Genomics Aotearoa

This Week in Science History: 25-10-10

Peter Dearden • Oct 27, 2010

• Megan Leask,
• science history

Megan Leask, PhD Student, Laboratory for Evolution and Development Marian Koshland Born 25 Oct 1921; died 28 Oct 1997. Koshland was an American immunologist who discovered that the differences in amino acid composition of antibodies explains the efficiency and effectiveness with which they combat a huge range of foreign … Read More

The collapse of both bees and scientific independence.

Peter Dearden • Oct 21, 2010

• colony collapse disorder,
• honeybee,
• microsporidian,
• Peter Dearden,
• scientific independence,
• virus

Assoc Prof Peter K. Dearden To humans, the most important insect on earth is the honeybee. Honeybees provide honey, wax, venom and royal … Read More

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This Week in Science History: 18-10-10

Peter Dearden • Oct 18, 2010

• Megan Leask,
• science history

Megan Leask, PhD student, Laboratory for Evolution and Development Queen of the Flies – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is born 20 Oct 1942 Expression of the Engrailed protein (one of the genes identified by Nüsslein-Volhard) in an aphid embryo. The protein is labeled with a … Read More

This Week in Science History: 11-10-10

Peter Dearden • Oct 14, 2010

• science history,
• Tamsin Jones

Tamsin Jones, Laboratory for Evolution and Development Theodor Heinrich Boveri — Born 12 October 1862, died 15 October 1915 Theodor Boveri Boveri, a German biologist, was one of the first scientists to show that chromosomes are the units of inheritance. He discovered in his work on sea … Read More

Breaking flies

Peter Dearden • Oct 08, 2010

• drosophila,
• Mutants,
• SM Morgan

SM Morgan I am at the point in my PhD studies where I am ordering pre-made mutant lines of flies from the US to test out some of the results I found early in my research. It is amazing that we can do this — and for so remarkably little expense. There are vast warehouses in the States and … Read More

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So you’re missing 10 genes, no big deal!

Peter Dearden • Oct 06, 2010

• Mary Gray,
• Medical Genetics

Mary Gray, PhD student, Clinical Genetics Research Group As part of my PhD from time to time I have the opportunity to screen small cohorts of patients for medium to small scale genetic changes (called copy number variations), in the hopes of finding something new that may explain the patient’s disease and tell us something about what the involved gene … Read More

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This Week in Science History: 4-10-10

Peter Dearden • Oct 05, 2010

• Megan Leask,
• science history

Megan Leask, PhD Student, Laboratory for Evolution and Development It’s Nobel week! Michael Smith – died 4th of Oct 2000 (born 26 Apr 1932) British-born Canadian biochemist who won (with Kary B. Mullis, inventor of PCR) the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his development of a … Read More

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October Science Horror-scopes

Peter Dearden • Oct 01, 2010

• Science Horror-scopes

By Doc. Chaos I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. None of your cloning will work this month. (next month you will randomly check your stocks and find them contaminated — problem solved!) . . You will discover a new type of fungus growing in … Read More

“Why do you have all these weird toys?”

Peter Dearden • Sep 28, 2010

• Science stationary,
• science toys,
• SM Morgan

SM Morgan, Lab for Evolution & Development. The student write-up room (post grad/student office) for our lab is decorated with lovely pieces of random detritus collected from various conferences and meetings across the world. I don’t usually notice it — but we do have quite a range of…well, crap. This week, an innocent wee lass asked us why … Read More

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This week in Science History: 27-9-10

Peter Dearden • Sep 27, 2010

• Megan Leask,
• science history

Megan Leask, PhD Student, Laboratory for Evolution and Development George Harrison Shull – Died 28 Sep 1954 (born 15 Apr 1874) American botanist and geneticist known as the father of hybrid corn (maize). A leader in developing the multiple allele concept of genes, Shull’s work with maize led … Read More