Questions YOU can answer
• Are there
GMOs in my food?
• What is the sequence of my
mitochondrial DNA?
•
Kits and Protocols at Dolan DNA Learning Center [requires FLASH]
Who is doing accessible molecular biology?
• Community College Genomics Research
COMGEN, Bellevue Community College, WA
•
Sustainable Sciences Institute
•
A Low Cost Approach to PCR, the book by Eva Harris
•
Dolan DNA learning center
•
Pre-college science projects at science-projects.com
Techniques
•
extract DNA at home
•
gel electrophoresis at
SciFair.org
•
non-EtBr DNA stains at
The Scientist
•
safer stains for DNA at
bioscience explained
Recipes
new better cheaper electrophoresis buffer:
SB (Sodium Borate) at Faster Better Media
Inexpensive equipment
gel electrophoresis rig figure from scifair.org
$20 power supply figure from science-projects.com
(note: this has not been tested by us)
blenderfuge from SSRI
Sources for materials and supplies
• Science supplies and material
source list at ScienceBuddies.org
•
Extract DNA in your kitchen a mail-order kit from scifair.org
•
DNA isolation kit from Edmund Scientifics
Microbes
•
Glowshrooms Glow-in-the-dark fungi (Way cool!)
• Safe
microorganisms for education a list by H.T. Ewald, et al.
Data analysis
Open Source data analysis at
Bioinformatics.org
Build your own supercomputer for <$ 1,300 !
Desktop software
OpenOffice has a suite of programs to replace the standard Microsoft stuff.
For Excel-like spread sheets try
Calc.
Databases:
Base.
Word processing:
Writer.
Slide presentations:
Impress.
Posters, try the program
Draw from OpenOffice.
Download OpenOffice Suite.
OpenOffice User Guides
Teaching resources
Scientific Teaching, 2007, by Jo Handelsman, Sarah Miller, and Christine Pfund.
Read more at Wikipedia.
Open source journals
read and publish for free (almost)
PLoS Public Library of Science
Directory of Open Access Journals in biology
Wikipedia:
WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology
Journals
bioscience explained
Journal of Chemical Education
Other inspiration: appropriate technology
•
Benjamin Franklin Award Winners for open access in the life sciences
•
The New Alchemy Institute 1971-1991, research on behalf of the planet
•
The $100 laptop at laptop.org
•
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher
