Posted on 5th July 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
anti-aging, grain, grains, nutrition, supplements, whole
This learn node points you to definitions by the Whole Grain Council, Mayo Clinic explanations of natural whole grain nutrition, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health lectures on Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements. For learning the role of whole grains in healthy, nutrition, and anti-aging, these three excellent, authoritative sources bring together nutrition facts for natural whole grain and studies of nutrition supplements.
The image with this post is Bob’s Red Mill’s drawing of the basic whole grain anatomy: bran, endosperm, and germ, plus a slide from Lecture 6 of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health course on Critical Analysis of Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements.
Posted on 5th June 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | general science | molecules, cells
nanomechanics lipid biolayers micro
Looking at the little tiny world – at things like bilayer formation of cells, veins, and neurons in biological membranes – is becoming more an more sophisticated and productive. The image with this post from page 7of Lecture 6: AFM imaging II: Artifacts and Applications from the MIT lecture notes for a course on Nanomechanics of Materials and Biomaterials. The image originates in the LadyofHats collection of public domain images, which is a source of superb drawings of dinosaurs, biology, and other subjects.
A general article describing micro and nanomechanics is available on the IMES Institute of Mechanical Systems website. This is its introductory overview:
Micro- and nanomechanics are concerned with the modelling, design, fabrication and application of three-dimensional structures and systems with dimensions in the range of micrometers and below. These systems incorporate a number of interesting features: The classical fabrication methods of micromachining are extended by those developed in the semiconductor industry during the passed decades. Different quantities scale differently when moving from large to small structures demanding new models to describe the physical behaviour observed on a small scale.Devices used to perform a certain function and found to be optimal for the macroscopic scale are replaced by others exploiting various physical effects suited to the microscopic world.
Last but not least, the limits of classical continuum mechanics have to be explored and extended. New methods need to be developed in order to quantify bonding properties between different layers, residual stresses which are caused by manufacturing processes as well as the elastic constants itself, just to mention a few examples.
Posted on 3rd June 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | ecology | geography | sciences
biodiversity, forest, forests, papua_new_guinea, rain, remote_sensing
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The New York Times report on the biodiversity topic “Forest Disappearing in Papua New Guinea” is a learn node connecting to interrelated topics of significance and urgency. The full rain forest report can be downloaded from the PGN Remote Sensing Center whose homepage is shown in the image with this post. For background on the Papua New Guinea location of this specific biodiversity challenge, the New York Times has a detailed PNG country section. Enriching this learn node from the sciences side are Connexions learning objects on the definition of biodiversity and an introduction to biodiversity.
Posted on 23rd April 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | brain | general science
auditory, balance, brain, hearing, neural
To begin to learn how hearing and balance work a good introduction is an online overview from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The overview begins:
Hearing is one of the five senses. It is a complex process of picking up sound and attaching meaning to it. The human ear is fully developed at birth and responds to sounds that are very faint as well as sounds that are very loud. Even in utero, infants respond to sound. The ability to hear is critical to the attachment of meaning to the world around us.
The ASHA webpage then explains the functions of the five sections of the hearing mechanism: 1. Outer ear, 2. Middle ear, 3. Inner ear, 4. Acoustic nerve, and 5. Brain’ s auditory processing centers.
Much more about hearing can be learned in the Open University’s Science and Nature materials about Hearing. The illustration with this learn node is from those Open University materials in the section about neural processing of auditory information. To get into even more minute details, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States have an in-depth article on how visual speech speeds up the neural processing of auditory speech. Together these resources, and the links they in turn provide, are a starting learn node for many related hearing subjects.
Posted on 25th March 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | environment
care, gorilla, medicine, monkey, primate, veterinary, wildlife
In this learn node focusing on mountain gorillas, good news is an important bottom line. The website of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project reports the good news that the gorillas’ numbers have grown from 248 to over 360 individuals in the Virunga Massif in Rwanda alone. The illustration for this learn node is from the veterinary project, showing one of its patients: Magayane, a 6.5-year-old female mountain gorilla who was found to have a wire snare her left hand. The project team operated successfully to remove the snare and gave her a complete physical exam while she was under the anesthesia.
Anyone across the world can study and learn about Primate Medicine at the OpenCourseware published online by Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. The course materials are an excellent introduction to non-human primate medicine. The Primate Medicine webpage is also important reading for anyone who has thought about having a monkey as a pet: powerful reasons for not doing so are explained.
The Wildlife Conservation Society provides a Mountain Gorilla webpage describing the status of these great apes, discovered only 100 years ago by western science: “While mountain gorillas remain highly endangered, thier resurgence stands as a powerful example of what committed conservation efforts can accomplish.”
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Posted on 25th February 2008 by Judy Breck in art | biology
audubon, billed, cornell, ivory, ivory-billed, ivorybilled, pileated, search, wildlife, woodpecker, woodpeckers
This learn node is about one elusive bird: The Big Woods Conservation Partnership is on the hunt to spot more Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. You can follow the search or join it to attempt your own sightings by clicking here where you will learn about the search and how you can spot the difference between ivory-billed and pileated woodpeckers. Long thought to have gone extinct, the Ivory-billed woodpecker seems only to have gone into hiding. The present hunt’s many aspects includes this recent story of attempting spotings from a helicopter: Onward and Upward in the Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The illustration show in this post is by John James Audubon, who drew these biggest woodpeckers of North America in the 19th century when they were plentiful. You will be successful in hunting this beautiful bird in New York City in the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where a painting by Joseph Barthomew Kidd, based on Audubon’s drawing hangs in the American Wing.
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Posted on 5th February 2008 by Judy Breck in agriculture | biology
nematode genome banana insect control learn
To explore a learn node to study and report on something for biology, why not the common nematode. The “What are Nematodes?” webpage at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln begins:
Nematodes are the most numerous multicellular animals on earth. A handful of soil will contain thousands of the microscopic worms, many of them parasites of insects, plants or animals. Free-living species are abundant, including nematodes that feed on bacteria, fungi, and other nematodes, yet the vast majority of species encountered are poorly understood biologically.
You can click from this explanatory page to something of an illustrated parts list for nematodes called: Interactive Diagnostic Key to Plant Parasitic, Freeliving and Predaceous Nematodes. Shown here is one of the head appendages. Bananas are a fruitful place to observe nematodes in action; excellent materials for that topic can be found on IITA Research to Nourish Africa’s Banana Nematology pages. Described there is nematode damage and symptoms caused not by “a single nematode species attacking bananas, but a complex of several species.” Nematodes can also play role in insect control. A University of Florida article explains how biological control nematodes work. The Nematode.net Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis is an detailed repository of nematode facts and images, the picture of the Meloidogyne hapla at the top of this post.
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Posted on 24th January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | botany
, flora, galilaea, image, orchid, orchidaceae, orchis, oregon, project
This learn node image is a portion of a terrestrial orchid, the Orchis galilaea, captured in a photo from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. It is part of the Botany Photo of the Day for January 24, 2008. The photographer Jackie Chambers’ description explains: The most striking feature of the Galilee orchid is the tiny human form created by the lobes of the lower petal. Each flower is only 10-12 mm, but there are usually 15-90 per stalk. . . . The Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden of Vancouver, Canada. Each day’s photo become a learnode of knowledge about the species of plant shown in the photo.
On the other side of the world from the orchids that bloom in Galilee, in Hawaii where orchids abound, provides this description of Orchidaceae as part of the University of Hawaii Botany Department’s Vascular Plant Family Access Page. And a click from there is a hop to the Oregon Flora Image Project.
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Posted on 23rd January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
biological, bioterrorism, botulism, courseware, microbes, open, toxins, weapons
A learn node of up-to-date knowledge of what homeland security is up against in the area of manipulating naturally occurring deadly materials is provided in the OpenCourseware at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a course called Biological Agents of Water and Foodbourne Bioterrorism. The Notes to first lecture include this alarming overview:
- The microorganisms and toxins that could act as biological weapons are naturally occurring.
- The agents that could potentially be used as biological weapons are diverse and widely distributed in nature and include −
–viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa −
–the toxins produced by many microbes
-These microbes are found naturally in soils, waters, plants, and animals.
The Bioterrorism section of the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a cluster of the latest expert material for the topic, including specific bioterrorism agents. The sections about agents are superb learnodes for their topics. For example the botulism information is broad and deep concerning the disease, its prevention and treatment.
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Posted on 19th January 2008 by Judy Breck in animals | biology
cameroon, collar, elephant, location, medicine, radio, ungulate, veterinary, wildlife
Illustrating this learn node is the beautiful elephant named Oldiri, who wears a tracking collar that lets scientists know his locations as they study him and his herd. The Current Elephant Locations page of the Elephants of Cameroon project describes the work. Under the umbrella of Field Trip Earth, Elephants of Cameroon for several years has been one of the finest online environments for learning about wildlife. The monitoring of elephant locations is explained in detail and includes many accounts of the adventures of the actual teams doing the collaring and monitoring. Work going back several years is available. The Cameroon Field Diary: Winter 2008 is currently unfolding online, as it is written by Dr. Mike Loomis, Chief Veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoological Park who left the United States on January 6th to begin the 2008 collaring season.
Good things can have a long life on the Internet as the following review of Elephants of Cameroon shows. It was written in April 2000 for HomeworkCentral.com’s Top Eight newsletter:
Dr. Mike’s departure for Cameroon on April 12, 2000 begins an expedition whose purpose is to save Africa’s vanishing giants, and that can be followed as it unfolds through the Internet in these pages. Supported by the North Carolina Zoological Park and other wildlife organizations, the Web project is a big one, like it’s subjects. There are sections describing Cameroon and elephants in general, and another on the place of the elephant in the culture and oral tradition in Northern Cameroon Dr. Mike’s diary provides updates and questions can be emailed to him. Current sightings of individual elephants are given, along with listings of previous sightings accompanied by maps. These and other pages make this a Web site rich in learning opportunities for a wide range of students, and for anyone interested in elephants.
For a different view of elephant study, the Tufts University Veterinary Medicine Open Courseware provides a detailed lecture outline on Ungulate Medicine. The lecture includes a focus on elephants.
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