Category Archives: Science Communication

Cutting out the middleman

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Rachel Lee | 2 comments

Fungal infection of the bone marrow. Image by euthman.

Nowadays, clinical transplantation is known to save many lives, but not without a catch. Patients have to go through immunosuppressive therapy if the MHC molecules on the graft, or transplanted tissue, do not match their own.

Our bodies are very picky and sensitive. For instance, we are okay with accepting skin grafts from ourselves – this is a type of autograft. However, if we were to be given a skin graft from someone unrelated, this arrangement is not long-lived. We let this allograft stick around for a bit, but ultimately kick it out after 10-13 days. We’ll remember it, too. Like a woman scorned, if this same offensive graft comes again, we boot it out even faster. The T cells living in our bodies as defenders do not take kindly to foreign tissue. Immune responses are mounted as a result, causing transplant rejection. Learn more about the immune response here:

For clinical transplantation to be successful, people have relied on immunosuppressive drugs to inhibit the defensive mechanisms our cells carry out when we encounter foreign molecules. This is problematic because now people are more susceptible to cancer and infections. The issue with transplant rejection is that donor and recipient cells don’t like each other. What do we do when two people don’t get along? We force them to.

Scientists have recently tested a method for transplant recipients to accept mismatched donor organs. In this ongoing trial, patients are exposed to chemotherapy and radiation and injected with enriched donor stem cells, hoping to achieve what is called “chimeric tolerance”. The idea is to make two immune systems work in one body by destroying the host’s first.

This new approach is pretty questionable. Small sample size aside, it is not known whether the enriched cells really made an impact as the study is missing a control group (where patients would presumably undergo treatment without these cells). Furthermore, these cells were not described very clearly. Suppressing the immune system with chemotherapy and radiation is also unnecessarily harmful and risky. Will it be worth it in the end?

The lengths we will go to in order to cure disease (Image from xkcd.com - click to enlarge).

References:

1. Murphy, Kenneth P. Janeway’s Immunology (8th ed), p652-664.
2. Steenhuysen, Julie. Immune system tricked to accept donor organs: study. NewsDaily. Accessed March 14, 2012.
3. Garland Science. The Immune Response. Youtube video, accessed March 14, 2012.

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, New and innovative science, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged chimeric tolerance, immunology, MHC, T cell, transplant

Are free radicals bad for you?

Posted on March 13, 2012 by sahil | 3 comments

What are free radicals?

In simple words, free radicals are atoms or ions that have unpaired electrons and are often denoted by the insertion of a dot (.) (Aruoma 1998). The presence of unpaired electrons makes free radicals extremely unstable and highly reactive.

Image from www.amazing-glutathione.com

How do they affect us?

The presence of unpaired electrons makes free radicals extremely unstable and highly reactive. A part of the oxygen that we breathe in is converted to free radicals that react with non-radical biological molecules to generate more free radicals, thereby commencing a chain reaction. Although free radicals are not limited to oxygen, the two most significant free radicals affecting human beings are the oxygen-centered superoxide and hydroxyl radical (Wikipedia 2012).

Free radicals attack the lipid molecules present in the plasma membrane. Lipid molecules are responsible in lending fluidity to the plasma membrane. The highly reactive free radicals steal electrons from the hydrogen attached to the carbon in lipids. This consequently leaves the carbon molecule as a free radical, which will in turn react with other molecules in order to attain stability. In this manner, free radicals disrupt the fluid nature of cell membranes and start a chain reaction. This process is commonly known as lipid peroxidation (Helwig 2000).

Moreover, free radicals can react with the DNA molecules present in the cells by stealing their electrons (Aruoma 1998). Damage to DNA molecules will lead to the disruption of cell cycles and cause mutations that will lead major disorders like cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. Also, DNA molecules give rise to proteins by the process of transcription and translation. Hence, damage to DNA molecules will in turn give rise to non-functional protein molecules. Proteins have regulatory, transportation, structural and enzymatic functions in living organism. Therefore, any damage to proteins will significantly disrupt the functioning of living organisms.

Image from thedetoxspecialist.com

Additionally, free radicals are also considered to play an important role in aging. Denham Harman, who devised the free radical theory of aging, states that, over time, the disruption of the fluid nature of the plasma membrane, the damage to DNA molecules and the degradation of proteins gives rise to accumulated chemical changes in human beings. It is these changes that result in us experiencing aging (Harman 1988).

What can we do to protect ourselves against free radicals?

Molecules known as antioxidants are used to counter the effects of free radicals by inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. They occur naturally in human beings and can also be found in fruits and vegetables (Krishnaiah et al. 2007). However, there are limited measures that can be taken to prevent the damage caused by free radicals.

Image from bestofbothworldsaz.com

Neither can we stop breathing in oxygen nor can we stop the generation of oxygen-centered free radicals as byproducts of the metabolic reactions that take place in our bodies. Besides, it is a rule of life that anything in excess is bad. This applies to free radicals as well as antioxidants. Excess amounts of free radicals will cause significant damage and excess amount of antioxidants used to counter the effects of free radicals will end up hindering the effectiveness of treatments.

References

Aruoma, O., 1998. Free Radicals, Oxidative Stress, and Antioxidants in Human Health and Disease. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, 75: (2), 199-212.

Harman, D., 1988. Free radicals in aging. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 84: 155-161.

Helwig, B., 2000. Antioxidants and Exercise [online]. Available from http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Antioxidants/Introduction.html

Krishnaiah, D., Sarbatly, R., and Bono, A., 2007. Phytochemical antioxidants for health and medicine – A move towards nature. Biotechnology and MolecularBiology Review, 1: (4), 97-104.

Wikipedia, 2011. Radical (chemistry) [online]. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(chemistry)) [Accessed Mar 10th, 2012].

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Uncategorized

Tagged Aging, Antioxidants, DNA, Electrons, Free Radicals, Lipids, Radicals

How Forgetting Might Become the Norm

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ctodd | 4 comments

Memory is a strange thing.

The more we learn the more we seem to forget, quite literally, and in so doing we help ourselves learn even more.

A strange proposal then would be whether it possible to forget the baggage we don’t like, keep those we do, and maybe throw in some fun stuff that never happened. It all sounds crazy, but this world is a crazy place.

To start with how, let’s look at how memories are formed. In the brain, chemicals and proteins are released that help neurons pass electric potentials between themselves, and this helps the neurons make new ion channels with each other. It’s like making phone lines of memory between brain cells. The creation of these circuits is called Consolidation and until recently was thought to be concrete.

That “recently” happened when a young graduate named Karim Nader discovered that when memories are remembered or “Reconsolidated” they can be wiped out if the chemicals aren’t there to make the connection.

It turns out that when you remember something, a few things happen. Similar memories that would compete with that memory can be mixed in or weakened/eliminated by the prefrontal cortex and the memory itself is literally rebuilt.

"Seems Like a Good Idea" Image:Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Because of this, every time you remember something it gets a little altered in the process, and if the chemicals are blocked, the reconsolidating memory becomes wiped.

“This is crazy and awesome, but too crazy for me, can I make bad, painful memories better without this?” Yes you can. Because memories are associated with different emotions or perceptions, they’re located in different places. Negative ones are found in the amygdala, though they can be removed and relocated elsewhere. How? Think about the memory in a happier setting when you’re immune to feeling blue, it will remain in your mind but won’t have the same emotionally negative effects. This is why ecstasy is one of the most effective PTSD treatments ever.

"Pacman, eating pills to invoke trippy colours and devour your ghosts" Image:Pacman

“How can I make this more fun?” PLAY TETRIS. Playing Tetris within 4-6 hours of trauma significantly reduces the associated trauma with a painful memory. Yes folks, drugs and videogames are the answer, Pacman had it right.

“This is cool, can I be programmed with happy thoughts?” Yes you can. It turns out we’re really good at remembering things that never happened. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus has demonstrated that 1/3 of subjects can be tricked into thinking false memories are their own, even with only one exposure to it. This is why people can be convinced they met Bugs bunny at Disneyland.

“Nice, can I have this memory wipe as a pill please?” Not yet, but a scientist named Dr.Sacktor has found the primary and defining chemical involved in (re)consolidation. It’s called PKMzeta, a form of protein Kinase C. It’s needed to maintain memories, and inhibiting it while remembering something leads to a swift and selective wipe of that something.

“Do you think I can get a prescription?” You may in the future if you have chronic neuropathic pain. It likely will have the same effect on the spine as the brain, and it might even help people with addictions.

All in all this is fabulous news. Though it can be a lot to take in, whether it makes you fear an Orwellian mind control police or you’re just excited to become a mind-tweaking psychonaut, it likely won’t matter as you’ll probably forget you thought about it anyway.

"A Sea of Potential" Image from: http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=2471

4 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Fun!, New and innovative science, Science Communication, Uncategorized

Tagged brain, consolidation, drugs, forget, Memory, mind, PTSD, recall, reconsolidation, remember, tetris, thought

Science communication in a comic artist’s point of view

Posted on March 5, 2012 by joannec | Leave a comment

A cover of the well-renowned graphic novel, Watchmen. Image from wired.com

If only we can format a scholarly article that the general public can read just like something they’ll read on a bus, just like a graphic novel we used to pick up in our childhood…how will our understanding of science be so much more exciting?

Bret Victor, a blogger who holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, have attempted such approach. He tries to re-edit an article published in Nature, a well-known scientific article describing a ‘small-world’ network–a model proving how everyone in a community ‘know’ each other through only with a couple of acquaintances. The original paper describes the algorithm using complex drawings and graphs, but Victor rearranges this paper using mainly the two components we often see in graphic novels:

From there...(Screenshot taken from Nature.com)

...To here! (Screenshot taken from worrydream.com)

1. Panels. Every heading starts a panel and read from left to right, as if a heading is a title of a newspaper comic strip. Also, instead of having only few diagrams, Victor breaks down the diagrams from the original paper into small ‘panels’, each containing a drawing with highlighted parts accompanied by a thorough annotation.

2. Colour/Hue. Victor colours most of the paper’s text in grey, and empathizing keywords and headings in black. Results in the graphs are coloured in red and black as well, clearly showing shapes of the graph. As mentioned in our lecture, colour-coding hasn’t been popular in article publications due to its cost, but as articles are released digitally, Victor’s work portray the future publications may greatly incorporate colours.

In the context of the original paper, Victor’s approach seems intuitive and suggest further inspiration can be drawn from comic books to a formal published media.

And who says analyzing cartoon is pointless? Mr. Scott McCloud will tell you otherwise (image from xconomy.com)

For those who are further interested innovative panel designs on comic strips, I recommend visiting Scott McCloud’s website. Not only are his comic strip narrations unique and experimental, he introduces his fellow comic artists who have discovered innovative ways to effectively deliver stories. I’ve been admiring his work for some time, but it’s only a recent event that I realized that he was featured on TED as well. Take a minute to hear some interesting aspect on his vision of communication.

I remember a class discussion about how the general public will have easier access to the scientific papers, but essentially, they will make a good use of such privilege only if they can understand it adequately. Who knows? We may one day have more young aspiring superheroes reading articles from Cornell University, envisioning the gadgets the Dark Knight manipulates to save a city from criminals (no offence to you, Mr. Wayne).

Sources:

Original scientific article from Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v393/n6684/pdf/393440a0.pdf
Bret Victor’s sample of an re-edited article: http://worrydream.com/#!/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt
Scott McCloud’s website: http://scottmccloud.com/
Scott McCloud on TED Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html
An image of Scott McCloud’s “self-portrait”: http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/09/10/the-infinite-canvas-an-interview-with-scott-mccloud-the-google-chrome-comic-guy/attachment/scott_mccloud/
A reviewer’s analysis on Watchmen’s symmetrical panel layout and its significance in the tragic plot: http://www.destroythecyb.org/an-analysis-of-watchmensymmetry-and-the-tragic-flaw-477.htm

Is Too Much Exercise Good For You ?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by heliafad | 5 comments

Benefits of exercising is not a new topic . Almost everybody (at least in north America) has heard once in their life time that in order to gain a stronger immune system you have to have a proper diet and consistent exercising habit. It is recommended by government of Canada to be involve in at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity exercising 5 days a week (http://www.healthyalberta.com/Documents/Choosewell-Logbook-2011.pdf).

it is important to have a balanced diet and consistent exercise pattern to achieve optimal health (http://www.justprnews.com/15416/colon-cleanser-for-a-healthy-body-and-mind/)

However it has been proven scientifically that long, vigorous exercising can suppress the immune system and in fact makes the body more vulnerable to infection.

One of the studies that supports this finding is the study that was published in journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, conducted by Murphy and his colleges which the link to the study is here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18616997. They have divided mice into two groups. One rested and the other group ran on treadmill for three days until they were exhausted. Both groups were exposed to influenza virus; the group who were running had more severe symptoms of the illness

The second study (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S088915910500067X) which its result agreed with the above experiment also published in journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, examined the influence of the virus on subjects who were already sick. In this study one group of sick mice were allowed to rest while the second group ran leisurely for 20 to 30 minutes , also there were a third group in this study which ran for two and half hours. Each group repeated the routine for three days. Their results were very interesting: 50 % of the sedentary mice dies , while only 12 % of the gently jogging mice passes away and 70 % of the third group could not survive the virus. Therefore what we can learn here is what my father always tells me:” do not overdue anything in your life, and be reasonable in your decisions”

The reason for such finding is still unclear. Scientists believe that intense work out suppresses immune response for a period of time immediately after you have finished your workout. An associate professor of sport and exercise sciences at Loughborough University says“the longer you exercise the longer the period of suppress immune system”

relationship between exercise intensity and risk of getting an infection (http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/hal/exerciseillness.htm)

At the end, I would like to emphasize that it does not mean that you should not exercise , in fact Jeffrey A. Woods, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois believes that “in general, moderate exercise, such as a leisurely jog or walk, may prop up your immune response and lessen the duration and severity of a mild infection”. Here is a video that lists the benefits of exercise :

Hence, Exercise but DO NOT OVERDUE IT .

5 Comments

Posted in Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged Exercise, health, immune system, intense exercise, moderate exercise

Education is not all fun and games

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rachel Lee | 4 comments

Earth viewed from Apollo 17. Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Scientific Visualization Studio.

The world is constantly changing. The way people absorb information now is different from the ways in the past, and innovative educators are realizing this. Just as how living creatures have to adapt to the environment over time, so too do teaching methods have to evolve to cater to new generations of people.

Public education is often ridiculed for robbing the imaginations of children. It is no surprise that students find school boring and tedious when they are not encouraged to be creative in the classroom. As students shift their interests from academics to the wonders of new technology, many teachers found the need to develop more modern ways to engage youngsters. Organized schooling like Quest to Learn emerged as an answer to this problem.

Students are more engaged when games are involved. Image by Nico Cavallotto.

Recently, educators are looking into implementing video games into the classroom. One notable example comes from Valve, an American video game development corporation. They invited elementary school students to their company to help design levels for their video game, Portal. The game involves concepts of physics such as momentum, spatial reasoning and engineering, allowing students to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom. On September 20th of 2011, Valve offered the game for free digital download to promote the learning of science.

Are video games necessary for education? Ali Carr-Chellman of Penn State University thinks so. In the TED talk she gave in October 2010, she argues that teachers’ attitudes are important when it comes to teaching boys in school. If teachers can be more open-minded about gaming and design better games, boys’ interest in school can be renewed at a young age, helping them succeed in the future as they pursue their educations further. Watch the full video here:

Video games carry negative connotations such as “childish” and “time-wasting”, but perhaps this will change when educators effectively integrate them into the school curriculum in a fun and educational manner.

Sources:

Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning. Ted Talk. Accessed February 19, 2012.

Corbett, Sara. Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom. The New York Times. Accessed February 18, 2012.

Kuchera, Ben. Portal is used to teach science as Valve gives game away for limited time. Arstechnica. Accessed February 18, 2012.

4 Comments

Posted in Fun!, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Tagged education, gaming, portal, teaching, ted talk, valve

A Lovely Indecision

Posted on February 13, 2012 by ctodd | 5 comments

There’s hardly anything as conflicting as tastes, especially subconscious tastes that vary on a monthly cycle and alternate with circumstance. In honour of Valentine’s Day, we shall explore the theme of indecision in female mate selection, featuring the wonders of the pill.

To begin, attraction in females shifts between when she’s ovulating and not.

While in the fertile throws of follicle phase, females generally prefer a male with manly features and high testosterone levels, as well as a dissimilar Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). MHCs are linked to immunity, so humans naturally seek to diversify for maximum heterozygosity and variation. A fun fact, while fertile, girls in relationships are also known to develop a taste for dominant smelling men.

(A little More on MHC)

Most of the time though, women are not in fertile mode, and in these circumstances tend to fall back on men who have a similar MHC to themselves. They also favour men who are less masculine and more nurturing and supportive, especially if they live in a healthy environment.

Based on these natural cycles, we can see how there might be some conflict of interest depending on what day it is.

"I don't know what I want!" Image:ehow.com

Sometimes, one doesn’t even need cycles to complicate things. While single, girls have an increased preference for MHC similar men, but then have dissimilar MHC preference when they’re already with someone. If that’s not enough, these changing preferences of MHC make a huge impact as scent is much more emphasized in importance with women rather than men. Occasionally, scent can even be at odds in importance with visuals though it varies on the population and culture.

That said, a person’s heterozygosity of their MHC can be sensed through the inspection of facial features. While females favour as much heterozygosity as possible, they seem to be attracted to those with similar MHC as well.

So, visuals conflict with olfactory cues? Awesome.

Now what about the pill? Surely this fabulous contraption of contraception must simplify things no? Well, sort of.

”The Pill adds some consistency, whereby everyday is non-fertile day. It’s more or less a fake pregnancy that replaces the possibility of a real one, and this causes women to go into “find a nurturing, similar man phase.” It’s without any surprise then that women on the pill have a marked preference for MHC similar men that totally overrides any ambition for seeking a dissimilar partner.

Consistency? Fabulous! What’s the catch?

Women who find their man on the pill tend to have less sexual attraction to their partners as well as decreasing sexual satisfaction over time. They become very jealous at a rate proportional to estradiol intake, and also have an increased desire to cheat, meanwhile having much more severe “affective responses” to partner infidelity, and having an increased frequency of “mate retention behaviour.” And you put on a few :3

But don’t worry, there are some positives. Those that meet their partner on the pill have more satisfaction with their partner in non-sexual ways, have happier relationships with more emotional satisfaction, and have relationships that last 2 years longer on average.

So really no matter what, it’s a mess of matter of preference. Just have a preference for the mess that you prefer.

"Use Both Instead!" Image:ehow.com

5 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Fun!, Science Communication, Uncategorized

Tagged changes, choices, cycles, fertile, hormones, indecision, mates, MHC, preferences, The Pill

SCIE 300 Scientific Investigation Project: The value of good taste

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Bryant Rathbone | Leave a comment

Rachel Lee, Bryant Rathbone, Colin Todd

PowerPoint slides (link)

References

(1) Brentari, E.; Levaggi, E. Food Quality and Preference 2011, 22, 725-732.

(2) Brochet, F.; Dubourdieu, D. Brain and Language 2001, 77, 187-196.

(3) Gawel, R. Journal of Sensory Studies 1997, 12, 267-284.

(4) Goldstein, R.; Almenberg, J.; Dreber, A.; Emerson, J. W.; Herschkowitsch, A.; Katz, J. Journal of Wine Economics 2008, 3, 1-9.

(5) Harris, L. C.; Cai, K. Y. Journal of Market-Focused Management 2002, 5, 171.

(6) Hughson, A.; Ashman, H.; De La Huerga, V.; Moskowitz, H. JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES 2004, 19, 85-105.

(7) Kumar, N.; Scheer, L.; Kotler, P. European Management Journal 2000, 18, 129.

(8) Laoro, M.; Delahunty, C.; Cox, D. Food Research International , 44, 3235.

(9) LaTour, K. A.; LaTour M.S.; Feinstein A.H. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 2011, 52, 445.

(10) Lawless, H. Journal of Food Science 1984, 49, 120-123.

(11) Lehrer, J. The Subjectivity of Wine. http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/the_subjectivity_of_wine.php (accessed 01/17, 2012).

(12) MacQueen, K. MacLeans 2011, .

(13) Mckinnon, M. The Globe and Mail 2011, .

(14) Morrot, G.; Brochet, F.; Dubourdieu, D. Brain and Language 2001, 79, 309-320.

(15) Solomon, G. American Journal of Psychology 1990, 105, 495-517.

Digital barometers on Android phones – How does it work and how can it be useful for meteorologists?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by joannec | 2 comments

Image from gizmodo.com

While surfing the net, I came across this article about a barometer application on Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone running on Android operating system. I’m neither a smartphone user nor a big fan of it, but the idea of having a petite weather forecaster in every phone sounded very intriguing. What if these barometers can observe the weather in each smartphone user’s current time and location, collect the weather information from the smartphone users all around the world, and generate a weather forecast reflecting these on-time changes?

The idea sounded wonderful until I noticed some skeptical comments about a digital barometer below the article. Although I was not able to understand all of the discussions clearly, it left me to wonder what parts of the smartphone are involved in operating a barometer application. So based on my introductory programming knowledge and some research on Android’s hardware features, I would like to share my own investigation on how a digital barometer works, an example of an awesome idea to have a collective information gathering.

This is what you see when you search for "barometer" in Google...(screenshot taken from Google.com)

First of all, a barometer is a device which measures atmospheric pressure. If you hit “barometer” on Google, you will see some old-fashioned barometers—either a long glass tube filled with mercury and standing on a base, or a compass-like device which indicates “rain”, “change”, or “fair” in different pressure reading. Traditional barometers contain metals such as mercury and alloys, which measured the displaced volume caused by the atmosphere.

Similar to the traditional barometers, Android phones have built-in hardware which can detect pressure. Piezoelectric sensors, for example, convert the mechanical stress into electrical charge. A crystalline material inside the sensor detects mechanical stress applied to it, and undergoes an electromechanical interaction which in process, generate electricity. This electricity is now delivered to other parts of the device and act as a threshold to activate different functions.

Application developers then can use programming commands to summon the atmospheric pressure measured by these pressure sensors into their program. For example, the programmers type in “getPressure” in their script to make an application to display a current pressure measured by its built-in sensor.

A screenshot taken at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html#getPressure%28int%29

The programmers can use different combinations of commands to perform many other tasks using this atmospheric measurement. For example, a command “getAltitude” allows a programmer to calculate the current altitude of the device using atmospheric pressure detected by the sensor and the sea level pressure retrieved from airport databases. This command suggests how the barometer can detect the location of the phone owner. By manipulation of some other commands, this information would be able to be sent to the internet database, and used by meteorologists to generate forecasting.

A screenshot taken at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/SensorManager.html#getAltitude(float, float)

Like the article at the start of this entry suggested, digital barometer applications in smartphones are still argued to be unstable. As long as these applications can be designed adequately by meteorologists and programmers, I think this application can be a powerful device to detect rapid changes in the weather in the future. What do you guys think?

References:

originally posted on February 6th, 2012 in Section 210 Blog . Moved to Section 212 on February 9th, 2012

2 Comments

Posted in Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged Android application, barometer, computer science, programming

To infinity and beyond the classroom

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Rachel Lee | Leave a comment

The International Space Station seen from space shuttle Discovery. Courtesy of nasaimages.org.

Nowadays, educators around the world are coming up with new and innovative ways to inspire the learning of science. The Internet – now becoming increasingly accessible to everyone – has evolved into an essential tool incorporated into students’ education, and the Youtube Space Lab challenge is one such implementation combined with interactive learning.

Youtube Space Lab is backed by Youtube, Lenovo, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Students aged 14-18 from across the globe are encouraged to design an experiment that, if chosen, will be carried out in space by the International Space Station (ISS) and streamed live on Youtube.com, the popular video sharing site. Youtube Space Lab stems from Youtube EDU – an online global classroom with a rich compilation of lecture material from universities and other educators. The competition’s goals are twofold: getting students to actively participate will allow them to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom setting, and their videos will then serve as part of an informative collection to be shared worldwide. The competition began on October 11, 2011 and ends on March 21, 2012, with the regional winners to be announced on February 21. Here’s one submission proposing the possibility of yeast-powered space travel:

More entries can be viewed at the Youtube Space Lab channel.

The competition should prove to be a fulfilling experience for up-and-coming scientists as participants are expected to design their experiments such that they pass the scientific method. They must devise an experiment question that they want to test, and formulate a hypothesis from it. Their methods should direct the astronaut that will be investigating their experiment, and finally they need to predict their results in a creative manner to impress the panel of judges, among which include various scientists, astronauts and other professionals.

Learning about the scientific method is an important part of the science curriculum (Image from xkcd.com)

This is a great opportunity for science enthusiasts and is sure to attract a lot of attention. Let’s prepare to be amazed by the ingenuity of young minds.

Sources:

Colman, Dan. “Introducing YouTube EDU!” Open Culture. Accessed January 28, 2012.
Yeast-Powered Space Travel: YouTube Space Lab entry – Portugal . Youtube video. Accessed January 28, 2012.
Youtube Space Lab Resources – FAQ. Accessed January 28, 2012.

Category Archives: Science Communication

Cutting out the middleman

Are free radicals bad for you?

How Forgetting Might Become the Norm

Science communication in a comic artist’s point of view

Is Too Much Exercise Good For You ?

Education is not all fun and games

A Lovely Indecision

SCIE 300 Scientific Investigation Project: The value of good taste

Digital barometers on Android phones – How does it work and how can it be useful for meteorologists?

To infinity and beyond the classroom

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