Author Archives: curiouscat

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair – the annual event is taking place in Phoenix, Arizona now (through May 14th).

Held annually in May, the Intel ISEF brings together over 1,300 students from approximately 40 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific field trips and the grand prize: a $50,000 college scholarship.

Next year the fair will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 7th through May 13th.

Intel Education Resources include the: Intel Science Talent Search

In 1998, Intel Corporation assumed sponsorship of the program previously sponsored by the Westinghouse Foundation as a way to recognize and reward excellence in science and to encourage more young people to explore science and technology.

Since assuming the sponsorship, Intel has increased awards and scholarships from $207,000 to $1,250,000 a year”

High School Engineering Education

Web site devoted to a comprehensive engineering program at my former high school: Madison West High School (see Curious Cat Madison West High School Alumni page).

These courses are organized around a set of concepts, skills and attitudes necessary for an engineering career. Unfortunately, students in many other schools can still graduate having had no practical contact with engineering concepts or case studies. A major problem of secondary education is that schools teach science, technology, and mathematics only in the context of the specific disciplines. These courses solve that problem. It shows students the important engineering concepts and has them work on real-world case studies resembling the problems they will be solving in an engineering career.

Another high school engineering related effort is the Statistical Design of Experiments Program at the Macomb Intermediate School District (it also has a Madison connection. From the history on their web site: “In 1984, Kathy and Bob Peterson participated in a special Woodrow Wilson Foundation summer institute on Quantitative Literacy in Princeton, NJ. A principal organizer and speaker at that conference was the late William Hunter, a professor of statistics at the University of Wisconsin.”

Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers

Full Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers article, from LiveScience.

Bacteria have been programmed to behave like computers, assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes.

The research could lead to smart biological devices that could detect hazardous substances or bioterrorism chemicals, scientists say. Eventually, the process might be used to direct the construction of useful devices or the growth of new tissue, perhaps restoring function to a severed spinal cord.

What Everyone Should Learn

If you could teach the world one thing from Spiked (unfortunately they broke all the links so I removed them all). Spiked has published thier survey of 250 Scientists including 11 Nobel laureates in honor of Einstein Year (which marks the centenary of the publication of Albert Einstein’s equation E = mc²). Good stuff, including:

Dr. Vincent Cerf: “I would want people to really understand the theory of evolution and the origin of species. The power of cumulative, adaptive change in the genome, over the course of billions of years and changing conditions, is hard for many people to fully appreciate.”

Dr. Richard Tresch Fienberg: “Science is not a collection of facts, nor is it even a collection of ideas; it is an activity by which curious human beings seek to make sense of the natural world.”

Dr. Simon Best: “I should teach the world the basics of the scientific method per se, and the basic statistical tools that support it. I feel passionately that these are core tools of citizenship, that – once grasped – allow anyone to ask the right questions of scientists and their respective advocates and opponents, whether in the private or the public sector.”

Where Bacteria Get Their Genes

Where Bacteria Get Their Genes, from Science Daily:

Bacteria acquired up to 90 percent of their genetic material from distantly related bacteria species, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson.

The finding has important biomedical implications because such gene-swapping, or lateral gene transfer, is the way many pathogenic bacteria pick up antibiotic resistance or become more virulent.

…

Most commonly, genes are transmitted by bacteriophages, viruses that specifically hijack bacteria cells. Like tiny syringes, phages inject their own genetic material into the host cell, forcing it to produce new phages. During such an event, genes from the bacterial genome can be incorporated into the newly made phages. They inject their newly modified genetic load into other bacteria. This way, bacteriophages act as shuttles, taking up DNA from one bacterium and dumping it into another. Bacteria can also make contact by tiny connection tubes through which they exchange pieces of DNA. They can also take up genetic material from the environment.

Curious Cat Overuse of Antibiotics Links