This morning, my husband showed me a TED Ed talk about why tattoos are permanent. I could (and may well) do an entire post on why TED talks, be they TED, TEDx, or TED Ed, are not just fascinating, but incredibly useful, but for the moment, let's just enjoy this video: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-tattoos-permanent-claudia-aguirre
(Please forgive my tardiness today!)
One of the basic tenents of Biology is that DNA, found in the nucleus of every cell, is translated by RNA and codes for proteins that build and carry out the functions of life. In this video (brought to me by LinkedIn) you can see it happen via animation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOGOY7vthk
Another LinkedIn video, this one an animation of the replication of HIV/AIDS inside the human host. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7MaNEZ09g
It's the title of a science fiction horror film, but it's also a real occurrence for certain insects. In this video (another LinkedIn find) from the BBC, we meet cordyceps, a fungal infection that controls and eventually kills ants. This is a 3 minute clip from the longer Planet Earth series. If you've never seen this remarkable series, I highly recommend it. Not only do I enjoy it, I've found that even my pets enjoy it, too (yeah, I know, that's silly).
Today's a twofer! Today's LinkedIn video reminded me of the paper I presented for my pathology class (which was more like a journal club). Both deal with the study of fruit flies (Drosophilia sp.) in space. The video focuses on the role of the flies in studies on the ISS in space, while the paper focuses on a specific study done in 2006 and the probable importance of that study. Specifically, the paper focused on the way that changes to gravity during the development of Drosophilia sp. resulted in altered immune pathways, leading to specific weaknesses in those flies raised in a microgravity environment. This finding in a model species (one that can be used to illustrate how humans work, but on a simpler scale), may help explain why many astronauts are more prone to illness upon return from space and may also help provide clues for how to counter the impact of gravity on immunity in the future.
Today is 4 July, and it happens to be the 237th birthday of the United States of America. Many Americans will celebrate this historical occasion with a cold beer and lots of bright fireworks (or applied microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, and physics!). In honor of history, microbiology, and beer, I present another LinkedIn link: Brewer mixes love of paleontology, microbiology, and beer.
I love to find videos or apps that help review or overview essential concepts. I'll have to work on finding & sharing the ones I've found so far, but this one was even better than the one from Pfizer. This is slightly longer, just under 7 minutes, but it's a more complete overview of the immune system. It still isn't perfect, but it's hard to get a good, complete, perfectly accurate overview of an entire system in such a short video. This is one of the best I've seen. I haven't watch the other videos, but I'll be checking them out - watch for updates on the channel here. Why You Are Still Alive - The Immune System Explained
Another video from LinkedIn, this video from Pfizer shares how the immune system creates an inflammatory response and how the response works against the body in auto-immune disorders. The video is less than 5 minutes, and is only the most cursory of discussions, but it's a decent start and might be a semi-decent way to review these concepts if you need it.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd been stockpiling articles and posts for daily uploads. This is the first of those, but before I get into that, I want to share where many of these are coming from, because that is, by itself, an incredibly useful professional tool. Recently (between starting the blog and restarting the blog), I joined/became more active on LinkedIn. I found groups there, including groups by interest. Among them are microbiology & immunology groups, and many of the links I will be sharing were discovered when they showed up in my inbox via a LinkedIn group!
This may well be old news to many of you, but I didn't want anyone to overlook useful tools. Finally, remember: employers look at all online and social media when hiring, so be mindful of what you post (or what your friends may be able to post).
Now, with no further ado: A video on how the flu invades the human body. Because light microscopy can't capture viruses, this is an animation, but it is very well done and has explanation with it.
http://labroots.com/user/account-file/view-video/type/public-wall/id/676
Is The 5-Second Rule True? is just one of the many videos published by VSauce over at youtube. One of many science bloggers, Michael discusses a given topic from multiple angles in 10 minutes, following so many threads through that one topic. As a result, although the video is 10 minutes long, no one thread lasts more than about minute, allowing him to cover several different ideas all around that one topic in the given time. This one is answering 5 questions from viewers. Another of my favorites is this video, on water. Water is an astonishing molecule, essential to life, and it is because of water that I've opted to go into immunology. In this video, Michael discusses multiple different topics, all related to water, in honor of World Water Day.
While not all of VSauce's videos are science related, they are fascinating and entertaining, even when they aren't.