Author: Isobel Maciver

Worms from Heaven and Hell

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
C. elegans were recently part of an experiment on the International Space Station.

Worms from the heights of space and the depths of the earth were in the news last week, one well-known species soaring to the heavens as part of a space flight experiment and a previously undiscovered species revealing the surprising extent of multicellular life in the hidden depths of earth.

The Worm from the Heavens
Caenorhabditis elegans perhaps qualifies as the most well-known of all worms. This 1mm roundworm, is a staple model organism in molecular biology. It’s easy to grow and store, possesses a simple neuronal network, and is transparent, making it easy to study cell differentiation and development. It was the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced, and the developmental fate of all its somatic cells has been studied. In some ways we know C. elegans better than we know ourselves.

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Microbiome Studies: We Are More than the Sum of our Parts

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

What if you could help protect yourself from certain diseases by populating your gut with “good” bacteria, or selectively getting rid of “bad” ones? Two news articles suggesting this possibility caught my eye this week. The articles both summarized results from the microbiome project—a research effort geared towards developing a deep understanding of how the bacteria that live in and on our bodies influence our health. Analyses of these bacterial populations are providing new insights that suggest we are much more than the sum of our parts, and that our health may depend not only on our own genes and lifestyle but also on the contributions of the bacteria that colonize us.

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Lab Equipment Today: Kitchen Gadget Tomorrow?

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
The Latest in Cooking Equipment

My husband likes to cook and he also likes to collect kitchen gadgets. Mushroom slicers, blenders, numerous graduated vials and measuring devices, meat thermometers, etc., our kitchen drawers are overflowing with the essentials for precision cooking. For each culinary process, there is a unique device, and he uses them all. I do not even know what some of them are for. I only use knives and measuring cups. But his cooking is way better than mine so there is obviously some benefit to using the right tools well.

Some of the most sophisticated kitchen tools come straight from the laboratory. I was interested to read an article in the March 2011 issue of Scientific American describing how high-speed centrifuges are among the newest trends in fancy kitchen equipment. They are being used in restaurants to separate ingredients into their component parts and create potent flavorings. It turns out that centrifugation is a fast and convenient way to purify fat from various vegetables and nuts, creating interesting flavored butters and dairy-free creams (think pea butter or essence of carrot). Centrifugation is a fast alternative to straining or filtering as a means of separating components.

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The Search for New Antibiotics: Looking for Achilles’ Heel (Again)

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

Some of the first available doses of penicillin were used to treat allied soldiers wounded on D-Day. It was the end of one war, but just the beginning of another–one that has gone on for a long time. The story of the development of antibiotics, and the emergence of resistant bacteria, followed by the renewed search for new antibiotics, seems neverending. As soon as a new antibiotic is discovered, it seems only a matter of time before a resistance mechanism emerges, and remaining one step ahead of the bugs can seem like a relentless challenge. Continue reading “The Search for New Antibiotics: Looking for Achilles’ Heel (Again)”

Harry Potter Sings the Elements

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I dismissed the idea of blogging about it because it seemed unlikely that there would be a connection with science.
I was wrong. This is for scientist Potter fans.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

A Good Cup of Tea

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
Tea

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. ~Japanese Proverb

There is nothing like a good cup of tea. On that there is little dispute. Growing up in Britain, I was introduced to tea at an early age. It was impossible to avoid it. We had tea after every meal, twice in between meals (elevenses and afternoon tea), and additional cups whenever anyone came for a visit. The news that tea might actually be good for you came as a welcome relief to those of us who grew up steeped in the stuff. At last—something enjoyable that wasn’t bad for you.

What Makes a Good Cup of Tea?
From George Orwell to Wikihow, many have weighed in over the years with an opinion on how to make the best cup of tea—pronouncing on such details as loose leaves vs teabags, why it is uncouth to drink from the saucer, and why you should never put the milk in first. The details of what makes a good cup of tea are hotly debated and ultimately a matter of personal preference. Properly boiled water and good quality tea are vital, warming the teapot is helpful, and allowing the tea to properly infuse makes a big difference to the final outcome (no cutting corners by squashing a teabag against the side of the cup). But what makes a cup of tea good for you may be harder to figure out.

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There’s an Evil Hand Afoot and Other Ways to Spice Up Your Technical Literature

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. Dennis Pearce, the runner up in the 2010 Detective story category, penned the following words:

DALL-E Generated image for "there is an evil hand afoot" How can we make technical literature more interesting?
DALL-E generated image in response to the prompt “There is an evil hand afoot”.

As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway, he placed his ear to the ground and, with his heart in his throat, silently mouthed to his companion, “Arm yourself, Watson, there is an evil hand afoot ahead.”

Pondering this particularly good piece of bad writing, I found myself wondering what would happen if we used this over-the-top style in tehnical literature including scientific articles and protocols. Could it help to draw attention to important details and entertain the reader at the same time? But since the goal of instructional materials is to be clear, concise and to the point, there’s not usually much room for just-for-fun content.

Or is there?

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Human Microbiome Project

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
coliform bacteria

Did you know that the microorganisms living in and on the human body (most on the skin, in the gut, and in the mouth) outnumber all our human cells by a factor of ten? But read on before you grab the hand sanitizer and schedule a colonic, these “germs” may be an integral part of what makes you… well “you”. Indeed, the profile of microorganisms happily living in and on your body may be as unique a signature as your DNA profile or your fingerprints—perhaps more so.

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Antibody Art

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

Double fluorescent staining of CNS cells with Anti-Rat ciliary neurotrophic factor. Nuclei stained with DAPI

There are many levels on which science can be a beautiful thing. Some of these are quite abstract, like the experimental result that exactly proves the theory, the perfect order revealed in a mathematical equation, or the exquisite sensitivity seen in regulation of a signaling pathway. On another level the output of an experiment itself can have a physical beauty of its own. For example, immunofluorescence and immunocytochemistry technologies can generate results that not only reveal information about the subject of the experiment, but also can be quite spectacularly beautiful. Here are a few favorites of mine:

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Quorum Sensing in Bacteria: How a Picture can be Worth a Thousand Words

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

Increasingly, multimedia and video are being used in addition to traditional delivery methods to communicate scientific findings. Journals such as PLoS ONE, Cell, Nature and others often use video to either showcase particular articles, or offer authors the opportunity to include multimedia elements as part of their article. Some subjects lend themselves better to video delivery than others. Every so often a video report comes along that perfectly complements the content of the associated paper, illustrating the power of video to enhance communication of research findings.

In my opinion, the effective use of video to highlight results is beautifully illustrated by the report below, highlighting the publication “A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks” by Danino et al, which was published in Nature this week.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnjdAr4EjI0]
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