An attempt to answer one of world’s most puzzling question: how did life on earth come to be? Take a look at the recent scientific research in the field and learn about the ancient world of RNA and DNA
Apologies for this long absence from the Blog and this will continue till 10th December , the day of my thesis defence. Today just dropped in to give some small information about two nice articles in Forums section of Molecular Cell.
These articles by Uri Alon ,from Weizmann Institute of Science, are well written and might be helpful for many budding scientists. First one deals with How one should go about in giving a good talk and another one explain how to choose a scientific problem.
We depend on talks to communicate our work, and we spend much of our time as audience members in talks. However, few scientists are taught the well-established principles of giving good talks. Here, I describe how to prepare, present, and answer questions in a scientific talk. We will see how a talk prepared with a single premise and delivered with good eye contact is clear and enjoyable — Uri Alon
A postdoctoral position is open in the research group of Hitoyoshi YASUO. The group focuses on developmental events shaping the chordate body plan, in particular on the mechanisms leading to the generation of the neural tube and notochord, two defining structures of chordates. We are using ascidian embryos as a model system and our research topics include cell fate specifications, cell lineages, cell shape changes and the orientation of cell divisions. Applicants for this position should have a strong interest in developmental biology and a solid background in molecular and/or cell biology. We have preliminary results which can be developed into several projects. The position is available immediately and the start date is
negotiable. (more…)
UCMP is seeking applicants to serve on a Teacher Advisory Board to develop an Undergraduate Library of evolution resources!
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The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), in partnership with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) has received NSF funding to expand the highly successful Understanding Evolution website (UE) with the aim of improving evolution education at the college level.
UE’s Undergraduate Library would target college instructors of introductory biology to help them clarify evolutionary concepts in pedagogically sound ways, integrate evolution throughout their teaching, and relate evolution to current research and issues that matter in students’ everyday lives. Functionalities built into the site would also encourage community building within this population of instructors. The Library will also include the Evo Lab, an area targeting undergraduate students directly which would aim to provide student-centered, media-enhanced experiences that portray evolutionary biology as useful and a cornerstone of modern biological research. The Undergraduate Library will serve as a one-stop-shop for evolution educators and students at the college level — an approach that has proven successful for UE’s K-12 site.
This is the preview of the two-hour special shown this Sunday October 11th on Discovery channel. Following publication in the journal Science on the discovery and study of a 4.4 million-year-old female partial skeleton nicknamed “Ardi,” Discovery Channel presented a world premiere special, DISCOVERING ARDI, Sunday October 11 documenting the sustained, intensive investigation leading up to this landmark publication of the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils.
An international team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 123 million years ago in what is now the Liaoning Province in northeastern China. The newly discovered animal, Maotherium asiaticus, comes from famous fossil-rich beds of the Yixian Formation. This new remarkably well preserved fossil, as reported in the October 9 issue of the prestigious journal Science, offers an important insight into how the mammalian middle ear evolved. The discoveries of such exquisite dinosaur-age mammals from China provide developmental biologists and paleontologists with evidence of how developmental mechanisms have impacted the morphological (body-structure) evolution of the earliest mammals and sheds light on how complex structures can arise in evolution because of changes in developmental pathways. (more…)
This video features a talk by Sean Carroll at Strosacker Auditorium in September 2008
The LCROSS mission is a search for water on the moon. The LCROSS mission is going to do this by sending a rocket crashing into the moon causing a big impact and creating a crater, throwing tons of debris and potentially water ice and vapor above the lunar surface. This impact will release materials from the lunar surface that will be analyzed for the presence of hydrated minerals which would tell researchers if water is there or not — NASA
The Journal of Effective Teaching, a peer reviewed electronic journal devoted to the discussion of teaching excellence in colleges and universities. The new issue of this journal dealing with teaching evolution is currently online .
Here are the contents :
CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief:: Origins ………………. 1-3
Russell L. Herman HTML, PDF
ARTICLES
The Influence of Religion and High School Biology Courses on Students’ Knowledge of Evolution
When They Enter College ………. 4-12
Randy Moore, Sehoya Cotner, and Alex Bates Abstract, HTML, PDF (more…)
