For my micro students:
Here are collections of writings about microbial things. These could lead you to other blogs. This collection, called Animacules, is what is known as a blog carnival, a collection of writings on a particular topic.
Aetiology: Inaugural edition of Animalcules–the carnival of the wee beasties
Aetiology: Animalcules vol. 1.2
Aetiology: Animalcules 1.3–PZ birthday edition
Science and Politics: Animalcules vol. 1.4
This is a great place to start to get a taste of what folks are writing about.
For Human Bio folks
If you would like another description of the some of the hormones released by the pituitary here is an Overview of Hypothalamic and Pituitary Hormones
Sequencing a genome
How do you sequence a genome? This is a series of Quicktime movies that lead you through the process.
More for micro
The very latest edition of Animacules, dedicated to all things small and beautiful.
Our slanted view
Our slanted view of medicine and health. We don’t even think about TB in this country (unless you happen to be poor and in a crowded urban setting). Two million people a year die of TB.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects nearly one-third of the world’s population
PLoS Medicine: Cost-Effectiveness of Treating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Evolution of virulence
A nice overview of current thinking on the evolution of pathogens.
PLoS Pathogens: Crossing the Line: Selection and Evolution of Virulence Traits
Discussion on some micro terms
Hey, all you micro types. Here is an excellent discussion on some terms we have been using, including virulence, pathogenicity and transmissibility. I found it helpful. Among the interesting clarifications for me was the notion that pathogenicity (the ability to make its host sick) is a combination of virus, host and environment and not some inherent feature of a virus.
Effect Measure
Amazing photo resource
The CDC gives away great photographs of microbes ( among other things).
For all my students
The box immediately to the right of this post, entitled Biology Blogs, is the list of blogs to search through. On my blog I primarily post just things I think are of special interest to me or my students but these other folks post a lot.
Stem Cells
This is a terrific interview with four researchers on stem cells. There are a lot of valid points made here. It was this show that got me thinking of doing a class on stem cells.
February 17, 2006, Hour Two: Stem Cell Science, Policy and Ethics (AAAS Remote Broadcast)
The International Society for Stem Cell Research is an advocacy and education group for stem cell research. Several of the researchers in the show above are members of this group.
ISSCR :: Public : Stem Cell Information for the Public This page has educational materials including a Primer on Stem Cell research.
If you have other resources that you would like to point out to me you can put them in the comments section.
Prochlorococcus and lateral gene transfer
This is Prochlorococcus, a tiny ocean-dwelling cyanobacteria. It is the smallest known phototroph but because of it’s vast numbers it is responsible for 30-80% of the world’s primary production. This little fellow has only 1700 genes but is well-adapted to a variety of ocean habitats, many of them frequently changing. It appears that one way that this bacterium adapts is through frequent gene exchange, mediated most likely by viruses. Vast numbers of viruses float in the water as well that can parasitize Prochlorococcus and when then do they frequently bring along parts of the genome of former hosts, swapping in genes via transduction. What I find interesting here is this may not be a rare event but one on which the success of the host depeneds. Given the importance of Prochlorococcus to the global environment, this elevates the status of the virus to much more then just a successful parasite.
This also suggest to me that Prochlorococcus is a model of how a species is really an assemblage of alleles, in a way that is less apparent in species that only have vertical gene transfer (i.e., mating).
The collective Prochlorococcus community merely adjusts internally, with different groups (genome types) waxing and waning in relative abundance, depending on who is most fit under ever-changing circumstances.
Researchers: Oceans are a major gene swap-meet for plankton - MIT News Office
AntWeb
This is an awesome resource. Great pictures of ants, tons of ant biology. You can use Google Earth to track ants around the world. AntWeb
Again, Cacti evolution.
More cacti evolution, this time with pictures.
Islands
NYT article by Carl Zimmer on islands and evolution.
