I vaguely knew about epigenetics but ran across this explanation on a blog I read occasionally. The author embedded two Nova videos (me too...below) that give some insight into what is meant by an epigenome. Each of our thousands of genes needs instructions on how to do what they do. The epigenomes give our genes instructions. Doctor Jirtle in the video says “the epigenome would be like the software that tells the computer when to work, how to work and how much.” It is believed that epigenomes are strongly influenced by diet and lifestyle. So, what you eat and how you live can not only effect your health but possibly that of your children and grandchildren. Fascinating stuff.
I did a little more digging and found this Nova website that compliments the videos. There is an extended interview with Dr. Jirtle, a slide show about the mice shown in the film and some other materials including a teacher's guide.
Great website sponsored by Make called Elements of Humanity. They went out and interviewed prominent people in science and technology about what they find interesting. The resulting videos are fascinating.
The one embedded is an interview with Rebecca Moore who manages the Google Outreach Program.
[Image captured from Elements of Humanity: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/quick_and_easy_pumpkin_cutter.html]
OK...I admit it. I've been counting the days for the release of Watchmen. I have a couple of students who are Watchman fans and we share stories and hopes about the movie. I won't be at the opening night but will make it to an evening performance sometime this week. Jim Kakalios, the author of The Physics of Superheros was a consultant for the film and this interview about the Science of Watchmen is on YouTube. (Embedded below)
Clever way to move a discussion of the movie into a discussion of science with your students.
If you haven't read the graphic novel, give it a shot. Comic books were my gateway drug into short stories and then to novels. As an adult, I moved away from comics and never got caught up in the graphic novels that started coming out while I was a young man. I resisted the Watchmen for years. Finally, after reading that TIME magazine listed it as one of the best 100 English language novels from 1923 to the present, I gave in and read it last year. I loved it. It's complex and multi-layered. It's the kind of thing you can read over and over. I convinced my wife who never read comics to read it. She was skeptical. She likes science fiction though, so out of love for me and the genre gave it a try. She loved it, too. If I was still in a reading group, I'd recommend it as a novel for discussion. Give it a try and then casually mention to your students that you read it. At least one little Watchman groupie will come up to talk to you about the book afterwards.
Every year, or at least for the last three, IBM comes up with a list of five innovations they think will have the most impact on our lives within five years. This year the list includes:
Energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows
You will have a crystal ball for your health
You will talk to the Web . . . and the Web will talk back
You will have your own digital shopping assistants
Forgetting will become a distant memory
Go to the article for a detailed explanation of each item. Or watch the video...
I don't remember hearing about these lists before, so I went online to look up the previous lists.
Saw a reference to this article and tracked it down at TheRecord.Com. Seems that a Daniel Burd, a high school student in Canada, got curious about how to deal with all the plastic he saw around him. He started experimenting to find the microbes that eat it. His thinking was if he could isolate them and concentrate them, then maybe he could speed up the process. (Anything that might shorten the 1000 year process would be helpful) He succeeded and won the Canada Wide Science Fair along with a $10,000 dollar prize and a hefty scholarship.
Read the article for a description of how he set up his experimental process. Interesting.
Share this with your students when they complain about not being able to do anything. Inspiring.
[Image captured from Youth Science Foundation Canada: http://apps.ysf-fsj.ca/virtualcwsf/projectdetails.php?id=1390&year=2008&province=&keyword=plastic&name=&categoryid=3&divisionid=®ionid=]
Great website sponsored by Make called Elements of Humanity. They went out and interviewed prominent people in science and technology about what they find interesting. The resulting videos are fascinating.
OK...I admit it. I've been counting the days for the release of Watchmen. I have a couple of students who are Watchman fans and we share stories and hopes about the movie. I won't be at the opening night but will make it to an evening performance sometime this week. Jim Kakalios, the author of The Physics of Superheros was a consultant for the film and this interview about the Science of Watchmen is on YouTube. (Embedded below)
