years, should pick up a more research-based topic).
The format will be a 10-min presentation followed by 5-min discussion. If you are discussing a research paper, the breakdown should be as follows: 5-min for background+experimental design, 5-min for 1-2 major findings. For a review paper, the breakdown should be approximately 3 mins for each major idea. The presentation should have no more than 4 slides, preferably 3, you can also use the board. We will also bring a timer.
I suggest the following six topics:
Please reply and this thread to select your topic, and upload both your presentation and the reference article to the appropriate lab meeting folder. I look forward to discussing these ideas with you!
Dr. William Mak, a good friend and a great role model, has been devoting his career to improving the biotechnology education for primary and secondary students and teachers over the years. He has established the Hong Kong Biotechnology Education Resource center with Sik Sik Yuen Ho Yu College and built a university-level research laboratory to facilitate the process. He has been working on another interesting project recently – a custom-built coach bus that serves as a mobile laboratory for the community. He made me feel proud to be a Hong Kong scientist.
More information can be found here:
http://www.hkberc.org.hk
http://mobilelab.hoyu.edu.hk
Here are a few pictures of my visit…
Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.
from wired magazine.
Hello everybody I’m sure you all were glued to your TV’s every night this week like I was for shark week 😉 Ok maybe not. However, if you support the ban on shark finning to save sharks which in turn in saving the whole ocean please go to http://dsc.discovery.com/sharks/ocean-conservancy-petition.html and sign the petition. Also, for more information you can go to sharkweek.com.