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The National Park Service Air Resources Division in an effort to increase the public's awareness of air quality issues has developed a series of five activities for elementary and secondary schools. The activities are for grades six through eight and help teach students about Acid Rain. The lesson plan was prepared as a part of The Uplands Field Research Laboratory, Volunteer in Parks, and Interpretation of Science Project. Funding was provided by the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association.

This directed case study follows two college roommates, Darrell and Anthony, who have just returned to school after winter vacation. They share that their ageing fathers are concerned about their declining faculties and are amused by their fathers' efforts to reverse the process.  Darrell's dad plays "brain games" on the computer while Anthony's father believes running will slow his memory decline. Intrigued, the roommates search through their biopsychology class notes to find out whether their fathers are correct. They review the topics of synaptic formation and plasticity, including axonal and dendritic development, and chemical factors in the brain that promote the survival and growth of neurons or stop the genetically programmed death of neurons. Based on research findings, students reading this case will decide whether Darrell and Anthony's fathers are correct in their assertions. The case is appropriate for a wide variety of courses including introductory anatomy or physiology, or for upper-division biopsychology, biology, or neuroscience courses.

In a unique twist on human genomics studies that seek to identify genetic variants linked to human disease, researchers have combined whole-exome sequencing of 50,726 adults with the individuals' long-term electronic health record (EHR) data. The effort, by researchers at the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and Regeneron Genetics Center, a subsidiary of New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, has yielded novel disease-linked variants, including loss-of-function alleles. The team behind the project, called DiscovEHR, has also found that about one in 30 of the individuals harbors a deleterious genetic variant for which a screen or treatment already exists. The group's analysis is described in two papers published today (December 22) in Science.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history - an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in April 2003, the HGP gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature's complete genetic blueprint for building a human being.

In this video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life," Eric Lander of MIT's Whitehead Institute explains the effort to decode the human genome -- from motivation to process to importance -- and explains what a genome map can do for science and what it can't -- yet.

Scientists announced Monday that they had created mice with small amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

Lyme disease, Ebola and malaria all developed in animals before making the leap to infect humans. Predicting when such a 'zoonotic' disease will spark an outbreak remains difficult, but a new study suggests that artificial intelligence could give these efforts a boost. A computer model that incorporates machine learning can pinpoint, with 90% accuracy, rodent species that are known to harbour pathogens that can spread to humans, researchers report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. The model also identified more than 150 species that are likely to be disease reservoirs but have yet to be confirmed as such.

We're taking a systems approach to learning about the Earth using real scientific data. Our goal is to design easy-to-use curriculum activities and simple, intuitive computer interfaces for accessing online data. It's all part of a NOAA-supported effort called the NODE Project.

The Path to Myozyme Beginning in the 1960s and fueled by the biotechnology revolution in 1980s, researchers at academic centers around the world initiated work to identify a treatment for Pompe - including therapies that could replace the missing GAA enzyme in patients. Based on these early efforts, from 1998-2002 Genzyme worked to advance promising research involving four different drug candidates to treat Pompe:

Are you interested in using games in your classroom but just can't find ones that match your curriculum? Have you tried to create video or board games for your classroom only to be overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort required just to produce them? If you answered yes to these questions, this web site is for you. This site contains downloadable games, game templates, and utilities that teachers and trainers can use to enhance any lesson.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most genetically diverse region in the world." The rates of susceptibility and not only whether or not someone becomes ill, but also whether or not they live or die, or even display symptoms, varies widely. The genetics of both this deadly strain of Ebola itself, and of the populations living in the affected areas, are at the forefront of the efforts by Dr. Moses as she works with Dr.Pardis Sabeti at Harvard to provide samples for genome sequencing.

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history (phylogeny).

In the animal kingdom, humans are known for our big brains. But not all brains are created equal, and now we have new clues as to why that is. Researchers have uncovered eight genetic variations that help determine the size of key brain regions. These variants may represent "the genetic essence of humanity," says Stephan Sanders, a geneticist and pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. These results are among the first to come out of the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) collaboration, involving some 300 scientists from 33 countries. They contributed MRI scans of more than 30,000 people, along with genetic and other information, most of which had been collected for other reasons. "This paper represents a herculean effort," Sanders says.

A decade ago, an international research team completed an ambitious effort to read the 3 billion letters of genetic information found in every human cell. The program, known as the Human Genome Project, provided the blueprint for human life, an achievement that has been compared to landing a man on the moon.

This flipped case study tells the story of Joyce, a biology student who notices the development of some unusual symptoms (foot slapping and slurred speech) in her mother. In an effort to understand the cause, Joyce views a documentary-style trigger video (created by the case author) that suggests to Joyce that her mom may in fact have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. The rest of the case walks Joyce through understanding how normal neurons compare to neurons in ALS patients and how that might affect muscle function. The case explores the link between genes, particularly SOD-1, to the formation of malformed proteins and its potential role in the development of ALS. The case concludes with a discussion of drug development and highlights the timeline and costs associated with drug discovery as Joyce becomes concerned about the lack of drugs in the pipeline for ALS, which her mother is ultimately diagnosed with. The case is appropriate for a number of classes including general biology, biotechnology, anatomy and physiology, upper level-cell biology, or any human health and disease-related course.

I'm sure you've probably heard of at least a few invasive species. Maybe you've heard of the Cane Toad. It's one of the classic introductions of invasive species gone wrong. It was introduced to eat pests in cane fields and then turned into a plague of epic proportions in Northern Australia. But here is the question. Now that these species are here, is it worth fighting their spread, or should we spend time and effort on other things. It's worth asking, and not just for the ethical implications. We live in a modern world and I think there is a real financial element to this as well. See if you can follow my logic through this video short. Do you agree with my thoughts? Should we keep fighting? Do you have any personal experience with an invasive species?

Now eight years old, USAID PREDICT is a collaborative effort to monitor, predict and prevent emerging diseases, many of them zoonotic, from becoming devastating global pandemics the likes of Ebola. It's led by Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Davis's One Health Institute and School of Veterinary Medicine, and also partners with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Metabiota, EcoHealth Alliance and the Smithsonian Institution's Global Health Program.

This case study is designed to teach basic concepts of genetics by focusing on a rare disease, pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE).  Chromosome 16 is the narrator at the beginning of the case and introduces students to genes, chromosomes and mutations. The focus then shifts to the patient and his mother as she finds out about her son's disease and her subsequent efforts to connect with patient advocacy groups for support. The case concludes with students watching a TED talk given by Sharon Terry, the real-life mother on whom this story is loosely based, so that students can connect on an emotional and human level with someone who has intimate experience as a parent of children with a rare genetic disease. The case is suitable for high school general biology classes, but it can also be used by biology major or non-major undergraduates in a lower-division biology class, or in any lower-division non-major class focused on human disease.

Don't tell your kids that they are smart. More than three decades of research shows that a ocus on "process"-not on intelligence or ability-is key to success in school and in life