Purpose Games

Here a really cool online educational gaming website that has some nice biology games to help study biology.You can play other people's games or create your own custom games. Challenge someone play or set up group tournament play to add some spice to your study group. They host >70,000 public games created by >150,000 members.

Novel approach to find RNAs involved in long-term memory storage

Scientists have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication. Relatively little is known about the identity of these RNA molecules transported as part of the molecular process underpinning learning and memory. Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Columbia University, and the University of Florida have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of these RNAs.

Scitable | Learn Science at Nature

Scitable is a free science library and online learning tool from Nature Publishing Group, the world's leading publisher of science.

Scitable currently focuses on genetics and cell biology (evolution, gene expression, and cellular processes). Scitable also offers advice about effective science communication and career paths.

Biology | Khan Academy

I've posted previously links to individual Khan Academy's YouTube videos before, but now Khan Academy has a slick new website with all of their educational videos with online discussion threads for each video. You can view videos and ask questions or view common questions and answers already asked.

Neat.

Biology | OpenStax College

So, you want to learn biology online, but still like the old paper-in-hand copy to read? No problem! Open Stax College has a collection of college science textbooks you can view online for free or download for a small donation that you decide on. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Open Stax College was created by Rice University and has several open source textbooks with more on the way.

Brain size didn't drive primate evolution, research suggests

When great apes diverged from old-world monkeys about 20 million years ago, there was a rise in white matter in the prefrontal cortex, which contributes to social cognition, moral judgments, introspection, and goal-directed planning. Regions tied to motor planning also increased and could have helped them orchestrate the complex movements needed to manipulate tools.

25 Places to Find Free Computer Science Classes Online

If you would like to learn some computer science check out Online colleges. They have a nice list of places to find free online classes.

Learn Biology on YouTube

Mary Poffenroth has a cool biology website with a full YouTube series to complement Khan Academy's lectures in biology.

Drug-resistant MRSA bacteria: Here to stay in both hospital and community

The drug-resistant bac­te­ria known as MRSA, once con­fined to hos­pi­tals but now wide­spread in com­mu­ni­ties, will likely con­tinue to exist in both set­tings as sep­a­rate strains, accord­ing to a new study.

Paralyzing algae is killing manatees at record pace in Florida

Florida wildlife officials report that 149 of the gentle giants have been killed by red tide this year in just two and a half months, making it almost certain that the state will pass the record of 151, set in 1996.

Check out every single kind of microbe in your body online — all 5 million of them

The initial phase of the Human Microbiome Project has come to an end — and with it, the mapping of the full community of microbes that inhabit all the various nooks and crannies of the healthy human body. The results of the exhaustive study will be published as a collection in PLoS, making their findings available to everyone.

Baby Genomes!!

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time sequenced the genome of an unborn baby using only a blood sample from the mother.

Reports of rare superbug jump in US, CDC says

A sharp jump in the number of rare but potentially deadly types of a superbug resistant to nearly all last-resort antibiotics has prompted government health officials to renew warnings for U.S. hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings.

The move comes just as researchers are reporting that people who carry dangerous CRE -- Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae -- can take more than a year before they test negative for the bacteria, making it more difficult to control and raising the risk of wider spread.

Khan Academy: Chromosomes, Chromatids, Chromatin, etc.

What is it with words beginning with "C" in genetics? Check out this cool video to better understand replication and the various C vocabulary.

Newly discovered molecule could deliver drugs to treat diseases

Kansas State University researchers have designed molecules that may be capable of delivering drugs inside the body. For the first time, researchers have created membrane-bound vesicles formed entirely of polypeptides. The vesicles could serve as a new drug delivery system to safely treat cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

Bone grown from human embryonic stem cells

Researchers at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory have grown bone grafts from human embryonic stem cells for use in research and potential therapeutic application. This is the first example of deriving bone cell progenitors from human embryonic stem cells in large quantities for repair of centimeter-sized defects.

First gene therapy successful against aging-associated decline: Mouse lifespan extended up to 24% with a single treatment

Inducing cells to express telomerase, the enzyme which extends the telomeres (ends of linear chromosomes) also extends the lifespan of mice. This study shows that life extension is actually a doable thing and could improve the health span of us!

Many studies have shown that you can increase lifespan of many species, including mammals, by acting on specific genes, but that usually involves altering genes in embryos. Not something to be done with humans.

The genes behind human intelligence also made us vulnerable to autism

While the genetic cause(s) of autism are still mostly unknown, the most common single-gene cause is Fragile X Syndrome. Fragile X Syndrome accounts for 5% of autism cases and involves errors on the X chromosome that disrupt normal brain development.

Fragile X Syndrome prevents the production of FMRP, an important brain protein needed to activate the NOS1 gene. The NOS1 gene product is found throughout the developing human brain, especially in guiding the maturation of the speech, language, and decision-making centers.

Kansas State University biologist seeks to understand the world's flora

Since the time of Darwin, biologists have sought to understand the evolution of plant species. Joseph Craine, grassland ecologist and research assistant professor of biology at Kansas State University, publishes "Resource Strategies of Wild Plants" in his ongoing work to understand how ecological forces have shaped the world's flora.

Bright future for alternative energy with greener solar cells

Research at Kansas State University's Department of Chemistry is improving dye-sensitized solar cells. This type of solar cell uses a dye to help generate energy from sunlight. By creating a less toxic dye and combining it with a bacteria, the solar cells are less toxic to the environment and living organisms.

Plant diversity is key to maintaining productive vegetation

Plant diversity yields higher productivity in prairie and forest stands. Every additional species in a plot contributed to an increase in soil fertility and biomass production over a 14-year period.

While the research study used long-lived prairie plants, it also is a model system for all vegetation, whether prairie, forest, or row crop.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Found in 4-Million-Year-Old Cave

"Deep in the bowels of a pristine New Mexico cave, microbiologists have discovered nearly a hundred types of bacteria that can fight off modern antibiotic drugs."

Even though they have been isolated thousands of feet below the Earth's surface for millions of years, these bacteria exhibit resistance to antibiotic drugs, even newer, synthetic derivatives.

The discovery serves as an intriguing lead in the quest to understand how drug-resistant diseases emerge. It is now hypothesized that "drug resistance" genes may have evolved millions of years ago to confer resistance to other, naturally occurring substances.

How to use vegetables as mood lighting

Pickle, the perfect condiment and accent light! Some cool physics explains how this humble side-dish also conducts electrons and generates light.

Meteorites reveal another way to make life's components

Some of the simplest building blocks of life, amino acids used to build proteins, can be made chemically in space with no living cells involved. Originally thought to only occur in low-temperature chemical reactions, scientists at NASA have shown that the same building blocks can be made under high temperature conditions.

CELLS Alive Recommendation

'CELLS Alive' is a fun, easy website full of images and animations for the different types of cells and cellular processes.

Online Biology Book high-school ebook

Dr. Ferebee at Estrella Mountain Community College has provided us a great 'Online Biology Book' ebook for those that find 'Kimball's Biology Pages' ebook a little too complicated. He's also released this awesome tool to the public with an open Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. For us non-lawyers, that means you are free to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt, and make commercial use of the work. Sweet!!

Kimball's Biology Pages college ebook

Dr. Kimball, author of Biology, 6th edition, ISBN 978-0697142573, has provided the web a valuable resource with his 'Kimball's Biology Pages' ebook. He's also released this awesome tool to the public with an open Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. In plain speak, that means you are free to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt, and make commercial use of the work. Thank you Dr. Kimball!

Wisc-Online: A Typical Animal Cell

'A Typical Animal Cell' is an online interactive tool to familiarize yourself with the internal contents of an animal cell. The layout for an animal cell is also the baseline for a plant and fungal cell, plus some other structures.

Animal Cell Flashcards

Are you ready to study? Of course you are and here is a great online resource for studying many topics, including biology. Quizlet has study tools from spelling, flashcards, and practice tests to studying games. I can't believe I didn't find this sooner! :-) There's a bunch of apps from Quizlet, too.

Wisc-Online: A Typical Animal Cell

A Typical Animal Cell is an online interactive tool to familiarize yourself with the internal contents of an animal cell. The layout for an animal cell is also the baseline for a plant and fungal cell, plus some other structures.

Fanciful photos reveal the whimsical secret lives of ants

Andrey Pavlov's photographs imagine how ants might spend their free time, in lightly fantastical scenes. Although his photos are obviously staged, he uses real ants.

Effects of environmental toxicants reach down through generations

A Washington State University researcher has shown that a variety of chemicals have negative effects on the exposed animal and the next 3 generations of its offspring. That's right, the great-grandchildren still are affected.

While the lettering of the DNA sequence is unchanged, modifications to the nucleic acid letters (nucleotides) affect how the gene is turned on or off.