This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
It's that time again!!!
Welcome to MolBio #15 hosted by me James Byrne at this place Disease Prone on the Scientific American Blog Network.
Some very interesting submissions to this carnival so I encourage you to take a look!
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First up we have 96well from reportergene.com with their post on the generation of a synthetic plasmid and the trials and tribulations of finding the right supplier.
Our second submission came from Ms. Lab Rat from right here on the SciAmBlogs Network with her piece on antibiotic resistance genes and how some work. Particularly important in our current world of superbugs!
Next on the list was a great piece on Science Fair projects and specifically which ones you should avoid. I’ve never entered one myself but even I knew all these projects so they must be clichéd, never too late to start using your imagination kiddies.
Now we move onto a submission by Pedro Teixeira at CogniFit whose post titled “Old Neuroscience From Egypt To Mainstream” looks at the birthplace of civilisation and how it launched a primitive understanding of neurobiology.
Kevin of We Beasties fame gets a little greedy with two submission but its all good because they are both awesome. His first submission looks at what in GoD's name is allowing for all the variability in antibody binding. I still remember those lectures from undergrad, for some reason I just liked how the term 'somatic hypermutation' sounded. His second submission critically considers a paper and its conclusions regarding the importance of TLR7 and retroviral binding/entry into the cells of your immune system.
Next up we are graced by a submission from Small Things Considered, one of the first blogs I started reading when I started! Merry writes about just how phage DNA enters the bacterial cell during its infection and there is a cool link to a reconstruction of the tail region of phage as well. Worth reading just to play with those animations.
A late entry, making it in by the skin of its teeth, is a post by Spirochetes Unwound about how the causative agent of Lyme Disease can strip the anti-freeze from its insect hosts gut!
Our final post is from Mr. Lucas Brouwers from Thoughtomics who has put together a great piece on what to do with duplicated genes. You should remember this place as you'll be back next month as Lucas will be hosting MolBio #16. And that’s it my friends! Its been a pleasure hosting this time round and I'd encourage you to take a look around here and say hello!