All posts by erin

Top Ten Invasive Species

Environment, Science Policy

My mom (who gets all of her news from AOL, we’ll forgive her though) sent me this article about the top ten invasive species in the United States. The species were ranked based on the financial impact they have on the United States each year, but I think invasive species are interesting because of the environmental questions they raise.

What constitutes a truly natural environment?
Are all invasive species bad?
How do ecosystems interplay with each other?
How do humans affect wildlife through other organisms?
What kind of legacy has the presence of humans left the world?

Things to think about, if you like that sort of thing.

The Battle Over Stem Cells

Research Funding

Stem cells have always been a controversial issue, but for a while it seemed that the Obama administration had brought some kind of direction to the issue by allowing federal funding of research based on embryonic stem cells. But recently, stem cells have been back in the news because a US district court filed suit to block the Obama administration’s attempts to provide more funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Reporting on the issue by the BBC has been informative. I think giving the hard facts of the story in a way that doesn’t entertain the emotional components and personally held beliefs (on either side) is really necessary. I think their reporting on the issue does just that.

One component of the story that I do want to comment on is the argument that limiting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research won’t be detrimental to the research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest funding organization in the United States. The amount of funding that private institutes can provide is completely dwarfed by the NIH.

Restricting funding on embryonic stem cell research in the United States will be detrimental to our progress, that is why under the Bush administration we lost researchers to other countries in Europe and Asia where that research is supported.  The research that took place during those years is indicative of what we’ll accomplish under a new ban. Personally, I am glad the White House is fighting this. When religious beliefs start to take a role in shaping policy it can become incredibly dicey.

I do think that adult stem cell research has value, and research into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has made tremendous progress, but researchers do still need to study pluripotency and iPS cells aren’t an adequate model yet. I don’t think you can replace one avenue of research with another, they just aren’t the same no matter how much we might wish that they were because it would eliminate the ethical issues.

Here are a few highlights of articles that I wrote for BioTechniques recently on Stem Cell research:

Vatican to support international intestinal stem cell consortium
Induced pluripotent stem cells create first living animal
The shape of things to come: helping stem cells shape their future
iPS cells still fall short of embryonic capabilities
Are iPS cells a thing of the past?

Wisconsin & Writing

Grad School, Past Articles

Today I ran a bunch of errands around the UW Campus. I got my student ID, got my bus pass, set up a bank account, got groceries, found my classes etc. According to my Mom my ID picture makes me look homeless. I guess its a winner. Today was my family’s last full day here, they leave for the airport tomorrow at 4pm. I’m really glad they came out here to help me get settled but I think it will be good for me to just wander around a little by myself to get my bearings.

Tomorrow my article on genome wide association studies and technologies for finding rare variants is due for BioTechniques. I’m still waiting on one last interview, so fingers crossed that will come through tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I’m not sure what I’ll do, quote from papers probably. I did get four other interviews so its not terrible, but they asked for five so I’d really like to deliver. Its not my best work, but given that I only had two weeks, and that I moved and have been with my family non-stop for one week of that I’m proud of myself for the progress I’ve made.

In other science writing news, Harvard recently found Marc Hauser guilty of misconduct. I mentioned in an earlier post that the New York Times had reported on the alleged misconduct. I thought their reporting on the case was relatively balanced, so I figured it was worth mentioning.

Junk DNA & A Wisconsin Update

Genetics, Grad School, My Personal Life,

I saw this article in the New York Times today, and it got me thinking about how misleading the concept of “junk DNA” is for the general public. It isn’t really a good descriptive term because junk signifies that the DNA isn’t needed, when really researchers just don’t yet know what that DNA does. It isn’t part of the exome (part of the genome that codes for proteins – which make all the substances of your body) but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a role. I think its a term that people should avoid using because I think it causes more confusion than it does good.

In other news, today was my first full day in Wisconsin. I saw my apartment and met my roommate Francis, and she seems really awesome so that was exciting. I spent all day waiting for my boxes to come from UPS (which arrived at 6:45pm and ripped open, of course) but they finally came so that made me happy. Tomorrow we’ll try to actually set up the apartment since my stuff is literally just dumped out all over the place. There is a definite lack of storage so we’ll have to try to fix that, but overall the apartment is really nice and in a great location.

Hello, Wisconsin

Grad School, My Personal Life

Today I flew with my family to Wisconsin where I’ll be starting grad school in a little over a week. The flight was less than stellar, but we made it ok, and the airlines even managed to get all my luggage here in one piece. We didn’t get a chance to do much, but we did drive around Madison a little bit to show my brother the city (he’s never been here but I visited with my parents in March).

Tomorrow we’ll actually see about setting up my apartment, which is in a really awesome location. Its only a block from the Journalism/Communications department. I’m thinking that will be really nice during the Wisconsin Winter. Tomorrow I also get to meet my new roommate, the apartment building matched us up so we’ve never met. She moved into the apartment on Sunday when the lease started, so I’m excited to get to the apartment and start settling in myself.