Primary succession
This past week I took some time away from the computer, the phone, the TV and the news of the falling stock market and went to the Hohe Tauern mountains of Austria. The target area in this vast national...
Correlation or Cause?
A recent study by Kimber Stanhope at the University of California, Davis has been released that claims to establish a link between sugary diets and heart disease. The study is based on a trial group...
Protein folding
This article by Mike Williams-Rice is a nice read for HL students to link with the folding of polypeptides to produce the tertiary structure of proteins. It is great to associate the syllabus points...
Deadly bacteria
Things seem to be clearer about the recent bacterial infection that has affected mostly Northern Germany this May- June. This article in the New York Times clearly indicates the suspected evolution of...
Mama's Milk!
This week it has been announced in Argentina that a group of scientists have made a transgenic calf which carries two genes for human milk proteins. The GM calf was born on 6 April 2011 after being cloned...
Stomata count lab
I had the students do the stomata count lab a week or so ago. The data collection really needs only about one hour. The tulips had finished blooming so I could take a few leaves. Tulip leaves sheer...
May 2011 examinations
This session was the first time for emarking of Biology exams in the May session. Emarking was piloted in the Nov 2010 session but there are much fewer candidates then than in the May sessions. The exam...
Seedlings
Spring has to be the prettiest season in Bavaria! Flowers are blooming everywhere. This past week I have launched the topic 9 Plant Science unit in time with the botanical events around us. I started...
Overfishing
It is well known that large fish predators such as many sharks, tuna, swordfish along with cod are fish stocks that are in danger of extinction due to the overfishing pressures. Many fishery policies...
New domain in biology?
This article "Biology's 'dark matter' hints at fourth domain of life"Barras, Colin. "Biology's 'dark matter' hints at fourth domain of life - life - 18 March 2011 - New Scientist." Science news and science...