iBioSeminars: RNA
Roy Parker Part 1: Mechanisms and Control of mRNA Localization, Translation and Degradation
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Roy Parker Part 2: P-bodies and the mRNA Cycle
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Melissa Moore Part 1: Split Genes and RNA Splicing
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Melissa Moore Part 2: Spliceosome Structure and Dynamics
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Ruth Lehmann Part 2: RNA Regulation
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Jack Szostak Part 1: The Origin of Cellular Life on Earth
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Jack Szostak Part 3: Non-enzymatic Copying of Nucleic Acid Templates
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Lectures from ibioseminars.org.
Cell Club 12/23/11
Cell made a paperflick about a new study uncovering mechanisms of silencing of new transposons by piRNAs, from Bill Theurkauf and colleagues.
More evidence of non-boring scientists
Dennis is a cool dude; it’s self-reinforcing in his staff.
Remember, no grant could ever fund this kind of lab environment!
Kim Lab, Department of Biology, MIT
“Eden in a Test Tube”
A lovely video from The New York Times about the RNA world, and the state-of-the-art in ribozyme evolution from Gerry Joyce’s lab.
Click the link below.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000000937455&playerType=embed
Naked DNA
Sculptor Franco Castelluccio’s new work, “Double Helix XX-XY”, via Curated Magazine.
FalconCAST
More than a year ago a pair of Peregrine Falcons made their new home on the roof of our institute. They endeared us with their swooping through the air, their calling and playing, and their leaving various rodent body parts on outside windowsills. So cute!
This spring some furry chicks emerged, and now one can watch the whole family on a live webcam, FalconCAST. It’s a way to kill that time during your 4 degree spin. See the chicks roost, feed, and projectile poop.
Update 6/15/11
Man, they grew up fast. The following message was posted on our internal site this morning:
The falcons that hatched on Whitehead’s 7th floor have fledged and left their nest. Two of the falcons flew off earlier last week, and the last one departed on Saturday, June 11th. The parents will continue to feed the fledglings as the young learn the finer points of flying and mid-air hunting. Because the nest is no longer occupied, the FalconCast has been turned off.
Update 2012
The falcons and FalconCast are back online with hi-res camera.
AGO AGO Decoy
A nice looking new paper on AGO10 is accompanied by a video on the Cell website.
YouTubing
In case you’ve been living in a cave the last few months and missed them, two of the best lab humor videos to come out in a while:
The costumes of Lady Science are brilliant (love the bench diapers).
Most Beautiful Girl in the Lab
Funnily adapted from this Flight of the Conchords, this video’s got sweet moves.
Futuramama
The creationist vs. evolution debate is totally played out on the internet. It weighs down science blogs, where facetious attempts to neutralize it usually fail, in my opinion. It’s so draining.
Dear science bloggers: Don’t bother! You’re using up valuable space on the internet! Can this debate actually be made entertaining?? Humor me and for a minute, put down your keyboards and turn on the TV…… Oh wait, the debate is non-existent on TV. Ditto for the movies. (Gee, can you imagine a Hollywood drama–I’m talkin’ really dramatic–about creationists vs. scientists?! It could work! Mmm… Angelina Jolie, a small-town creationist school science teacher; Christopher Walken, lead attorney fighting the misguided school board.)
Ok, well last week finally the nerdy cartoon Futurama–that Matt Groening creation that has itself evolved in several network ecosystems–came to the rescue. The writer’s turned out a gem here, giving the creationist vs. evolution debate a proper funny treatment for the ever-so discerning American TV audience (well, for those with the sense to watch Comedy Central). The episode brims with haha moments, like the signs the protesters hold up such as, “Nothing Ever Changes!”. Long live science x good comedy. 
A preview below; link above to full episode!
Broad-ening our understanding of p53 via lincRNA
In the first real post on You’d Prefer An Argonaute, I poked great fun at the Broad Institute. It’s not so rare that my colleagues and I do this because well, from its inception the Broad, where King Lander reigns, has lavishly branded itself as a future of biological science, where too often hypothesis-less, behemoth experiments that involve lots of sequencing and money and relatively few papers, rule. So, it’s lovely to see work like this from John Rinn’s lab, which got its start in the Broad, killing it!
Channeling LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, Rinn, and lead author Maite Huarte, educate us in this video posted to the Cell website. The Broad applied their characteristic sheen in its production, practically revolutionizing these types of videos. (Check out 4:20 near the end–there’s an awesome “Evening News”-style sound effect discharged as the paper’s titile/authors/affiliations are displayed–it’s ringtone worthy.) But in all seriousness, expect much more lincRNA goodness from the Rinn lab in the near future.
Please direct questions to my projected computer screen…
Wh
at?! Now the US military is wasting as much time as we do on Powerpoint? Man, Joe. Q. Taxpayer could sure hit the Microsofties responsible for peddling this necessary evil in the nuts right now. Powerpoint has been used to cover up many a shitty talk!
Keep your presentations short and sweet. Limited free passes for unnecessary images can only be given for humor, that is IF you’ve got the funny credentials. Otherwise leave these to the experts.
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