Leh 300: study guide! Whoo-hoo!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by proftp

Allrighty, here she be:

Quiz: February 28

Quiz guide: 20 will appear on the quiz

1. What is a gene?
2. What is a genome?
3. What is an allele?
4. How many chromosomes total are contained in a cell of a member of Homo sapiens?
5. What are the base pairs of nucleotides in DNA? [spell out the words and put in pairs]
6. What is sequencing?
7. What is mapping?
8. What is a phenotype?
9. Approximately how many genes are there in a member of Homo sapiens?
10. Genes and/or traits which do not currently contribute to reproductive fitness may be what?
11. Traits such as personality, intelligence, & other behavioral characteristics are likely what kind of traits?
12. For a child to have sickle-cell disease or cystic fibrosis, her mother and father must each have what?
13. What is a basic problem to overcome in gene transfer?
14. Which chromosome has the fewest number of genes?
15. Name a type of chromosomal abnormality and an associated syndrome.
16. What are gametes [name them]?
17. What are the three characteristics unique to all stem cells?
18. What are the three types of stem cells?
19. What is pluripotency?
20. What is one test for or indicator of pluripotency?
21. What is the purpose of the feeder cell layer?
22. What are the three germ layers?
23. What is the process of in vitro fertilization?
24. What is the process of intracytoplasmic sperm injection?
25. What is the process of preimplantation genetic diagnosis?
26. Name one type of prenatal test and what it tests for
27. What is cryopreservation?
28. What is somatic cell nuclear transfer?
29. Name one problem or obstacle to be overcome in cloning.

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Leh 300: Genome a cipher, not a blueprint

Posted on February 6, 2013 by proftp

PZ Myers has a nice post on how the human (or any organism’s) genome does—and does not—work:

There is no blueprint, no map. That’s not how the system works. What you actually find in the genome are coding genes that produce proteins, coupled to regulatory elements that switch the coding genes off and on using a kind of sophisticated boolean logic. Each cell carries this complex collection of regulated genes independently and identically, but the boolean logic circuits produce different outputs varying with the inputs from the environment and the diverging histories of each cell. For instance, there is no code anywhere in the genome that commands the forelimbs to make five and only five digits: instead, a cascade of genes and cell movements produce a patterned tissue that in us contains sufficient mass and is of a size to generate five nuclei of condensing tissue that produce fingers.

It’s better to think in terms of cellular automata. The embryo is a pool of autonomous cellular robots that have general rules for how they should respond to environmental cues…and those cues tend to vary in predictable ways across the embryo, leading to a consistent cascade of action that produces a relatively consistent complex product, the multicellular organism.

The unfortunate consequence of those properties, though, is that you’ll never be able to look at a single gene from the genome and sort out what it does in the embryo. All the genes will be rather cryptic; you might be able to figure out that, for instance, the gene codes for an adhesion protein that makes the cell stick to a certain other class of cell, and that it’s switched on by gene products X and Y and turned off by gene product Z, but obviously you won’t be able to figure out its role until you figure out what activates genes X, Y, and Z, and whether the cell happens to be in a particular adhesive environment. And then when you look at X, Y, and Z, you discover that they have similar patterns of conditional logic in their expression.

In order to understand what a particular gene does, you have to understand what all the other genes do, as well as all the details of signaling and cell interactions that are going on, oh, and also, it’s entire developmental history, since epigenetic interactions can shape the future behavior of a cell lineage.

That’s only the beginning of a longer article, but well worth a gander.

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Pol 150 Final Exam

Posted on December 16, 2012 by proftp

Contemporary Political Issues Final Exam 

Choose ONE of the following issues:
*Fiscal cliff negotiations
*Whether and how the US or any outside power should intervene in Syria
*Whether the US government should fund research on human embryos

Note: This is NOT a research paper; the amount of research required is minimal, and centers mostly on finding and determining the credibility of various sources. Instead, the emphasis is on how you would analyze the issue and what would lead to understanding.

Once you’ve chosen your issue, answer ALL of the following:
1. Assuming you don’t know much about the issue, where would you look to find information about it? What sources would you use to learn about the issue? What kind of variety would you seek in your sources? Why? List the sources. How would you make sure that your sources were “legitimate”?
2. If your various sources have different points of view, how would you determine which were more credible? If you agreed with the source, would that make it more or less credible to you? Why?
3. How would you determine what are the crucial factors in understanding this issue? How much research would you have to perform to consider yourself knowledgeable about the issue? What questions would you ask to determine your own views?
4. If you did form an opinion about the issue, how would you make sense of arguments with which you disagreed? If there were a great deal of controversy over the issue, how confident would you be in your own opinion?
5. Once you formed an opinion, would you continue to try to learn more about the issue? Why or why not? What (evidence, reason, events, etc.) might make you change your mind?

Note on determining sources: When looking for sources, consider the types of those source both in terms of type of media (scholarly journals; governmental reports; transcripts of speeches; print or online newspapers, popular magazines, t.v., radio, & film;  institutional & interest-group publications; archival and primary-source material; etc.) and form (research articles, investigative reporting, governmental & institutional reports, advocacy & opinion essays, etc.).

Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, 750-1000 words (4-5 pages), and in the form of a continuous essay. Please do NOT include a title page; instead, list your issue as the title on the top of your first page.

The essay is due 4:00 pm Thursday, December 20. I will be in 222 Carman (our classroom) between 4:00 & 4:30 to pick up the exams. If there are any problems, contact me.

Finally, you must RETURN YOUR BOOKS to the College Now office (Carman 189) by December 20, or you will lose a grade. So: turn in your exam to me, then turn in your books to College Now—and enjoy your break!

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Pol 150: Hydrofracking articles

Posted on December 10, 2012 by proftp

Hello all.

Here are the articles you should read for Thursday’s class:

Chris Mooney, The Truth About Fracking, Scientific American, 10.19.11

Kathleen Hartnett White, The Fracas about Fracking, National Review, June 2012

Happy reading!

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Back to class!

Posted on November 3, 2012 by proftp

Hello all! Again, I hope you and your loved ones are all safe and sound—and that you are ready for class on Tuesday. Whoo hoo!

As I mentioned in the last post, the general strategy will be: onward! Keep up with the reading on the syllabus, and expect some pell-mell lectures in an effort to get us all caught up. Now, as to specific courses:

Pol 150: We’ll squeeze the immigration discussion into Tuesday and the Big Govt/taxation issue on Thursday.

And don’t forget: While you don’t have high-school on Tuesday, Lehman classes are being held.

Pol 166: No quiz on Tuesday. We’ll run through bureaucracy on Tuesday and Judiciary on Thursday. Some of this may bleed into the following week, and we’ll make adjustments to the quiz schedule as makes sense.

Leh 300: Those of you who can, please hand in the papers on Tuesday; the general deadline, however, is extended to November 13.

And everyone who is eligible: Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday!

See you then.

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Everybody safe?

Posted on October 30, 2012 by proftp

I hope everyone is safe and secure; my cats and I made it through in Brooklyn just fine.

As you know, Lehman was closed Monday and today and will be closed tomorrow, and we won’t know until Wednesday if the campus will be open on Thursday.  The best case scenario is that the campus is open and trains running on Thursday, but if not, well, we’ll deal with it.

We are New Yorkers, after all, and we gotta represent!

As for course schedules, if we meet on Thursday I’ll simply try to cram in two days’ worth of lectures into one day; if we don’t meet until next week, we’ll pick up with next week’s readings and go from there.

American government students: If we meet on Thursday we will NOT have a quiz. If we don’t meet, I’ll offer the quiz on the presidency for the following Tuesday, and either drop the quiz on the bureaucracy entirely or combine it with that of the judiciary.

Stay tuned, and stay safe.

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Pol 150: Religion and society

Posted on October 23, 2012 by proftp

UPDATE: I just clicked on that first link—and it wouldn’t let me read the d—-d article!

Okay, so here’s what you need to do: plug “is religion good for society” into your search engine. The link should show up near the top, with the header:

Is Religion Bad For Society? | Issue 78 | Philosophy Now

 

Simply click on the link in the search engine and it will take you directly to the full article.

Sorry about that.

Well, I found a couple of pieces that weren’t terrible, but, honestly, these aren’t great:

Rev. Bob Eckard, Is Religion Bad for Society, Philosophy Now, Sept/Oct 2012

Phil Zuckerman, Is Faith Good for Us? Council for Secular Humanism, 2005?

There are a boatload of debate sites online that you can peruse (simply run a search on “is religion good for society” and you’ll find the links), but I want y’all to read more than just back-and-forths.

Anyway, I may add to this or offer substitutes tomorrow (Wed). . . .

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Pol 150: Online reading

Posted on October 14, 2012 by proftp

I almost forgot to post the link to a reading for this week; here it is:

Judith Jarvis Thomson, A Defense of Abortion

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Register to vote—and then remember to vote!

Posted on September 27, 2012 by proftp

Some students have asked about registering to vote, so here’s some info:

First, the deadline for registration is October 12. If registering in-person, you have to do it by October 12, and if by mail, the form must be postmarked by October 12 and received by October 17. (See below FFI)

Second, here’s information from the Board of Elections from the City of New York. Note that if you have a NY driver’s license, you can register online.

You can also register at any of the BOE offices:

GENERAL OFFICE
32 Broadway, 7 Fl
New York, NY 10004-1609
Tel: 1.212.487.5300

BOROUGH OFFICES

Manhattan
 Gregory Lehman – Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay – Deputy Chief Clerk
200 Varick St., 10 Fl
New York, NY 10014
Tel: 1.212.886.2100

Bronx
Anthony J. Ribustello – Deputy Chief Clerk
Marricka Scott-McFadden – Deputy Chief Clerk
1780 Grand Concourse, 5 Fl
Bronx, NY 10457
Tel: 1.718.299.9017

Brooklyn
Diane Haslett-Rudiano – Chief Clerk
Mary Rose Sattie – Deputy Chief Clerk
345 Adams Street, 4 Fl
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: 1.718.797.8800

Queens
 Barbara Conacchio – Chief Clerk
Marie Lynch – Deputy Chief Clerk
126-06 Queens Boulevard
Kew Gardens, NY 11415
Tel: 1.718.730.6730

Staten Island
Sheila Del Giorno – Chief Clerk
Anthony Andriulli – Deputy Chief Clerk
1 Edgewater Plaza, 4 Fl
Staten Island, NY 10305
Tel: 1.718.876.0079

There’s also a box, located on the upper right portion of the screen (at the link, above) which allows you to plug in your address to find out where to vote.

Third, the New York State Board of Elections also has a website with multiple links, as well as information not available on the NYC website.

Finally and importantly, from the NYSBOE:

November 6, 2012 General Election Deadlines

MAIL REGISTRATION (N.Y. Election Law Section 5-210(3))
Applications must be postmarked no later than October 12th and received by a board of elections no later than October 17th to be eligible to vote in the General Election.

IN PERSON REGISTRATION (N.Y. Election Law Sections 5-210, 5-211, 5-212)
You may register at your local board of elections or any state agency participating in the National Voter Registration Act, on any business day throughout the year but, to be eligible to vote in the November General Election, your application must be received no later than October 12th except, if you have been honorably discharged from the military or have become a naturalized citizen since October 12th, you may register in person at the board of elections up until October 26th.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS (N.Y. Election Law Section 5-208(3))
Notices of change of address from registered voters received by October 17th by a county board of elections must be processed and entered in the records in time for the General Election.

So there you have it: all the info you need to register. Now it’s up to you to investigate the parties and candidates and decide who to vote for. . . .

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Pol 150: A convenient post!

Posted on September 23, 2012 by proftp

Walter McDougall just happened to have published a blog post this month about his book, Promised Land, Crusader State and the insights therein regarding the limits to American exceptionalism.

You might want to check it out.

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