On of these lectures about how to teach science given at Harvard can be seen here.

The conclusions are refreshing: there is a way of teaching science outside the laboratories too.

Read more about this topic here

These reports can be considered the framework of future grant openings, research trends, and a collection of the most important issues, that are in the mind of scientists.

So, go on and have a look on the topic Biology .

I decided to start a parallel blog on Blogspot called also Labtutorials inBiology. As a first step I moved the archives from WordPress to Blogger, and seems to be OK, although the links have to be rebuilt. This is a serious problem since in the mena time the original domain labtutorials.org went into parking , and it seems to be rather complicated for an uninitiated like me to fix the problem, especially with the two hours reaction time from Automattic, where the domain is registred.

I do not want to say that Blogger is better than WordPress, and I do not even want to compare it, but I have no time and energy to install a wordpress blog on my own server, that would enable all functionalities to work.

So by now I think I will clean the profiles, the WordPress blog, that is now availble at http://labtutorials.wordpress.com/ will be a collection of pure lab tutorial protocolls and descriptions. I will gather video protocolls and try to build a detaild lab tutorial site. On the blogger I will post much more ofthen news, ideas, book reviews and info about the world of biology that is comming.

This world seems to be very exciting, synthetic biology (through iGEM) and do-it-yourself biology will be probabbly the two pillars of it.

So keep in touch and stay tuned,

Balint.

An excellent tool is available to get a feeling about molecular sizes in Biology.

The tool is available here and was developped by “Learn Genetics” program from the University of Utah.

You can have a short movie on it below, but please check the original one from here!!!

The description is based on the Instructional Videos from the iGEM website!

Gene design in less than 10 minutes!

Good luck!!!

Some usefull tools:

1. Gene design web page
2. Tools at DNA20
3. Tools at DNA Works
4. A Revese-Complement Tool
5. Gene designer a comprehensive tool to artificial gene design from DNA20 described here.

Below you can see excerpts from the very well writen and detailed description of the Wikipedia:

Basic rules:

There are four basic rules in brainstorming. These are intended to reduce social inhibitions among group members, stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity of the group.

1. Focus on quantity.
2. Withhold criticism. In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put ‘on hold’. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.
3. Welcome unusual ideas. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may provide better solutions.
4. Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by the slogan “1+1=3″. It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.

Method

Set the problem

Before a brainstorming session, it is critical to define the problem.

Create a background memo

The background memo is the invitation and informational letter for the participants, containing the session name, problem, time, date, and place. The problem is described in the form of a question, and some example ideas are given. The memo is sent to the participants well in advance, so that they can think about the problem beforehand.

Select participants

1. The facilitator

2. Participants:

• a. core members
• b. guests from outside the project, with affinity to the problem.

3. One idea collector who records the suggested ideas.

Create a list of lead questions

The facilitator should stimulate creativity by suggesting a lead question to answer, such as Can we combine these ideas? or How about looking from another perspective?. It is best to prepare a list of such leads before the session begins.

Another alternative method that could be used even on-line is the one described as:

“Group passing technique

Each person in a circular group writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person in a clockwise direction, who adds some thoughts. This continues until everybody gets his or her original piece of paper back. By this time, it is likely that the group will have extensively elaborated on each idea.

The group may also create an “Idea Book” and post a distribution list or routing slip to the front of the book. On the first page is a description of the problem. The first person to receive the book lists his or her ideas and then routes the book to the next person on the distribution list. The second person can log new ideas or add to the ideas of the previous person. This continues until the distribution list is exhausted. A follow-up “read out” meeting is then held to discuss the ideas logged in the book. This technique takes longer, but it allows individuals time to think deeply about the problem.”

I think an iGEM group could create these tools for the group on the google group page which the members can access at the group site.

Another very good web site in the topic is JBP.

Have fun!

And one thing’s for sure: we will be tested. Not on our decision, but on our commitment.”

Beside using it for presentations, you can use it for Mind Mapping too, like here:

And here you can see some tricks for masters:

You can use it for free, and if you are using it for educational purposes, there is an edu version for it, with lot of cool features.

So, why not using a better tool for the same job?