MicrobeWorld

TWiM 29 Letters

Charlotte writes:

At the beginning of Twim #28 Michael articulated his love for math and around minute 12 his desire for "ground truthing" the number of times one touches their face. In response I offer the attached article from a colleague at UCB.

I really admired the candid and humble discussion at the end of the podcast about proper attribution of ideas.

With warm regards (-65 C in Berkeley),

Charlotte

Carol writes:

I don’t know how I dare to email you as you must be really busy but here goes.

My name is Carol and at 51 have just embarked on a teaching course, my brain cells, I possess a few, are overloaded.

My tutor wants me to use innovative (new) technology in my lesson and write a 4,000 word assignment plus portfolio on the use of such technologies.

In the real world, when I teach, often even basic computers or powered points are in short supply; anything fancier than that is NEVER available but as this is for an assignment we must pretend that we do have it.

I teach food safety and thought that a good way of introducing some tech would be to have a microscope in class but really he is talking of interaction, podcasts, phone apps, live chat and possibly video clips.

I don’t need anything too techy as this is not biology A level, just food hygiene, therefore something to do with salmonella would be fantastic.

Are you aware of any links, materials, videos on this subject or any ideas on how I could use a microscope that would immediately be able to send what it sees to a computer?

Think of this as your charity work, helping someone less fortunate than yourself (me)

Many thanks and apologies for my forwardness

Alicia writes:

Hello,

I'm an undergraduate student and am currently working in Montreal on a co-op where we manipulate yeast to create either the best bread strains, booze strains, or biofuel strains. Because of this, I'm always reading up on new articles about biofuel. I was wondering if you had heard about this: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6066/308.short
and what your opinions might be.

Thanks for making the hours fly by on the train and in the lab.

Best,

Alicia

Peter writes:

Dear TWiM Team I came across this New Scientist article on the general disregard for microbial life in conservation and the need for education to counteract negative perceptions of microbial life.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328546.800-lets-protect-earths-unseen-life.html

Your comments please.


Peter.