Archive for the 'science' Tag

Science Writers 2009 Conference

I recently attended the Science Writers 2009 conference in Austin, Texas, hosted by the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW). Since some of you may not know me, here’s a little bit about where I’m coming from — although I am a PhD graduate student in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I am also becoming a science writer – I have a blog on stem cells called All Things Stem Cell, did a few posts for Nature’s stem cell blog, “The Niche,” and recently started a column with the Santa Barbara Independent called “Biology Bytes.” With aspirations in mind, I traveled to Austin last weekend (Oct. 17th and 18th) for my first science writers’ convention. Below is coverage on the Saturday workshops and the Sunday morning CASW New Horizons in Science sessions. Yes, the coverage is rather detailed – I tried to give plenty of information for those of you who wanted to attend but could not. I’ve tried to highlight key terms to ease scanning down the story. I also created an amateur photo gallery of my trip. If you want to see more coverage, check NASW’s coverage website or the CASW website.

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My first first-author paper!

Just wanted to share that my first first-author paper is now online! In the journal Stem Cells and Development, here’s my paper on “Roles of Integrins in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Growth on Matrigel and Vitronectin.”

The Future of Scientific Publishing

Just read a fascinating (if lengthy) essay on disruptive technology and the future of scientific publishing. Well worth the read!

Pictures from Barcelona, Spain — at a Stem Cell Conference

I recently attended a stem cell conference in Barcelona, Spain. Specifically, the conference was the 7th Annual meeting for the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). I honestly did not get to see a whole lot of the city, as the conference was pretty all-consuming. But, I did try to take pictures of the city as I zoomed by it, and some inside the conference. Read on for details! (continued)

All Things Stem Cell

Hey all Paradoxdruid readers! I recently started up a blog on stem cells that I’d love you all to take a look at: http://www.allthingsstemcell.com/

What computors are good for

I came across this paragraph in the reading for the quantum mechanics class I’m taking, and I think it needs to be shared with the world:

“A great deal of computation is required to perform a Hartree-Fock SCF calculation for a many electron atom. Hartree did several SCF calculations in the 1930s when electronic computors were not in existence. Fortunately Hartree’s father, a retired engineer enjoyed numerical calculation as a hobby and helped his son. Nowadays computers have replaced Hartree’s father.” Quantum Chemistry – Ira Levine

This makes me picture a little old man sitting in a room with all the world’s physicists and chemists sending him equations to solve.
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20% of Scientists use “Cognition Enhancement” Drugs

According to a recent anonymous poll in Nature magazine. Further commentary at WebMD. Crazy, huh?

Candidacy Exam Anticipation… Forever!

As a warning, this is going to be a bit of a whining post, but I really want to get it out. I’m in a molecular biology PhD program and in my specific program I have to write an approximately 20 page proposal on a topic (completely unrelated to the topic I’m actually studying in my lab) and then defend it in front of four established professors in my department (usually in a 3+ hours meeting with only white boards as props) in order to advance to candidacy. I’m at the stage where I submitted my proposal, have done a mock defense, and am now just waiting for the thing to be scheduled (professors are busy!)… it’s now been over 3 weeks since I submitted it and there’s no date picked.
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Scientists for a better PCR

Because you need to know who’s your daddy
The PCR Song

First author Andrew!

I know it’s been a long time since Andrew posted here, so I thought I’d take the initiative and post the news that Andrew is now a First Author on a paper just accepted by JACS!! A happy upturn in the horse latitudes of research!

edit: Detection of Sequence-Specific Protein-DNA Interactions via Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering