Looking for videos to create a youtube playlist to entertain a group of science-minded teenagers for about 30 min that are largely visual. Sound is fine but the bulk shouldn't be someone talking to the class like an instructor - visualizations are best - ideally they should look really, really cool. Class is engineering focused, but chemistry, robotics, wobbly bridges, comp-sci, biology, are all welcome.
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posted by The Whelk
on Mar 24, 2013 -
6 answers
What is this thing my cat brought to my porch?
http://i.imgur.com/cejZcGe.jpg It appears to be something between an animal fetus and organ. When I turned it over it looked the same on the other side. There were no visible eyes/mouth/features. It was larger than a quarter and there was no blood present. A possum visits regularly, and the area has many moles, birds, and raccoons.
posted by Locative
on Mar 1, 2013 -
18 answers
I recently accepted a sales position within a company that sells laboratory equipment. (i.e. centrifuges, GC's, HPLC's, Thermal Cyclers, etc) I have no previous lab or science experience, so learning about a myriad of highly technical products/methods is a quite challenging. My main challenge comes from the fact that I need to engage in conversations with scientists, chemists, biologists on a daily basis. With no previous lab experience, I've been having a hard time talking to them on technical level.
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posted by AMWKE1984
on Feb 8, 2013 -
11 answers
What are some non-institution-specific scholarships or grants for someone who wants to do primate research this summer?
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posted by lemoncakeisalie
on Feb 6, 2013 -
4 answers
Science grad school application filter: I have informally (but explicitly) accepted a graduate assistant position (in conservation biology) at my current undergraduate institution. I am now having second thoughts and am wondering what, if anything, I should do about it. Help me, Hive Mind! I don't know what to do!
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posted by anonymous
on Nov 28, 2012 -
8 answers
What are some of the best technical blogs out there in conservation biology, biogeography, evolutionary biology, and ecology?
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posted by Scientist
on Oct 29, 2012 -
4 answers
I am a college freshman in my
school's the College of Letters of Sciences. Currently, I'm pursuing a B.A. in Computer Science. I'd like to pursue a more technical understanding of software engineering as it applies to biological system, but need help maneuvering the many subfields.
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posted by ptsampras14
on Oct 3, 2012 -
8 answers
I am a senior undergraduate biology student who wants to become a conservation biologist and a professor. I work part-time in a lab at my university, and my principal investigator recently made me an offer that on the face of it seems pretty great. Should I take it?
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posted by Scientist
on Sep 24, 2012 -
28 answers
Wondering whether I should go for the PhD that I wanted when I went back to school, or whether it's more sensible to stay where I am and do a Master's first.
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posted by Scientist
on Jul 1, 2012 -
18 answers
What is happening in the body when food poisoning occurs? Are the symptoms defensive actions or purely symptomatic?
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posted by distorte
on Jun 25, 2012 -
13 answers
A couple months ago I found a very long document talking about academic networking. I believe it was written over 20 years ago but still seemed incredibly relevant. As a young student trying to get his footing in academia, I'd love to find this networking primer again, as well as other things to read that would be helpful.
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posted by Strass
on Jun 14, 2012 -
5 answers
Was reading about microchips that are designed to allow a few mistakes (known as '
Sloppy Chips'), and pondering equivalent kinds of 'coding' errors and entropy in biological systems. Can a fair comparison be made between the two?
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posted by 0bvious
on Jun 5, 2012 -
4 answers
How and why do we become accustomed to smells? What makes some odours personally super-pungent one day and unnoticed 'background noise' later on, despite the smell remaining objectively unchanged?
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posted by peacay
on May 19, 2012 -
7 answers
What's some great new bioscience themed art? The more hands-on and interactive the better. Mapping genetic sequences to procedurally generated pictured is all good and well, but does seem a bit trite and decorative these days. What's out there these days saying something in the intersection between wet labs and the gallery?
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot
on Feb 2, 2012 -
3 answers
Looking for an awesome primer on genetics! It should start somewhere around the highschool level, and continue through to some college-level material. Bonus points if it touches on some recent developments and research. Oh! And readability is key.
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posted by Afroblanco
on Jan 13, 2012 -
5 answers
Questions about biology, genes, humans and apes, courtesy of the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes. SPOILERS WITHIN.
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posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Aug 19, 2011 -
8 answers
How common is
human chimerism of the sort described in
this Boing Boing post? What implications does the existence of chimerism have for DNA testing, especially with respect to the criminal justice system? Does it pose a practical limit on the usefulness of DNA evidence, or just a theoretical one? Has chimerism come up in any cases, or been considered as a problem in legal scholarship?
posted by gerryblog
on Mar 23, 2011 -
15 answers
Help me write yet another science fiction story. I need to figure out the environmental damage resulting from an accidental sewage spill.
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posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit
on Feb 6, 2011 -
13 answers
How does a biotech postdoc simultaneously explore academic and industry job opportunities?
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posted by anonymous
on Jan 31, 2011 -
4 answers
Looking for a resource to help me get a better layman's understanding of natural biology.
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posted by Tubes
on Jan 7, 2011 -
5 answers
Is there a term for travel accounts of explorers, both fictional and real-life? Also, tell me some of your favorites.
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posted by actionpact
on Dec 11, 2010 -
22 answers
What is this
organism? [Electron micrograph of spikey tentacle thing with an apparent human-looking face]
posted by mnemonic
on Nov 18, 2010 -
3 answers
I'm a final year biochemistry undergrad, and through my internships / reading of papers / etc, I've become keenly aware that I'd like to be more conversant with computer science approaches to the field. The sheer volume of approaches and strategies in bioinformatics is a little overwhelming, though: where's a good place to start focusing my attention? I have strong maths skills, but my programming ability is limited to pecking out simple instruction sets in Python or Matlab, and my research work thus far has mostly been on isolating and characterising protein markers from serum / urine / etc.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot
on Nov 10, 2010 -
3 answers
What should I be doing to position myself for grad school? I'm a freshman biology undergrad and my long-term goal is to earn a doctorate and start a career in research, either private or academic. What should I be doing now and over the next few years to open doors and set myself up for success?
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posted by Scientist
on Sep 15, 2010 -
18 answers
Anybody know of a science book that has large colour pictures that can be cut up to make posters for a classroom?
posted by starrjenny
on Jul 17, 2010 -
12 answers
Why is it assumed that all forms of life evolved from a single common ancestor, instead of any number of different instances of abiogenesis?
posted by shakespeherian
on Apr 8, 2010 -
25 answers
Is there a set quota of white blood cells that the human body produces over its lifetime, and if so do routine vaccines (e.g. the flu) tax the immune system enough to significantly shorten the person's lifespan?
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posted by foulowl
on Nov 19, 2009 -
33 answers
Help me find a half-remembered anecdote about robotics and computing taking a cue from ant- or bee-like, hive-mind biological processes -- a story about a car factory's paint process organized with just three rules.
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posted by Cool Papa Bell
on Nov 3, 2009 -
2 answers
I'm toying with an idea for a short story or maybe a long story or maybe no story, but the idea has led me to a point where I have a question for those of you who have some knowledge about science and biology. Read on, brave adventurer!
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posted by kbanas
on Oct 12, 2009 -
19 answers
Are the benefits of sauna therapy real? Some family members of mine talk about saunas being useful for "getting out heavy metals." Supposedly, the body sweats them out.
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posted by mdpatrick
on Oct 3, 2009 -
11 answers
Looking for a good source to search for biology, ecology, conservation, zoology, etc, type jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area
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posted by CTORourke
on Apr 6, 2009 -
4 answers
Can somebody help me identify this ancient lab equipment? I'm doing some research and have posted two photos to my flickr account,
here and
here. (PS, I know what the typewriter is!) Thanks!
posted by soulbarn
on Feb 9, 2009 -
13 answers
As a senior-level science PhD student, how do I find an academic conference to go to? And how do I know if a conference is going to be suitable, both it for me and vice versa?
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posted by shelleycat
on Nov 26, 2008 -
9 answers
i want something sort of like
this, only more to my liking. recommendations, please.
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posted by gcat
on Apr 17, 2008 -
4 answers
I'm going to college soon. (Age 24; been working a desk job in health care since I was 18.) I've got an inkling I want to study biology. Recommend me some books to help me get the lay of the land and get fired up about this.
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posted by Attackpanda
on Apr 4, 2008 -
23 answers
Scientific History Filter / Native German Speaker Filter. What did Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard's 1985 exclamation, "Das war ja toll!" mean?
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posted by kisch mokusch
on Feb 25, 2008 -
11 answers
I need teaching resources about race: the biology of human "races"; why "race" is not biological but social; how racial categories have shifted over time and place; and related questions on teaching about race? This is as a supplement to reading
The Mismeasure of Man in a university "Critical Thinking" class. I need more science and verifiable cross-cultural examples to back up my "there are no biological races" claim.
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posted by LobsterMitten
on Nov 5, 2007 -
38 answers
"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective?
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 18, 2007 -
14 answers
Were Native American men (before any intermingling with other peoples) really unable to grow facial hair?
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posted by Jess the Mess
on Feb 11, 2007 -
15 answers
