Well, I don’t have time to write a proper article today, so for your reading pleasure I’d like to point you to a great article posted yesterday on the New Scientist website by Michael Le Page. It covers some misconceptions commonly held by the general public about evolution, and dispells some of the myths that creationists like to use as arguments against it.

For bio scientists this makes an entertaining light read, and is perfect for brushing up your arguments for those after-dinner (or in the pub) debates with your creationist friends. Click here for the article.

After yesterday’s bit of whimsical late-night creativity, I thought that today might be a good time to share the results of the 2008 Wellcome Image Awards. These images have been captured using both traditional and cutting-edge imaging techniques, from the simple light microscope to the latest in computer-aided imaging. Their artistry is astounding, and brings to mind what a biophysicist colleague of mine told me last year - that whereas physics had little more than pretty equations and graphs to offer, biology was replete with fascinating images that capture the mind.

Credit Lorna McInroy, Wellcome Images: Cultured colon cancer cells showing the nuclei stained with DAPI in blue, the actin cytoskeleton in red and plectin (isoform 1k) in green. Plectin interacts with cytoskeletal actin, affecting its behaviour. This subtype of plectin promotes the migration of cells and may affect metastasis. Read more »

And now for something completely different…

It’s always good to introduce a little levity to the lab, before we as researchers begin to take ourselves too seriously. With that in mind, below the fold, I have a handful of YouTube videos shared by molecular biology grad students who apparently needed to introduce a little creativity to their late nights in the lab.
Read more »

A picture tells a thousand words. So I suppose a movie tells 24,000+ words per second.

Whether you use them for educating, self-study or just for your viewing pleasure, photos and movies of biological concepts and processes are a valuable resource. Here are ten of the best bio flick and pic galleries from around the web. Read more »

Yawn….

The awards season is upon us once again. Overpaid, under-worked and over-ego’d celebrities get together to slap each other’s backs and tell each other how great they are.

But little do they know where the real party in town is. The 2008 Thermostable Polymerase Awards (the THEPA’s) are underway and you have a front row seat.

Here are the winners: Read more »

The late Francis Crick once said that “Trying to determine the structure of a protein by UV spectroscopy was like trying to determine the structure of a piano by listening to the sound it made while being dropped down a flight of stairs.”

But, if you thought that protein structure determination was the closest that biologists got to making music, you’d be wrong. It turns out that behind the veneer of the laboratory, biopop - a thriving underground biology music scene - is just waiting to burst onto your iPod (or other music player).

For your listening pleasure, I have scoured the internet to bring you 10 of the very best songs that biopop has to offer. From Unca John’s bluesy “Growth Hormone Hero” to Amy Hartnell’s karaoke classic “Form a phosphate-ester link (to carbon three)” to BioRad’s slick but shamelessly corporate “Scientists for Better PCR”, every taste is catered for.

Whether you love, hate or even make biopop, be sure to make your views or your favorite songs known here.

Here’s the biopop top 10. Enjoy:

Read more »

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day of producing experimental results but as a scientist it is your job to do the exact opposite - a good scientist has to think about their work on all levels. Here is a light-hearted reminder of the importance of large scale, small scale, “out-of-the-box”, lateral and vocational thinking in science. Enjoy. Read more »

The Bitesize Bio team will be taking a well-earned rest over the holidays and we would like to wish our readers a very merry Christmas. Myself, Dan, Suzanne and Terry have really enjoyed bringing you the best of molecular and cell biology tips, journal articles, news, comment and other stuff over the last four months since the blog started and we are looking forward to bringing you even more information and entertainment-packed articles, as well as some excellent new features, in 2008. We will be resuming our daily article schedule on Jan 2nd.

For our final post of the year, we present a paper written by Larry Silverberg on the science behind Santa Claus. We hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and supporting Bitesize Bio, and see you next year!….

ON THE TECHNICAL EXPLANATION FOR SANTA CLAUS’ ABILITY TO DELIVER PRESENTS WORLDWIDE IN A SINGLE NIGHT

Larry Silverberg
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Raleigh, NC

November 12, 1997

The Premise: To explain the phenomenon of Santa Claus.
Human factors: What human conditions can explain the phenomenon? Why would a community of elves evolve to dedicate itself to such a goal?
Engineering Principles: What instruments and devices would need to be developed. What engineering limitations would need to be overcome?
Science: Which scientific principles would be used? Do we currently have the ability to understand these principles, then why not, and why does Santa understand them? Read more »

Have you ever had a sales person suggest just the right new kit or enzyme that makes your life a whole lot easier? Or on the flip side, how about when a sales person doesn’t get the hint that you are in the middle of keeping track of setting up a 96 well plate of PCR reactions and can’t stop what you’re doing?

Being a sales rep is a really tough job, requiring a thick skin, good interpersonal skills and the ability to handle rejection and a lot of pressure. I’m sure many of you have had the experience of sales people who were very good, as well as those of the more clueless variety so thought it would be fun for us to discuss our experiences, both good and bad. Here are some questions we could look at:

1- What makes a good sales person ?
2- What are the worst qualities in a sales person you have observed that should be avoided at all costs?
3- What is your funniest or best sales rep story? (Please, no company names, unless you are giving kudos!)

So here are my answers: Read more »

I’ve always thought that it takes a good imagination to study molecular and cell biology since we never actually see much of the molecular processes we study, dissect and hypothesize on every day. Think about the mental models you have of the processes of cytoskeleton polymerization/ de-polymerization or DNA translation for example. Aren’t they amazing?

Biovisions, a Harvard animation company have come up with an animation of cellular processes that is probably the closest thing to an external representation of a molecular biologist’s imagination you can get. Read more »