Jamie Bridgham and Joe Thornton recently published a paper on the irreversibility of glucocorticoid reception evolution, along with their collaborator Eric Ortlund at Emory University. The research is so compelling that it has generated considerable commentary, in Science, The New York Times, The New York Times (again), and Nature. Those who missed Joe’s seminar on October 5th should read the paper to see what everyone is talking about.

Jessica Green, an assistant professor in IE², is one of 25 innovators selected to receive at 2010 TED Fellowship. TED is a small nonprofit organization that focuses on providing free access to talk by leaders in technology, entertainment and design. You can read about TED here, see the list of 2010 recipients, and check out their press release.

IE² members showed off the wonders of DNA at the 2010 University Day at the Science Factory, a local childrens’ science museum.

Paul Cziko (Doctoral Candidate, Thornton Lab) and Robin Brown (Undergraduate, Cresko Lab) provided the children (ages 4-12) with the opportunity to extract DNA from strawberries using non-toxic reagents available at grocery stores. After a hands-on, easy protocol which included lysing the cells (dish soap), releasing bound proteins (table salt), and filtering out the cellular debris (coffee filter), the children marveled as long strands of gooey DNA precipitated out of solution upon the addition of alcohol to the filtrate. Each of the budding scientists went home with a small tube of isolated strawberry DNA.

John Willis (Post-doctoral Research Associate, Phillips Lab) showed off examples of the nematode worm C.elegans whose DNA had been genetically modified for research purposes. He explained the power of manipulating DNA within organisms for biological research, and gave the children the opportunity to look at worms expressing the red fluorescent protein (RFP) from a jellyfish gene under an epi-illumination microscope. Children learned to discern males from females, and transformed from un-transformed worms as they slithered around on their bacterial lawn inside the petri dishes.

IE² members participate in University Day each year, held by the Science Factory once per year in the winter. Chemists, physicists, psychologists, and physiologists from the University of Oregon participate in the outreach event to help inspire the next generation of scientists.  This year’s event attracted over 250 visitors. Read more about the museum at http://www.sciencefactory.org/