A poem, annotated

For the class I taught this past quarter, my practice was to do any assignment myself that I have assigned to my students. It allowed me to be in their shoes and also gain what I hope they gain from the exercises.

Their second paper assignment was a multimodal paper. For this project, I annotated the poem, Death and The Pretense of Youth, by Chicago poet Edwin Alvarez, for anything related to scientific concepts or phenomena. This poem is aesthetically beautiful and symbolically rich, and in this assignment, as it is for a biology class, I concentrated on explaining the many scientific references and allusions the poet makes. It is one of several poems I shared in my class for students to read. The passages I annotated are indicated below in bold. Some of these are hyperlinked to supplemental information, and bracketed numbers indicate footnotes with brief explanations or observations.

Death and The Pretense of Youth
FEBRUARY 22, 2019 ~ EOALVAREZ

When I was a child
My Mother once told me
“Que Cera, Cera”
What will be will be?
This small ditty would hold my hands together in Church
Little would I know that decades would flow
Of colonialism, segregation, and language divisions
The Religious right, Austerity, and Entitlement.
The selfish gene[1] persists
with its mind of its own
Its root knows no cause just existence
Yet the cells just kill themselves[2]
Cells kill themselves because of stress
or kill themselves because their neighbors experience that stress
A death induced signaling complex[3]
One of multiple factors
heat, radiation, nutrition, oxygen deprivation
and others
When a cell isn’t recognized by “itself”[4]
Another one does the dirty job
Recognized as “other” the cell is
marked for a kill.[5]
A dead cell becomes cellular debris
to be washed up on a lymphatic shore.[6]
New growth, that which replaces
what was lost
all depends on
a new generation
a doubling replication[7]
where once was is and will be again
The copy to copy of stem to branch to stem[8]
a veracity of verisimilitude
to age but yet remain forever young
The voracious act to live intensifies a spontaneity
to begin again
as is
better or worse
Simultaneity expressed as natures remedy-
The organization of bees?[9]
Velvet Deer Horns?[10]
Wandering Swallowtail moths?[11]
Clustered post work traffic?[12]
Dried peanut butter protein?[13]
Natural facts of aggregation?[14]
Strange quarks[15]or Charmed?
A spooky action at a distance, no doubt?
The anthropomorphic quark speaks of No Higgs[16]
It sees the feather and then the whole flock
It is born unto
an ancestry of desire[17]
What mothers and fathers regret
born unto
an unceasing chain

[1] The selfish gene
The theory of the “selfish gene” postulates that genes promote their own survival without regard to the survival of the organism or species.  It is an expression of the gene-centered view of evolution (as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group). According to a gene-centered view of evolution, the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. This idea has emerged from early 20th century thought, but popularize by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book of the same name.
https://www.nature.com/articles/529462a

[2] Apoptosis
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a specific process whereby a cell kills itself. It is a normal process in development and certain immune responses.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2117903/

[3] Apoptosis signalling
There are several stimuli that can induce apoptosis, and the nature of the stimuli will determine what signaling pathways are activated to enact cell death. One pathway, known as the “extrinsic” or “death receptor” pathway, is activated when a protein called the “death ligand” binds a specific cell surface receptor which in turns sets of a signaling cascade inside the receptive cell, including the formation of a complex of proteins that bind to form what is known as a death-inducing signaling complex (DISC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death-inducing_signaling_complex

[4] Self-recognition by immune system
The immune system is able to defend us by recognizing and acting against foreign elements without reacting to or harming our normal cells. To do so, it needs mechanism by which immune cells recognize something as “self” and “non-self”. Cancer cells have been known to harness this “anti-immunity” property to evade destruction by the immune system.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4836822/

[5] Killer T Cells
These are specific immune cells that can detect infected cells and directly kill them to protect uninfected cells.
http://www.tcells.org/scientific/killer/

[6] Lymph
The lymph system is a major part of the immune system. It carries in its fluid, called lymph, immune cells to parts of the body, and the fluid is filtered to remove harmful cells such as bacteria and cancer cells. During infection, central areas of the lymph system, called nodes, can swell, especially in the neck, arm pits and groin areas.
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002247.htm

[7] Cell division
Organisms grow by cell division, where in 2 daughter cells are produced from 1 parent cell, each with a copy of the DNA from the parent cell. In the case of organisms like plants and humans, each of these cells maintains two copies of each DNA molecule (chromosome). A specialized form of cell division, called meiosis, results in haploid cells that contain only one copy of each chromosomes. These daughter cells are destined to become reproductive cells (eggs and sperm).
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/howgeneswork/cellsdivide

[8] Stem cells and tree of life
Here the poet may be making allusions to two biological terms, stem cells, and the tree of life (along with its branches). Most cells in our body are very specialized. Skin cells have very different form and function from liver cells, for example. But they all emerge from undifferentiated cells called stem cells, which are not specialized but have the potential to grow into specialized cells such as heart cells, brain cells, and blood cells.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/bone-marrow-transplant/in-depth/stem-cells/art-20048117

The stem and branches of the tree of life is a visual representation of how Charles Darwin first envisioned the evolution of life’s diversity, one branch of life yielding many other branches as species evolve. Recent advances in DNA sequencing have revealed that life’s evolution is a little more complicated than that, with some “branches” grafting themselves on to others (apologies for extending this metaphor to its limits here).
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jan/21/charles-darwin-evolution-species-tree-life

[9] Emergent properties in bees
Bees, and other social insects such as termites and ants, act as individuals in ways that they collectively outstanding macroscopic structures and complex behaviors. Scientists enjoy studying these insects to understand how such individual behaviors can collectively perform and enact complex patterns, structures (like a beehive or ant colony) and behaviors.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0005772X.2017.1290893?journalCode=tbee20

[10] Deer antler velvet
Deer antlers grow when seasonal tissue, rich in blood vessels and nerves, grow over the antlers and deposit proteins and minerals that form the antlers. This “velvet” is shed seasonally, and humans use this in folk medicine. It may be that the high level of hormones in deer antler velvet may underlie folk medicine effects on humans.
https://sciencing.com/do-deer-velvet-horns-6690259.html

[11] Swallowtail butterfly and moth
The swallowtail butterfly include over 500 species of large and beautiful butterflies, so named because of the extensions on their hindwings. The black swallowtail can be spotted in Chicago, where it lays eggs for its larvae to much on such plants as Queen Anne’s lace and their garden relatives, carrots, parsley, fennel and dill.
http://www.naturemuseum.org/the-museum/blog/6-common-butterflies-you-ll-see-in-chicago-parks-and-gardens

The swallowtail moth is not at all closely related to the butterfly, but shares the distinctive hindwing extensions. It is native Europe and the Near East, where it is common.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/swallow-tailed-moth

[12] The science of traffic patterns
Automobile traffic may sometimes seem chaotic, but scientists love studying order in this chaos. Understanding how patterns of traffic congestion emerge can not only help improve traffic forecasting and road design, but also lend understanding to other processes prone to traffic jams, both in nature and in human-made environments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/aug99/traffic05.htm

[13] Peanut protein allergy
The cause of peanut allergy is unclear and at least 11 peanut protein allergens have been described. Peanut allergies are uncommon in children of undeveloped countries. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that the relatively low incidence of childhood peanut allergies in undeveloped countries is a result of exposure to diverse food sources as well as non-food antigens early in life, increasing immune capability, whereas food selection by children in developed countries is more limited, reducing immune capability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_allergy

[14] Protein aggregation
Proteins have sticky parts that are usually hidden inside a well-folded protein. But when proteins unfold abnormally, those once hidden sticky parts can stick to each other, resulting in large clumps of abnormally functioning protein. Such aggregations have been associated with several human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/protein-aggregation

[15] Quarks
Most of us grew up learning that atoms were the fundamental units of the universe. But we also know that atoms have parts, called protons, neutrons and electrons. And yet these sub-atomic parts have parts of their own, called quarks. They are so small, and have strange properties, that have prevented us from actually observing them. We only know of their existence through experimental evidence, though they had been proposed to exist in theories dating as far back as the 1960s.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/04/18/quarks-dont-actually-have-colors/#5c9776701fe5

[16] Higgs boson
It’s challenging to describe the Higgs boson in a few words, but in one sentence, the Higgs boson is “the visible manifestation of the Higgs field, rather like a wave at the surface of the sea.” And what is the Higgs field? It is a field (much as we have electromagnetic or gravitational fields) thought to exist in every region of the universe with which particles, such as electrons, interact and as a consequence, have mass. Without the Higgs field, these particles would have no mass. And the Higgs boson is the unit of the field with with the particles interact with. Like the wave in the sea.
https://home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson

[17] Epigenetics
We know we can inherit traits from our parents through genes. Specific changes in the DNA of one parent are inherited in the DNA of the offspring. But there are traits that can be inherited without permanent changes in the DNA. Rather, there are temporary changes that alter the way DNA is expressed, how on or off a gene will be determined by special chemical tags that can be removed. How temporary they are can determine whether they can be passed on to a next generation.
https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/inheritance/

The android is us, maybe?

I’ve been reading Blade Runner (in French) and it’s gotten me to think a lot about human programming. Androids like those in Blade Runner are now a common feature in today’s literature, cinema and television. They provide an instrument to interrogate a number of things, one being how technology can affect us as humans. But a more interesting thing to me is the interrogation of what it means to be human at all. In fictions such as Westworld, Her, and Blade Runner, the robotic “fake” humans reach a level of sentience and that makes the reader or viewer wonder at what point can these creatures still be considered not human? Can they ever be considered human? All their behaviors and memories can be ascribed to programming. They are thus not natural sentient beings. But these fictions also make rethink about my own humanity and how much programming determines my own behaviors, thoughts, emotions and memories as well. Yes, programming of humans. We have within us free will to choose to respond to a situation in very different ways. If I drop a cup and shatter it, I can: get angry, get frustrated, get sad, or I can laugh. What determines which reaction it will be? Perhaps how my day went before the incident. But where’s the free will? Perhaps a bad day at work will “program” me to be grumpy. But can I not re-program myself out of a bad mood so I can react to the broken cup with laughter instead? I think so. I think somewhere in there is some Buddhist thinking too, about the nature of the mind. There might be some science here as well. In research on things like stereotype threat, we see how societal biases and stereotypes can program us to underperform. But that these programs can be buffered by interventions such as value affirmation writing exercises. The documented positive results of these interventions are pretty impressive, all from a 5 minute writing exercise that ends up short circuiting the otherwise negative programming that comes with stereotype threat. So in a way, androids in fiction are a thought experiment of a simplified human that allows us to think about the nature of what it is to be human. Though we are now on track to see androids and artificial intelligences reach a state close to sentience pretty soon. Perhaps all the fiction that has been written on this topic may allow us to be better prepared, ethically and emotionally, to the advent of such new creatures on this planet.

I work at an art school now!

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and no better time that this new lunar year in my new home in Chicago, where I am currently a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). This place is amazing in so many ways, and especially for a scientist that appreciates art as much as I do, it's kind of dreamy. SAIC has a science requirement for its students, so there are loads of science classes offered and lots of scientists teaching here. I am currently teaching a course called the Science of Food. Yum. There is a Scientist in Residence Program, and just last week I got to see the coolest talk on the complicated nature of light from a physicist's (SAIC professor Kathryn Schaffer's) perspective. It was an amazing talk, well illustrated in both words and pictures on a topic that challenges our ability to communicate. How does one draw or describe something like light, which takes up space but is not a material thing, behaves both like a particle and like a wave, is invisible and yet allows us to see? That's where math comes in. But how to talk about the wave function in the equations? It's a challenge that stirs up all we take for granted in describing the physical world around us. And as a science educator, the talk made me think more carefully of how I used illustrations to convey nature to my students. If one is not careful, illustrations may give students the wrong impression about science and the nature of the universe.

The images used in the above poster for the talk, for example, are three different ways to represent light. Light propagates through space as a disturbance in the electric field. An electric field has both a strength and a direction, and the convention has been to indicate direction with an arrow, and strength with an amplitude or height of an arrow, hence the wave shape of how light is normally illustrated. But that can be a deceiving depiction, leading many to think that light actually moves that way in a sinusoidal fashion. It does not! Professor Schaffer prefers the bottom depiction, that conveys strength of the field by the thickness of the arrows, rather than by their length. It still conveys the same information as the top diagram of light, showing how the strength and direction of the fields alter as light moves through.

Now that I'm in a milieu where all sorts of things science and art are explored and discussed, I hope to get back to writing here. More soon to come!

Better Living Through Charts and Graphs

Back in March 2013, I decided I'd lose some unwanted 10 pounds I had gained and go back to what I considered my ideal weight and waist size so that I can fit into my favorite pants and shirts I simply refused to give away or replace. I managed to reach my goals in 6 months, with the help of a couple of smartphone apps that allowed me to monitor my caloric intake and expenditure through diet and exercise, respectively. But just as important, if not more, was simply measuring on an almost daily basis my weight and waist size. It gave me a solid and immediate readout to how well I was eating and working out. Ultimately, it was trying on those clothes and not feeling them too tight to button that showed it had all worked.

But suddenly, things started fitting tight again. What happened?

I looked back at the chart of the numbers I had been tracking all these months and saw that I had suddenly gained both weight and inches. But why then all of a sudden? The graph of my data gave me some clues.

As I've indicated by the two icons, my sudden gain in pounds and inches coincided with two things: the autumnal equinox (September 23), after which the days get progressively shorter, and Halloween (October 31), around which candies become excessively and too easily available.

Click on graph for larger view.

Every year, around this time of year, my body and my spirits slow down. I start to eat more and move less. I feel less motivated to do anything and I sleep more. So this, coupled with very easy access to large amounts of sugary candy, probably combine to explain my sudden gains.

Knowing this now motivates me to crank up my exercise routine, something I should have done earlier in the fall in anticipation for my annual slow down. And also keeps me from munching on the leftover Halloween candy in my office.

Many people track fitness and other progress by taking pictures, which is great. But there's nothing like a graph, a picture of the actual numbers that measure what matters, to tell you what's going on, and how you're progressing, as well as offer you a handle on unexpected changes in course.

Monthly music video: Chartsengrafs by Grandaddy

Chartsengrafs by Grandaddy
No video. Just the song, and a graph.

From the album "The Sophtware Slump" (2000)

"birds come...and then they go"
yeah
i traded laughs
in for charts & graphs
but all that's only fun
until evening comes
your guess as good as mine
as to just what kind
of trouble i might find
tonight out of my
my mind
my mind
my mind
my mind

Monthly music video: Bohemian Gravity

This is wonderful. Makes me want to take a physics course again.

ART and SCIENCE breakthrough contest - DNA, in your face!

The PAX3 gene is involved in the development of the face. Toronto based scientist Dennis McCormac had his PAX3 gene sequenced, and in collaboration with an artist, had his particular sequenced of A, C, T and Gs compose a portrait of his face. Edward Tufte, are you seeing this? Talk about making a visual connection between genotype and phenotype, between DNA and the trait it determines! This is gold to me.

This collaborative art and science work is in the running in a science visualization contest. If you like this as much as I do, please VOTE HERE for this piece by scientist Dennis McCormac and artist James Fowler!

The Genesis Tank

A few weeks ago I went to a flea market looking for a lamp and chairs, and came back with a 10-gallon fish tank instead. I filled it with water, added some gravel, and turned on the water pump. I also went to a nearby pond and grabbed a few pieces of aquatic plants to add to the tank.

A few weeks later, some of the plants had grown, but the duckweed, which I had hoped would have been covering the surface, were not doing so hot. I thought maybe it was that the current was too strong, so I turned off the pump so the water would be more still.

A few days later, the duckweed had indeed grown a little tiny bit better. But the water surface was now filmy. And on that surface film was a constellation of tiny organisms moving around.

I can't be sure, but under a magnifying glass, I spotted what I think were Daphnia (tiny crustaceans also known as water fleas), and tiny baby Planaria (little flatworms with triangular heads), gliding on the bottoms of the surface of the film (I had seen bigger ones gliding on the aquarium walls a few days before.) Since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated with both of these organisms. Daphnia, because as a tropical fish hobbyist I learned they were a favorite food of fish, and Planaria because of the well know regeneration properties: cut them in half and they form two new worms.

Suddenly I felt like Lisa Simpson, in the Treehouse of Horror VII segment called The Genesis Tub, where she performs a science experiment with a corroding tooth in a small tub that results in the creation of a tiny universe.

I can't wait til I've created Lutherans!

The "official" Fun vs. Effort Graph of Pets

I like this graph. It uses the actual subjects of the graph as representations of the values reported. Edward Tufte would be so proud!

Which is why it's a shame they violated what to me is a fundamental rule of graphs. Ah well. Good effort College Humor. This other "official" version corrected some of the mistakes of the above version (though they did away with the cool size proportionality of the first graph).

What's wrong with this graph?

The lewdness of trees

Upon arriving to my new place in Ohio, I noted a film of dust on surfaces which I assumed was from the clay soils of the region. But since arriving, my allergies have been the worse I have ever experienced, and this is a recurring story among people who move to the area. So I wondered, is that layer of particles outside on the porch (which one can leave footprints in) not clay dust but rather enormous amounts of pollen? I took a swipe with my finger and dipped the dusty fingertip into a drop of water on a glass slide and took a look under my microscope. And lo and behold, the dust was mostly pollen! So yes indeed, this Spring we have been swimming in a sea of pollen, in the midst of a massive plant orgy.

80X magnification. Photo taken with an iPhone.

320X magnification. Photo taken with an iPhone.

                          

I can't tell what plant species produced the pollen, but judging from the different sizes and shape, it's a variety of plant types. I noted some strange "Princess Leia"-like pollen grains (not shown, but like the ones here) and these are apparently from pine trees. Coincidentally, this week Science magazine which arrived in the mail also had a micrograph of a pollen grain, in this case a fossilized pollen grain from the ancient supercontinent Pangea.

 

Next Spring I will take samples across time to see if I note a change in pollen types from early to late Spring. It's fun having a microscope at home to do this sort of investigating. I thank my friend Chris M. in Boston for the amazing gift.

Myrmecochory - Seed Dispersal by Ants

I learned today that the state flower of my new home state of Ohio is the carnation. I was surprised that this non-native plant was the state flower. Ohio does, however, also have a state wildflower, which is the Large White Trillium.

Upon researching the Large White Trillium, I learned (and was shocked to know this even exists) that the seeds of trillium species are dispersed not by wind, or birds, or mammals, but by ANTS! So fascinating.

This little video explains it all:

Science in several languages

There are different versions of this old joke (the one with "butterfly" is the most common), but as this one is about science, and foreign languages is another love of mine, I thought I'd post this one.

What caused the meth epidemic? The answer was hidden in a graph.

Source: Derrick Quenzer, Steve Suo/The Oregonian. Y-axis indicates magnitude of increase, 1 = starting value, 2  = doubling, 3 = tripling.

Reporter Steve Suo of The Oregonian was investigating the dramatic worsening of the meth epidemic, asking, what caused the dramatic rise of methamphetamine abuse in the western United States?

The answer came from the graph above. Suo gathered extensive amounts of data from numerous sources and compiled what he found. He noted a rise and decline of various meth abuse indicators over time. One surprising aspect of the pattern is that it occurred in different states across the western US, and the patterns seemed synchronized. Further investigation revealed the rises were positively correlated with the purity of meth on the streets, and the decline of purity was negatively impacted with increased regulation of the raw materials of meth (see shaded boxes in graph).

Thus, the numbers clearly indicated that with proper regulatory intervention, the meth epidemic can be controlled. Too bad these regulations get in the way of fat profits for companies that sell cold medication, or else we would have wiped out the meth epidemic ages ago.

For a fantastic piece of investigative journalism, watch Frontline and The Oregonian's story on "the unnecessary epidemic". The facts, the numbers, and the stories will shock you. One thing that struck me is how much the graphs, the math and the numbers speak to policy formulation, and how much they are ignored in the face of large profits for a few.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

It's been a while...Monthly Science Music Video is back.

Some Budding Yeast I Used to Grow (Gotye Parody)

Roaming planets in fiction and reality

When I saw Lars von Trier's Melancholia last year, I was deeply moved my the haunting metaphoric approach to the devastation that is depression. As a scientist, I felt the need to apply suspension of disbelief to appreciate the movie for its artistry and emotional truth, assuming that something like a rogue planet drifting without a star system didn't exist in real life. Boy was I wrong. Scientists have known for some years now that such orphan planets, roaming the universe with no star to orbit around, do exist. And the artist conception of the latest starless planet discovered, CFBDSIR2149, looks eerily like the planet of doom in the movie (illustration of CFBDSIR2149 below).

ESO / L. Calcada / P. Delorme / Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) / R. Saito / VVV Consortium

Check out this little film explaining the latest rogue planet discovery, followed by a trailer for the film Melancholia.

My chromosomes and me

The diagram to the left is a pictorial representation of 22 of my 23 chromosomes as provided by the personal genomics company 23andMe, which I sent samples of my DNA (mailing a tube full of spit) for analysis. The colors represent the likely geographic origins of my DNA, green blocks representing African origins, orange blocks representing Asian origins, and blue blocks representing European origins. In my case, the DNA of Asian origin most likely is Amerindian, a population whose genetic features is most like East Asian populations.

My family immigrated from Ecuador to the US when I was little. And I remember distinctly when the US Census form first came to our home in the space where we were asked to choose race we checked off "Other" and filled in "mestizo". We grew up thinking of ourselves as mestizo rather than belonging to any of the races listed as options in the form. Mestizos being people of both European and Amerindian ancestry, it was a conjecture apparent from one quick look at my family. The results of this DNA analysis done by 23andMe confirm this long held assertion of ours.

The genetic map I show here is only one type of data provided by 23andMe. The results provided to me online also tell me what traits I am likely to have based on my genetics. The company accurately predicted, for example, that I most likely have dark brown eyes and wavy hair. They predicted my blood type, and suggest I am only mildly lactose tolerant. What's interesting about the latter result is that lactose tolerance is a trait primarily determined by genetics, but the environment can have a role in influencing it (for example, by the nature of bacteria living in my intestines). The prediction is pretty good, as I can tolerate a glass of milk OK, but more than that gets me belly upset.

Since the genetic information gleaned from my DNA can be so useful in telling me about traits I know of or suspected, what can it tell me about traits I don't know about, in particular, medically relevant traits, such as propensity towards certain diseases or disorders, or responses to drugs? Though the results to such things are presented and clearly explained, they are always presented "assuming [my] European ethnicity". The company makes a call based on the sources of DNA in my genome (shown in the above diagram) and says I'm European. This is important because versions of genes that determine traits don't usually do it in isolation, they do it in the genomic context in which they exist. Meaning that one version of a gene X for trait A in one genome may cause trait B in another. This is due to combinations of different gene versions that can interact to determine what the trait.

Knowing that the nature of our genomes is tied to the ethnicity we belong to, and that this can affect interpretations of genetic data, how relevant is it to my data that I am Hispanic? Hispanics (or Latinos) run a whole spectrum of genomic signatures, from nearly 100% European, to nearly 100% Amerindian, to nearly 100% African, and the vast majority of populations are in between. So it seems that being Hispanic does not lend itself to increasing the predictive power of genetic signatures. In fact, it may be completely irrelevant, in contrast to more homogenous populations, such as, for example Ashkenazi Jews, Japanese, or Zulus.

Figure from the Bustamante lab website, showing the principal components underlying genetic variation in Latin American populations. Note that genetic variation constitutes a range determined by three sources of genetic variation: African, Native American (or Amerindian) and European.

Given that most health standards in the United States are based on a white population with DNA largely originating in Europe, how can health guidelines and recommendations be refined by personal genomics so they more accurately reflect our individual biologies? At the moment, it seems we have inadequate information or understanding of how to best use genetic information to make health decisions, some of which will vary depending on our genetic backgrounds, some of which will be more influenced by environmental conditions. Can a slightly lactose tolerant person like me, for example, improve lactose tolerance with a certain diet? Or would it be best for me to ignore the "got milk" campaign altogether and forgo milk in my diet? The role of ethnicity, genetics and health is one I hope to see explored in the years to come at scientific conferences and in research publications.

This post is part of the Diversity in Science Blog Carnival #18: Latino / Hispanic Health: Science and Advocacy. 

Science music video - Darwin Deez - dna

It's been a long long time since this blog has been active. Time to reactivate it with a science music video. Will be writing more soon.

Darwin Deez - dna

Learning through Research workshop: Day 1

This conference has been amazing! Though I have been taking much notes, the rest of my time has been spent talking to such an interesting and enthusiastic collection of people here while I have the chance, so not much time to updating the blog promptly. Here is the summary of Day 1. I have long detailed notes which I would be very happy to share with anyone. If you want those, just email me at mdvinces at gmail.com.

SUMMARY of today’s session:

Opening remarks - by François Taddei, Frédéric Dardel, Claudie Haignere, Ariel Lindner

Lee Hartwell – Teaching the teachers in a new information era 

Having received a Nobel Prize for his work on cell cycle checkpoints, Lee has been an early advocate for personalized medicine and at Arizona State University is pioneering science teacher training. Three steps for teaching science to non-science majors (whether students or teachers of students):

            INTEREST -> MOTIVATON ->SKILLS

Too often traditional education focuses on the Skills part, at the cost of Interest and Motivation, which in the end undermines acquisition of Skills.

Nathalie Kuldell– Teaching and Learning with imperfect learning machines: Using synthetic biology for teaching students and teaching teacher.  

Nathalie has been using Synthetic Biology to engage students in biological engineering, and now is using the same techniques, through the online BioBuilder.org platform, for teaching teachers. The platform has three main elements: 1. Online content, including explanatory animations. 2. Activities for both the lab and the classroom. 3. A space for sharing data, results, practices, ideas.

This approach brings the exciting engineering aspects of hands-on design and building into biology education.

Stephen Friend – Democratization of biomedicine.

 

Expertise in medicine has been the closely guarded domain of the medical experts. But the time is now for democratizing biomedicine, empowering patients to control how their data is used, empowering physicians and drug companies with unparalleled power or personal patient data, and moving medicine into a commons space where real advances in predictive medicine can be accomplished. Stephen is founder and president of Sage Bionetworks, which aims at providing the necessary commons for biomedical information.

François Taddei – From individual questioning to collective exploration – the education revolution. 

Education is today a conservative affair done much as it has been done for hundreds of years. While technology progresses ever more rapidly, education has fallen behind, to the detriment of societies where more people are left out of understanding and engagement of science. Goal is to reform university education so it is open source and accessible to more people and not limited to elite campuses, hand in hand with opensource software and hardware movements, and to allow learning by playing. Some of this is being done at the CRI already, but ultimately want to establish a model for Open FIESTA (Faculty for Innovation in Education, Science, Technology and Arts).

Live from Paris: Learning through Research workshop

It's been far too long since I've written here, as counting the number of Science Videos of the Month missing will attest. But with some projects out of the way, I will have more time to devote here.

I am writing this from Paris, France, where I am attending the "Learning through Research" workshop, hosted by the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI). The 3 day workshop has an extraordinary cast of individuals ranging from the 20 year old creator of UnCollege, on to Nobel Laureate, all with a mission in common: to re-think the way science is taught and conducted to make both more democratic, accessible and innovative. Titles of the sessions include: Innovative science teaching, Promoting innovation, Citizen science, Quick talks for emerging innovations, Scientific games, Building innovative tools for science & education, Empowering communities, and Creative learning.

I'll be writing about my experience here in the days to come. In the meantime, you should be able to follow the workshop live at this site: http://www.nightscience.org/#!live-the-event!