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Blog Details for "The Molecular Biology Blog"
The Molecular Biology Blog The Molecular Biology Blog Tech tips, technology updates, news and comment from the molecular biology field 
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Get Inside A Molecular Biologist?s Imagination
2007-12-18 06:57:00 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, ... More About: Inside , Imagination , Logi
BioChemWeb: Virtual Library for the Molecular Biologist
2007-12-17 19:55:00 Wikipedia gets quite a bit of attention, and the student of the molecular biological sciences regularly needs a more in-depth information resource. There’s Bruce Alberts et al.’s Molecular Biology of the Cell, Harvey Lodish et al.’s Molecular Cell Biology, and David Nelson’s Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry if you have the textbooks handy. An ... More About: Library , Virtual , Logi , The Mole
The Easier Way to Write a PhD Thesis
2007-12-17 07:45:00 For most scientists, writing their PhD thesis will be one of the most time consuming and complicated individual tasks they ever undertake. In my experience, the most common approach taken by students is to bury their head in the sand, get on with the research and only start thinking about the thesis when they absolutely ... More About: Careers , Write
Keeping up on the journals
2007-12-14 17:20:00 As scientists, we have to keep up with new research coming out and follow the journals. We all have our preferred way of doing so though. Sporadic searches on Pubmed are one way, or weekly email updates on specific search terms (also offered by Pubmed) are another. Alternatively, there’s Hubmed for RSS ... More About: Journals , The Journal
Around the blogs
2007-12-14 06:54:00 There was some great stuff in the molecular and cellular biology blogosphere this week - here are my favorites… More About: Blogs
Protein Sociology: Collective Interaction Behaviors
2007-12-13 16:29:00 As always, it’s these odd conjunctions of things that don’t go together that catches the eye. In this case, molecular and sociology. The actual article1 is much more mundane and true to the correct science jargon, and included in a special section of the most recent Nature on “Protein s to Proteomes.” It’s ... More About: Sociology , Collective , Interaction , Interact
Battling Disease ? The Real-Life Hydra?
2007-12-13 13:24:00 A recent article in Science discussed a claim made by Bill and Melinda Gates, where they proposed that malaria could be eradicated from the Earth over the next few decades. Vanquishing disease is seen as the ultimate goal in medical science, and many dream of the day that we will all be living longer ... More About: Life , Disease , Real , Real Life
What?s with Europe?s Opposition to GMOs?
2007-12-12 21:55:00 Nature sends word that there’s a big showdown in Europe looming that could affect the long-term prospects for the cultivation of genetically modified crops on the continent. Specifically, environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said “that he plans to reject applications from Syngenta and Pioneer Hi-Bred International for approval to grow two transgenic strains of maize ... More About: News , History , Position , Rope
Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2007
2007-12-12 17:16:00 Time magazine has published it’s top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007. Among this glittering array of multi-disciplinary achievements, advances in molecular and cell biology, namely the re-programming of skin cells into stem cells and the sequencing of J. Craig Venter’s genome, occupy the top two spots. Other bio-related break-thoughs in the top 10 include the building ... More About: News , History , Discoveries
8 Approaches to Random Mutagenesis
2007-12-12 11:53:00 Random mutagenesis is an incredibly powerful tool for altering the properties of enzymes. Imagine, for example, you were studying a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) and wanted to create a temperature-sensitive version of the receptor or one that was activated by a different ligand than the wild-type. How could you do this? Firstly, you would clone the ... More About: Random , Genes
Political Issues and the Science Lobby
2007-12-11 18:34:00 Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share ... More About: Science , News , History , Political , Issues
A Classification System For Scientists
2007-12-11 13:04:00 To the general public, scientists seem all seem pretty much the same. However, as someone who has studied these fascinating beasts up close I have found that there are in fact several distinct species within this genus. In order to promote public understanding, I propose a classification system that groups scientists together based on exhibited behaviour ... More About: System , Scientists
Thinking Microbes
2007-12-10 20:05:00 Cognition is a term frequently used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing of information. Signal transduction networks certainly fit that bill, as the mediate adaptive changes in gene expression to specific sensory inputs. Melinda Baker and Jeffry Stock, in the recent issue of Current Biology, ... More About: Thinking , Microbes , Robe
At last - an easy backup solution
2007-12-10 13:29:00 When I was writing up my PhD thesis I was paranoid about data backup. Years of hard work - pictures, data-files, notes, publication lists not to mention the thesis manuscript itself - all stored on one hard drive. Copying onto CDs or detachable hard drives was fine, but what if I lost those, or they ... More About: Backup , Easy , Solution
Three Entertaining Molecular Biology Movies
2007-12-07 13:22:00 It’s Friday again, so nothing too heavy from me today, just a little light entertainment to ease you into the weekend. Here are three (somewhat) entertaining molecular biology-related movies from you tube. More About: Movies , Biology , Entertaining , Molecular Biology , Biol
Around the Blogs
2007-12-07 12:31:00 10 interesting posts on cell and molecular biology, and the scientists involved, starting off with… My paper in PLoS Biology is out today - The signal sequence coding region promotes nuclear export of mRNA - Alex gives us an author’s summary on his blog. Congrats on getting the paper published! More About: Blogs
There?s No Need To Be Paranoid About RNA Purification
2007-12-06 13:45:00 RNA purification may be a common procedure in molecular biology but it is by far the one that people fear most. Why? Dreaded RNase. It?s everywhere… all over your bench and pipettors, and floating in the air, waiting for the chance to creep into your prep, shred your RNA into nucleotides, and ruin a day?s work. Well, not ... More About: Paranoid
Myosin Isoforms: Duplication and Divergence
2007-12-06 12:59:00 Myosin II functions as a molecular motor which facilitates contraction of the actin cytoskeleton during migration, resides outside of protrusions at the front of motile cells, and acts at a distance to impact cell protrusion, signaling, and maturation of nascent adhesions. So clearly myosin II is a protein that is of great importance for ... More About: Duplication
Personal Genomes and Modern Eugenics
2007-12-05 16:55:00 As genetic screening becomes increasingly advanced and personal genomes become more commonplace, the potential for genetic engineering and modern eugenics is becoming a reality. “Designer babies” may not be science fiction forever, creating an ethical dilemna on the horizon. Hsein-Hsein keeps us informed on personalized sequencing companies that are coming out, including 23andMe, ... More About: News , Personal , History , Technologies , Modern
An Easy Lysis / Homogenization Method for Any Sample
2007-12-05 13:41:00 At the moment, one of my colleagues is preparing hundreds of cell-free extracts from microbes isolated from the environment to screen for interesting enzyme activities. Lysis of some microbes is easy, but for others its much more difficult - I think due to differences in the make-up of their cell wall (any microbiologists out there care ... More About: Services , Kits , Easy , Reagents , Sample
The Basics: How Ethanol Precipitation of DNA and RNA Works
2007-12-04 16:31:00 Ethanol precipitation is a commonly used technique for concentrating and de-salting nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) preparations in aqueous solution. The basic procedure is that salt and ethanol are added to the aqueous solution, which forces the nucleic acid to precipitate out of solution. The precipitated nucleic acid can then be separated from the rest ... More About: Ethanol , Works , Basics , The Basics , Reci
miRNAs Get Flipped
2007-12-04 13:12:00 On a couple other blogs, a study published in Science by Joan Steitz1 is being called “One of the biggest findings of the year,” and “If it turns out to be true, this finding just flipped the whole field on its head.” Bitesize Bio would be greatly remiss to not mention to so hot ...
20 Ways to Increase your Productivity
2007-12-03 13:05:00 No matter how efficient you are, it’s always possible to improve your productivity and improving your productivity means that you get more of the rewards you are trying to obtain: results, publications… or dare I say it, money. Here are 20 ways to improve your productivity. Some are focussed toward improving the productivity of bench research, ... More About: Productivity
Entosis: Cellular Canabalism
2007-12-03 12:44:00 There might be more to cell death besides apoptosis and necrosis. In a paper that sounded a bit fishy to me, Michael Overholtzer, Joan Brugge and coworkers1 introduce “Entosis”: A non-apoptotic cell death process, that occurs by cell-in-cell invasion. As Eileen White2 described: Upon examination of mammary epithelial cell lines in suspension, Overholtzer et ... More About: Cellular
The Limits of Horizontal Gene Transfer
2007-11-30 17:17:00 Looking at the tree of life, descent with modification is an obvious theme, where genes are passed on through ‘vertical’ lines of ancestry. It so happens though that genes can jump from one lineage to another, by a process called ‘horizontal gene transfer’ (HGT). Naked DNA uptake (transformation), viruses (transduction), and plasmids (conjugation) ... More About: Transfer , Limits , Gene , Tran , Horizon
Around the Blogs
2007-11-30 13:52:00 Here are the highlights of what I’ve been reading around the blogs this week: More About: Blogs
Electroporation on a (96 well) Plate
2007-11-29 13:30:00 I just came across a neat device now being offered by BioRad that may interest those of you who do a lot of electroporation of difficult-to-transfect mammalian cells, where tedious optimization of the electroporation protocol itself is required. More About: Services , Kits , Reagents
Science, Ethics and Controversies
2007-11-29 13:02:00 An essay in today’s issue of Nature struck a contentious cord at the intersection of modern science and politics: that of the ethical regulation of science. The context of ethics and science was succinctly summed up: When in 1978 the first baby was born by in vitro fertilization (IVF) it was inevitable that there would ... More About: Science , News , History , Ethics , Controversies
Enzyme Commission (EC) Numbers
2007-11-28 13:14:00 In the early 1950’s so many new enzymes were being discovered in the burgeoning field of biochemistry that enzyme nomenclature was in danger of getting out of hand. With no guidelines on how to name enzymes, researchers simply chose their own. Some enzymes were given names, like diaphorase or Zwischenferment, that conveyed nothing about the ... More About: News , History , Numbers , Commission , The Basics
Please, don?t take Bitesize Bio ?on Faith?
More articles from this author:2007-11-28 12:53:00 Science is an endlessly fascinating, challenging, and intellectually-satisfying endeavor. So it saddens me any time that I see someone mistakingly make claims about taking science on faith. This isn’t the forum for taking on religion - if you want that, more of my thoughts on that can be found at Migrations. I ... More About: Faith , Bite 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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