Obviously nobody should expect a 2nd year undergraduate genetics student who's barely finished his pre-major requirements to be able to read genetics journal with near the amount of proficiency of somebody who's actually in the field. I did think I could handle it though. So I sat down today and looked up some of the more popular journals in genetics (Genetics, American Journal of Human Genetics, Nature) and tried to look for some interesting articles to acquaint myself with.
I found that, with just the basic amount of knowledge gleaned through introductory courses and general interest on the side, that I basically had no idea what I was reading. I'm not sure if this speaks to any inadequacies in the teaching environment in today's undergraduate colleges, or whether I'm just not prepared to be reading these with any proficiency yet. I suspect it might be both.
What I did manage to understand was fairly interesting, and was found in the December issue of Genetics. The article was about population bottlenecking when a single HIV virus is introduced to a new host through sexual contact, and how it is contributed to by an initially strong CD8+ helper T Cell response that strongly selects for those HIV viruses that exhibit escape mutations in their antibody proteins called epitopes resulting in less Helper T Cell fixation to infected cells after an initially strong response.
I'm not sure how novel this research is, how important it is at this point in time, or even if I understood it correctly (perhaps one of my readers can tell me I'm horrendously wrong). But despite the fact that I feel like a 8 year old reading Descartes when I read these journals I still get pretty excited when (I think) I understand what I'm reading. It makes me excited for a future career publishing and reading these every day.
But really, somebody tell me if what I read means what I think it does.
P.S. Previous readers will note that I've changed the name of this blog to Oh. My. Genes. instead of Oh. My. Geek., this is because as I further my schooling I find that my interest in technology is waning and I read more about biology than I do tech and social media and the like. Cheers.
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, May 5, 2011
[Science] Antimatter! Hurray!
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| A closeup of the Magnetic Jar used in the CERN experiment N. MADSEN, ALPHA/SWANSEA via Nature |
This is a great leap forward for the study of antimatter, which could potentially be the greatest producer of energy in the universe due to its ability to create energy from matter at a 100% conversion rate, a rate about 100 times stronger than a normal hydrogen bomb.
Anti-hydrogen, when coming into contact with hydrogen, completely annihilates the former, producing a huge amount of energy in the process. This exact interaction is what makes antimatter so difficult to store or produce, as any contact with the gases naturally present in the air would cause the antimatter to destroy both itself and the gases it came into contact with. Scientists got around this problem by, obviously, trapping the antimatter in a vacuum, as well as a magnetic field.
Scientists still don't know much about antimatter, they don't even know how gravity affects it. Which makes the success of this experiment all the more valuable and exciting. We're still lightyears away from producing large quantities of antimatter to power engines or the like, but this is a giant step in the right direction! BE EXCITED. I AM.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
"This is Where Geeks Turn Into Rockstars..."
"...and that's the game changer."
Is being a nerd cool now? Well this is news to me but Nancy Conrad, wife of late astronaut Peter Conrad, and founder of the Conrad Foundation which (go figure) hosts the Conrad Awards, seems to think that it's becoming this way.
The Conrad Awards, awards given to those students who complete the program, are a way for educators and students to get involved in solving tangible and real problems in today's society. Combining competition, fun, and good old fashioned nerdyness, this 3 year old program has quickly become an unintentional international project.
Founded on the ideals of Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, the program that Conrad and her team has come up with is based on the touching tale of her husband's rise from troubled child to Astronaut extraordinaire.
Watch the video to found out more, and visit the Conrad Foundation's website for more information on how to get involved. I wish I was this enthusiastic about science when I was younger, or at least more involved.
Friday, April 22, 2011
[Science] Genetic Warfare - Sayonara Malaria
This is awesome and definitely for a good cause.
Scientists at University of Washington and the Imperial College in London (Via PopSci) have developed a gene sequence that when inserted into a population of mosquitoes suppresses the malaria virus and could be an effective form of mass prevention for malaria.
During testing it was revealed that the malaria suppressing gene spreads very quickly and very effectively though populations of mosquitoes, obviously this is the point. The only problem with this is that pesky law of unintended consequences that always seems to get in the way when man tries to manipulate his environment.
Annually 881,000 people die from malaria related illness, 85% of whom where children under the age of 5 years old. In addition $12 Billion are lost every year directly from malaria deaths. (More Malaria Facts)
There are dozens of ways to combat malaria and mosquito population, and that's one of the reasons you don't see malaria in much of the developed world, however poorer countries generally located on the equator don't have the money to invest in malaria treatments and preventions. What's more the complete eradication of malaria is likely impossible, considering that the only way to do that would be to decimate the entire mosquito population which in turn would severely harm ecosystems. (there's that law of unintended consequences again).
Obviously we don't want that, so the only way to make sure that those 748,850 children survive is to provide them with the preventative measures they need to combat malaria.
Scientists at University of Washington and the Imperial College in London (Via PopSci) have developed a gene sequence that when inserted into a population of mosquitoes suppresses the malaria virus and could be an effective form of mass prevention for malaria.
During testing it was revealed that the malaria suppressing gene spreads very quickly and very effectively though populations of mosquitoes, obviously this is the point. The only problem with this is that pesky law of unintended consequences that always seems to get in the way when man tries to manipulate his environment.
Annually 881,000 people die from malaria related illness, 85% of whom where children under the age of 5 years old. In addition $12 Billion are lost every year directly from malaria deaths. (More Malaria Facts)
There are dozens of ways to combat malaria and mosquito population, and that's one of the reasons you don't see malaria in much of the developed world, however poorer countries generally located on the equator don't have the money to invest in malaria treatments and preventions. What's more the complete eradication of malaria is likely impossible, considering that the only way to do that would be to decimate the entire mosquito population which in turn would severely harm ecosystems. (there's that law of unintended consequences again).
Obviously we don't want that, so the only way to make sure that those 748,850 children survive is to provide them with the preventative measures they need to combat malaria.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Photon Torpedos, Solar Cells, Spaceships and Flashlights.
Oh Michio Kaku, you both crush my childhood dreams and create new, more adult ones at the same time.
I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.
I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.
Michio Kaku is a science-show staple. You can't have a show on the science channel without having an expert testimony from Dr. Kaku. A lot of his "testimonies" have to do with either validating or debunking (or both) sci-fi "impossibilities", and one of my favorite books by him is called "Physics of the Impossible
".
". Picked up in an Airport book shop and devoured by the time the plane touched down several hours later. This book provided much entertainment and scientific fun facts. Now whenever a friend or acquaintance (sometimes even just random passers by) are talking about things like time travel and human cloning and they refer to them as "impossible", I like to pipe up and say something to the tune of :
"NAH UHH!!! YOU'RE WRONG AND HERE'S WHY..."
I make lots of friends.
If you don't already know who Michio Kaku is (you heathen) you need to head over to his blog and check out all of the awesomesauce things he has to say all the time. You won't be sorry.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Genetic Nutrition? What the future might hold.
Recently I read an article in Nature concerning the future of nutrition in the world. The article proposed a world in which our diets are personally tailored to us using personal genetic testing techniques that would tell you exactly what your body needs and at what time, suggesting foods for consumption based on certain "Health Markers". I'll let you read the article if you're interested. It's incredibly interesting, so you SHOULD be interested, but it might be a little confusing if you don't have at least a basic understanding of genetics
.There's nothing I love more than thinking about what advances we'll have come to in the future, and on top of that I love thinking about all of the things we didn't have 50 years ago when my parents were children, it's profoundly powerful evidence of the power of science and technology and the glorious times we live in.
Computer processor speed doubles every 18 months, smart phones allow us to do almost everything we used to have to do on a clunky PC or Mac that took up lots of room. Netbooks pack the same amount of power that my old laptop has in small book sized packages that weigh less than 2 pounds. The field of genetics saves lives in ways that we could never have imagined. It's simply incredible how far we've come as a species. 
This post has almost no purpose other than to showcase my awe, and that's OK, because you should be in awe as well, because science is amazing.
Image Attribution: m_bartosch | FreeDigitalPhotos
Friday, February 18, 2011
How Genetics Should Be But Isn't Viewed
This isn't a post about the morality of genetic engineering.
This isn't a post about nature vs. nurture (well, maybe a little).
Although I'll probably post about all of these things in the future...
This is a post about the fact that people seem to think that our genetics are the absolute end all be all about everything that ails society. From disease to maladaptive personality traits, people are want to believe that everything can be explained or solved through genetics. This simply isn't the case, and I'll explain why in a moment.
This post is about those people who like to play the "genetics card" and blame every problem they have, like drug addiction, commitment problems, tendency to abuse their kids, and anything else that they might not have an explanation for, or they're too lazy to fix or both. Large news aggregators like CNN or MSNBC or NPR have decided it would be a good idea to link genetics with things like child abuse and heart attacks, and even the inability to recognize faces. I'm not saying it's not true that our genes might affect our ability to recognize faces, but we are all products of our environments and our genes, you can't blame everything on one factor.
The truth of the matter is that genetics can only play part of the role in determining somebody's propensity for a certain trait or a certain disease or a certain something or other. The way the media portrays genetic studies makes it seem like we're all slaves to our genetics.
What people need to understand is that genetics plays a ROLE in determining somebody's personality or propensity towards heart attack or inability to recognize faces.
There is no "heart attack" gene that we can remove to ensure that you'll never have a heart attack. You might have a gene (or lack of a gene) that gives you less of a chance of having a heart attack, but if you eat a double cheeseburger with bacon every day you're still going to have a heart attack eventually(probably).
There are definitely genes that are set in stone though, like hair color, eye color, how much hair you have, etc. These things might be set in stone, and they might be governed solely by genes, but that DOESN'T mean that they're controlled solely by ONE gene. Often times many genes working in tandem with each other determine somebody's hair color, or skin color.
This is also true for the less "set in stone" genes like a propensity for heart attack, there are dozens of factors, dozens of genes, that will determine whether or not you have a heart attack, and painting one gene as the enemy of anybody who's ever had a heart attack diminishes the seriousness and the size of the problem that scientists face when they're looking for cures for diseases.
PROOF! (You're Welcome)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Art of Being Geeky: An Introduction
It's all of these things, and more.
Being a Geek is a way of life, it's religiously checking Gizmodo, Engadget, YouTube, The Oatmeal, Hyperbole and a Half, and every other tech and internet meme blog on the internet (this is by no means an exhaustive list).
It's making lame internet meme jokes when you're out with your "real life" friends in the "real world".
It's referencing a YouTube video that you just assume everybody has seen.
It's correcting people's grammar just because you feel like it.
It's getting in debates on Forums or the comments section of your favorite blog. (not to be confused with the actions of trolls on YouTube or Chatrooms for we shall not be associated with trolls.)
Being a Geek is something that you're born into, it's something that you live, It's not really something you can become.
So for all my Geeks out there, I introduce to you a new blog, a place where you can get your daily dose of Geek, a place where you'll (hopefully) laugh a lot, and a place where you can feel at home.
Welcome to OMGeeky. I hope you enjoy your stay.
Image Source: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Being a Geek is something that you're born into, it's something that you live, It's not really something you can become.
So for all my Geeks out there, I introduce to you a new blog, a place where you can get your daily dose of Geek, a place where you'll (hopefully) laugh a lot, and a place where you can feel at home.
Welcome to OMGeeky. I hope you enjoy your stay.
