Dan
Dan is a postdoc working at the University of Cyprus in developmental biology. He has a BSc in molecular biology and a PhD pharmacology and biochemistry.
Articles by Dan:
Book Review: On Growth and Form
Unlike most naturalists and biologists before and since, who were only satisfied if they could understand a particular form by the configuration of its immediate precedents, D’Arcy Thompson was quite satisfied with a mathematical description or a physical analogy. He truly viewed the variety of biological forms that he looked at with the eyes of…
Nobel Prizes in Molecular Biology
There are a lot of places to read about the history of molecular biology, but one theme that generally seems to emerge is that discoveries are dependent upon the experimental technology. Take this list of Nobel prizes for molecular biology for instance.
Around the Blogs
Reflecting on My First Experience with Research Genomicron – Here’s a post directed towards the undergraduate students out there contemplating a career in molecular biology or some related field. They key is getting some experience in a lab doing original science research, which is a must if you are going to go on to do…
How Science Is Changing What We Eat
From about the time our ancestors traded the nomadic lifestyle for more urban settings, agriculture has been important. It’s no coincidence either — selective breeding and domestication of crops made civilization possible. And in an era when the capacity for cultivating the primary grain and vegetable crops of the world is being stretched to its…
Around the Blogs
Four web posts from around the interwebs jumped out at me in the last couple of weeks. First, on a science webinar: Science webinar series : Protein Tagging Technologies in Cell Imaging and Analysis Hoxful Monsters – This post is more of an FYI that should be passed on… “If you have any questions related…
Expectations for a Young Researcher
I find myself asking, what expectations would I have for me, starting out in a new lab?
Against Animal Rights Terrorism
In research relating to molecular biology, it is common for animal models of disease to be used, especially in projects directed towards making biomedical discoveries and breakthroughs. So I find it very important to occasionally read about and blog against animal rights’ terrorists.
Around the Blogs
The biggest news recently, with the global economic crisis and the US Stimulus Bill being prominent in the news, there’s been some interesting discussion on what to do (and what not to do) with the much-needed funding: NIH Plans For Stimulus Funds Drug Monkey: A letter regarding the actual objectives of the plan. The Stimulus…
Around the Blogs
A Chaos of Delight A very nice essay on GFP, Darwin & bioluminescence at a blog where literary delights meet biology. Letting Scientists of the Leash Guest NY Times columnist and bioengineer Stephen Quake calls for a rethinking of how science is funded. Link between the Nuclear Export of mRNA and Decay Here’s one for…
Selfish Genes and Gene-Centered Evolution
But despite Dawkins’ notoriety, maybe there are some readers here who haven’t read The Selfish Gene – I didn’t until two years ago, actually. So, what specifically is The Selfish Gene about?
A Stephen Jay Gould Highlight Reel
With it almost being Darwin Day, it seems only right to review a book on perhaps the best popularizer of evolutionary biology in the 20th Century, Stephen Jay Gould.
Around the Blogs
First, a handy little reminder on group meetings from Biocurious. The suggestions are so simple, and yet so many people in group meetings do not think about what they want to say ahead of time, or they drag on and on. And those that respond to questions with “I don’t know”, as a full answer,…
Around the Blogs
Three selected articles for your blog-reading pleasure: The Stimulus – How much is marked for science funding? Let’s not mess things up this time! The last major increase to the NIH caused major problems years later. Money was simply pumped into new and existing grants, PIs hired many new grad students and postdocs, and the…
Around the Blogs
I’m a frequent lurker on a wide variety of life science blogs, and one of those blogs that I’ve recently started to really appreciate is What’s New in Life Science Research at Scienceblogs. As a blog it has promise, although I’m hoping that some of the posts go into greater depth with their analyses of…
Writing a Lot in Academia
We all know that surviving in the publish-or-perish world of academia requires that we write a lot. For myself, I view blog-writing as a form of writing practice — I used to really suck at it. Okay, actually I still get stuck sometimes when trying to write, especially for grants.
Around the Blogs
Welcome back from the Winter Holidays, it’s time to start the regular ‘Around the Blogs’ segment again. I’ve taken notice of a handful of interesting articles around the blogs on human genetics, so I’ll focus on that this week. Genetic differences between human populations: more drift than selection? Dan MacArthur points to a paper claiming…
Stem Cell Century: The Law of a Controversial Science
Russell Korobkin’s book Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology is the first book to address not just embryo destruction but the full range of important policy questions raised by stem cell research and regenerative medicine.
Around the Blogs
Books About DNA: DNA: Promise and Peril In one of a series of posts on books on DNA, Hsien-Hsien discusses a book about the genetic revolution and its implications for our lives. The Problem with Publication-Driven Science Mike laments the consequences of publication-driven research, and how it can inspire problems associated with secrecy and withholding…
Around the Blogs
Three story highlights from related blogs: All Graduate Student Supervisors Take Note “This lovely piece has been circulating of late, but Sonke has been kind enough to allow the SCQ to present his “Advice for Potential Graduate Students” as a handy dandy pin-up, suitable for pinning up in some visible area of your lab.” FDA…
Science as Progress, and More on the Philosophy of Science
Following up on my recent post about The Nature of Scientific Observation, I left two-thirds of Chalmers’ book What is This Thing Called Science untouched, including discussions on Bayes’ theorem and the New Experimentalism.