Saturday, November 2, 2013

Prokaryotic Satur... ok ok... just for today

Hello everyone!

This is one of those days I got several things to do... we are so close to the second midterms L and I’m feeling the panic of the PhD application deadlines. I do not think I'll make it for 2014 L 
So I was thinking to skip this Saturday. But I decided that it won't be nice, and I tried to rush and as you can see it is now Sunday 12:22 AM (damn!). Forgive me for that. Anyway, whatever you will read today it is not much. So, feel free to stop reading………………………………………………………
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If you are still here, well, let me give you a couple of good and interesting resources I use to spend a bit of time when there is no much to do.

In youtube there is a channel called “GenomeTV”, where you can find great lectures. Personally I strongly recommend that one of the next generation sequencing technologies, by Elaine Mardis. But I warn you, lectures are more than one hour long. Now, if you don't have that much time, then you can visit the channels minutephysics  and ASAPscience. Videos are short and highly interesting.  

Also, another nice youtube channel, which is kind of the style of those two, is “Ted-Ed”, it is not the well known TED-talks, which was previously recommended by another post here in this blog. In TED-Ed you will find short animations explaining simple things, one example:


Since I discovered this channel, I decided that at some point I will have to learn how to animate. Maybe next semester I’ll have more time, I'm planning to take only one class. And talking about classes, there are a couple of online free courses. One that recently started for second time is “Useful genetics”. This course is taught by Dr. Redfield. If you haven’t read the post written by Emilio about Dr. Redfield's most famous work, check it out here.

Actually, Dr. Redfield’s blog, RRResearch  is another excellent site; there you can follow Dr. Redfield's experiments with great detail. This blog is part of the recent tendency of “lab notes published in real time”. Same thing has been done by Dr. Siouxsie Wiles, this is her blog. She works with bioluminescent microbes, there is no much openness as in Dr. Redfield page, but still you will find a couple of interesting posts. Another really nice blog is The Tree of Life, by Dr. Jonathan Eisen, from UC Davis. 

But if you are more of the social networks then you can follow them all, Dr. Redfield, Dr. Eisen and Dr. Wiles in twitter, @RosieRefield, @phylogenomics and @SiouxsieW, who along with Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter), Dr. Moore (@moorejh) and Dr. West (@westr) are really cool and always posting very interesting news, they are all scientific-tweetstars. You will learn and have a chance to interact with them sometimes in a while if you follow them.

And now, for you, who stayed until the very end. I have something else for you, a present. I've got some books that I can't carry home when I’m back. So, if you are the very first to give an answer (in the comments section below this post) to the next trivia , you will receive one of these books for FREE
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Reduction of sulfur is what I do, therefore at the bottom of the column I will be. That column Segei did. Don't get confuse, don't get confuse. I'm not purple I'm not green; these two are always above me. And I can tell you why this is, because light I don't need. Who am I?

Ok, now, terms and conditions. First, the answer should be the one I am expecting (it's my post, it's my trivia, therefore these are my rules). Second, you must have to be the FIRST to answer correctly, answers can be either in English or Spanish. Third, I am sending the book by regular post, so the arrival time depends on your location. Fourth, all books are in English, none is new, but they are all in very good condition. Finally, if you win you will  be able to choose between these titles:

-The fault in our stars(by John Green, by the way, his youtube channel is also great)- this book is one of my favorites of this year. 
-The perks of being a wallflower (by Stephen Chbosky, I really enjoyed the writing style)
-The New York regional mormon singles halloween dance (by Elna Baker, I laughed a lot with this one).


So. Good luck. May the odds be ever in your favor. 
See you next week. 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Those videos from Ted-Ed are really simple yet useful and interesting. I think I could use them while studying with my sister.
I've checked Dr. Redfield blog before but during these last weeks I forgot about it completely, so this the chance to bookmark it so I don't forget it again.
About your trivia, umm, that sounds like sulfate-reducing bacteria (SBR). Those bacteria reduce sulfate to hydrogen sulfide, meaning sulfate is the terminal electron acceptor, and most of them are anaerobes. As far as I know, SRB don't need light for growth, so it was the first thing that came into my mind when I read the trivia. Anyway, I hope I get it right... if not, haha.

naga said...

lili, u can choose ur book and inform ale

Alejandra said...

Sorry for my late response. I've been away from technology for the last two days (not for a personal decision but because I've been away from wifi signal areas). I am glad the answer came this fast. Actually, this is why I wasn't worry of not checking the blog for a couple of days. So, lili, you know my email. Please, send me your address and the book you want. And for the rest of you, stay tuned because this is just the beginning.

Alejandra said...

Congratulations Lili.