“PBS Kids’ video game teaches biology - Sauk Valley Daily Gazette” plus 3 more |
- PBS Kids’ video game teaches biology - Sauk Valley Daily Gazette
- Deifying Darwin - OneNewsNow
- Physicist Measures Energy Released From A Virus During Infection - Redorbit.com
- Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular ... - Wired News
| PBS Kids’ video game teaches biology - Sauk Valley Daily Gazette Posted: 05 Feb 2010 11:14 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. By JINNY GUDMUNDSEN Gannett News Service Parents and teachers looking for a way to make learning biology fun for kids can find it in an outstanding free online game called "Lifeboat to Mars" at www.pbskidsgo.org/lifeboat. "Lifeboat to Mars" is a simulation game that kids play while connected to the Internet. The game was produced by Red Hill Studios for PBS Kids Go with support by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Once you register by creating an online persona (which is not your real name) and a password, you join Ort, a robot on a spaceship mission to Mars. Unfortunately, an explosion has wiped out part of your cargo of microbes, plants and animals. Your mission is to help rebuild the on-board ecosystems before you reach Mars. To accomplish this mission, you will need to play two kinds of simulations: one set in a microscopic world called Microbe Games and the other in an ecosystem with animals and plants called Ecoland Games. To familiarize you with how to play both of these simulations, the game has you go through two sets of starter games, which act as the game's tutorials. Once you finish each set of starter games, other more difficult games become available. In this manner, "Lifeboat to Mars" very cleverly leads kids through progressively more difficult material, which builds on the lessons learned in the starter games. For example, in the Ecoland Starter Games, you will be asked to figure out which two plants grow best in moist soil. You will be given several plants to try, but some will simply die because the soil is too wet. Likewise, in the Microbe Starter Games, you will be asked to direct a microbe through a tank to a Finish point. But there is no food in this water, just pockets of light. You will learn to add chloroplasts to your microbe so that it can make its own food from photosynthesis by stopping in the patches of light. Later on in the harder games, you will use what you learned about plants to help set up an ecosystem that can support herbivores and, later, carnivores. And when playing the harder Microbe games, you will use your knowledge of chloroplasts to race through more crowded microscopic environments. Another exciting aspect of "Lifeboat to Mars" is the ability to create your own simulations to share with others. After working through the starter games and playing a few of the other more sophisticated scenarios, a new area opens up called "Modding." In the Modding sections for both Microbes and Ecoland, you can design your own scenarios. You can establish the goal of the scenario, and how hard it is to win. After you finish creating a mod and test it out by winning it, your mod is then uploaded to the game's servers for others to play. In addition to the 48 simulations, the game also has a culminating Lifeboat simulation game. By playing the earlier simulations, you earn points to help you complete the Lifeboat simulation. In all, "Lifeboat to Mars" offers kids hours of fascinating, interactive learning. What makes this free online game so good is that it lets kids learn by trial and error. Each simulation sets forth clear learning objectives and goals, and then provides the means to accomplish the goals. The key to making a good simulation for kids is to find the balance between making the achievement too easy and making it too hard. For the most part, "Lifeboat to Mars" finds that sweet spot; however, several of the simulations will take several tries before success is achieved. This is particularly true with the Microbe games where kids' success is hampered by rather rudimentary controls of using the arrow keys to move your microbe. For teachers wanting to incorporate this game into their science curriculum, a teacher's guide will be available on the PBS Kids Go Web site in early March. Comments Add CommentsClick here to read the rules for posting commentsWe have changed our registration and comment module, so all registered users will need to register again in order to post comments. We apologize for the inconvenience. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2010 04:50 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
When a college bills itself as a Christian school and even highlights the denomination with which it is affiliated, I think it's fair to assume the school gives preeminence to the written Word of God -- or at the very least, adheres to that denomination's tenets. But I was sorely disappointed last month as I was helping my youngest select a college to attend this fall. Can you tell me how, as part of a Christian college, your department teaches evolutionary theory vs. creation theory? Here's a slightly condensed (but otherwise unmodified) version of the response I received. If you're not already sitting down, I suggest you do so. "[We] try to cover all major aspects of modern biology. Any topics which the scientific community at large accepts as being factual -- we present as facts; what is accepted as theory -- we present as theory. [Emphasis mine] "[N]o scientist was present over the suggested millions of years to witness the supposed evolutionary progression of life from the simple to the complex. No living scientist was there to observe the first life forming in some primeval sea. No living scientist was there to observe the big bang that is supposed to have occurred 10 or 20 billion years ago....no human witness was there to see these events occurring. They certainly cannot be repeated today." I would have no problem with a biology department at a Christian university recognizing that fact and teaching evolution from that perspective. But for a self-identified Christian school to endorse a violation of basic scientific principles -- and more importantly, to dilute the Word of God -- is more than I can stomach for my precious daughter.
Jody Brown is editor-in-chief of OneNewsNow.com -- but more importantly, the father of four. He confesses he isn't quite prepared just yet for an "empty nest."
Opinions expressed in 'Perspectives' columns published by OneNewsNow.com are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, OneNewsNow.com, our parent organization or its other affiliates. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Physicist Measures Energy Released From A Virus During Infection - Redorbit.com Posted: 06 Feb 2010 06:09 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Posted on: Saturday, 6 February 2010, 08:15 CST Within a virus's tiny exterior is a store of energy waiting to be unleashed. When the virus encounters a host cell, this pent-up energy is released, propelling the viral DNA into the cell and turning it into a virus factory. For the first time, Carnegie Mellon University physicist Alex Evilevitch has directly measured the energy associated with the expulsion of viral DNA, a pivotal discovery toward fully understanding the physical mechanisms that control viral infection and designing drugs to interfere with the process. "We are studying the physics of viruses, not the biology of viruses," said Evilevitch, associate professor of physics in the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon. "By treating viruses as physical objects, we can identify physical properties and mechanisms of infection that are common to a variety of viruses, regardless of their biological makeup, which could lead to the development of broad spectrum antiviral drugs." Current antiviral medications are highly specialized. They target molecules essential to the replication cycle of specific viruses, such as HIV or influenza, limiting the drugs' use to specific diseases. Additionally, viruses mutate over time and may become less susceptible to the medication. Evilevitch's work in the burgeoning field of physical virology stands to provide tools for the rational design of less-specialized antiviral drugs that will have the ability to treat a broad range of viruses by interrupting the release of viral genomes into cells. Evilevitch's current findings also have the potential to improve the development of gene therapy, which uses viruses to deliver functional genes directly to human cells to replace defective genes that are causing disease. Gene therapy takes advantage of viruses' modus operandi — injecting genetic material into cells. But instead of forcing in harmful, viral DNA, gene therapy delivers helpful, functional genes. Controlled packaging of the functional genes into the viral delivery system is one of the key factors involved in developing a successful gene therapy. Many viruses, whether they infect bacteria, plants or animals, are adept at packing long stretches of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) within their nanometer-sized protein shells. In many of the viruses that contain double-stranded DNA, the DNA gets packaged so tightly that it bends upon itself, resulting in repulsive forces that exert a tremendous amount of pressure on the virus's outer shell, indicating a great amount of stored energy. At the moment of infection, when the DNA is being shot out of the virus, the energy stored in the tightly packed DNA is released and converted into thermal energy. Evilevitch and his colleagues from Lund University in Sweden, where Evilevitch was previously employed, and the Universite de Lyon in France used an experimental technique known as isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to directly measure the heat, and thus the thermal energy, released during viral genome ejection. Until now, only indirect measurements of this energy have been available. They describe this new method in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology. "We are the first group to use titration calorimetry to study genome release from viruses," Evilevitch said. "In this study, we looked at viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages, as an experimental model system, but ITC can also be applied to other types of viruses. We're currently investigating the rotavirus, which causes stomach flu, using our new technique." In the Journal of Molecular Biology report, Evilevitch used ITC to measure the thermal energy released during genome ejection, which is the same as the stored internal energy that results from genome packaging. His results, which agree with analytical models and computer simulations, show that the heat released increases as DNA length increases. He also discovered that the ordering of water molecules around DNA strands inside the virus (called hydration entropy) has a tremendous influence on the build up of energy. This unpredicted effect was not accounted for in the previous models. "Understanding the energy profile for viral genome release provides information on how to interfere with the process. For example, developing ways to decrease the internal energy in viruses could prevent viruses from ejecting their genome and prevent infection," Evilevitch said. --- Image Caption: Pictured above is a 3D reconstruction of bacteriophage lambda with (left) and without (right) DNA. --- On the Net: Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular ... - Wired News Posted: 06 Feb 2010 01:30 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
The Pentagon's mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military's advantage, creating "synthetic organisms" that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch. As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating "the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement." The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to "produce the intended biological effect." Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can "ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely." Of course, Darpa's got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they'll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create "tamper proof" cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, "similar to a serial number on a handgun." And if that doesn't work, don't worry. In case Darpa's plan somehow goes horribly awry, they're also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:
The project comes as Darpa also plans to throw $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into "increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes." Of course, Darpa's up against some vexing, fundamental laws of nature — not to mention bioethics — as they embark on the lab beast program. First, they might want to rethink the idea of evolution as a random series of events, says NYU biology professor David Fitch. "Evolution by selection is nota random process at all, and is actually a hugely efficient design algorithm used extensively in computation and engineering," he e-mails Danger Room. Even if Darpa manages to overcome the inherent intelligence of evolutionary processes, overcoming inevitable death can be tricky. Just ask all the other research teams who've made stabs at it, trying everything from cell starvation to hormone treatments. Gene therapy, where artificial genes are inserted into an organism to boost cell life, are the latest and greatest in life-extension science, but they've only been proven to extend lifespan by 20 percent in rats. But suppose gene therapy makes major strides, and Darpa does manage to get the evolutionary science right. They'll also have a major ethical hurdle to jump. Synthetic biology researchers are already facing the same questions, as a 2009 summary from the Synthetic Biology Project reports:
Even expert molecular geneticists don't know what to make of the project. Either that, or they're scared Darpa might sic a bio-bot on them. "I would love to comment, but unfortunately Darpa has installed a kill switch in me," one unnamed expert tells Danger Room. Photo: VA.gov Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Over the past few years, two separate Christian research groups -- the Barna Group and LifeWay Research -- have reported that upwards of 70 percent of Christian youth leave the church or abandon their faith after high school. "Most of them," 
You see, my sweet daughter wants to study marine biology -- which early on in her classes will certainly subject her to the presentation of Darwin's theory of evolution. Not that I'm opposed to her learning about that; after all, it is part of the scientific discussion these days and needs to be addressed..jpg "evolution2 small")
What? Evolution doesn't deal with origins? And all this time I thought Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species dealt with origins...silly me.
The apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis argues that 
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