Posted: 10/11/2004 7:01:17 AM EDT
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ok, I need some ideas, our professor told us the other day in class that our next "project" would be a report. It's not assigned yet, he just said maybe we might want to think about the topic over the weekend.. subject has to be about what (a) technology that has benifitted Biology I can think of a few, but there are a few brilliant minds out there who can come up with something kewl. something pro-gun/politicly un-correct would be nice  not looking for somene to write a report, just give me a few topic ideas. thanks! |
Since I do Macrobenthic Surveys (Its Biology): 1) The Automobile (gotta get to the site) 2) The microprocessor (computers for GIS, databases and for our water chem test equipment) 3) The Satelite (GPS, Satelite mapping) 4) The Microscope. You get the idea. |
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Trust me on this - PCR or... The Internet is another good choice – because it allows for the rapid searching and dissemination of information. In the ‘good old days’, Biologist had to go to a library and trudge through hundreds of journal articles to find one they might need. Now, most journals are online (w/ a subscription), and you can do keyword searches from a computer. True story – once I was trying to get DNA into a bacteria using electricity (long story). It would never work, no matter what I would do – I cold never get a transformation. Anyhow, in desperation I used Google, and found a journal article within 5 minutes that told me exactly what the problem was and how I needed to fix it. I could go on and on with other examples – but the point is still the same – the Internet is the best thing to happen in the field of Biology since the graduated cylinder. |
Make sure you get into "Real-Time" PCR, if you do a report on PCR (real time is much more quantitative). I'm not sure whether you want something fancy or something that actually contributed to biology. Other things you may investigate (which are sexy) would be Micro-Array, confocal microscopy, and howabout MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization -time of flight). MALDI-TOF uses big machines and can get you down to about 1 atomic mass unit of accuracy (compared to the old SDS-PAGE which was accurate to about 3000 MW). Bread and butter useful tools in biology include HPLC, Western blots, ELISA, and so forth. |