Ask the Scientist

I asked the scientist some questions about the red cockaded woodpecker but it showed no results for my questions.  I was hoping for some help with my project.  I did not get back what I had expected for these questions.

I asked why no cure for cancer has been developed.  I got back some good suggestions for a cure for cancer.  Lauren, a pharmacologist, stated that she wondered why we couldn't replace the defective cell's entire DNA with a healthy patients DNA.  I think this seems reasonable but it has not been done yet.  I learned a lot about what could be done from this response.  I learned genome replacement has disadvantages as well.  For example a person with cystic fibrosis has a defective CFTR gene in all cells.  This deficiency is observed in a couple of organs despite the fact that all the cells have the same mutation. DNA replacement from one tissue type in these individuals will not correct their disease.  There is a lot that scientists need to learn about gene therapy.

Some other sites for further reading:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/gene.htm

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/
medicine/genetherapy.shtml

Ask a Scientist!

I decided to ask a scientist some questions about my project of the red cockaded woodpecker.

1.  What kind of specialized cells does the red cockaded woodpecker have?
2.  What could the woodpecker have in order to help it adapt to an environment?

I also am interested in cancer and how we do not have a cure yet.  I wonder what it would take to figure out how the cancer cells are destroyed daily and how to use this to maybe come up with a cure for cancer. If some people can kill off these millions of cells daily how come scientists can not figure out how these cells work and then use that information for a cure?

The Living World

My favorite part of science is the living world.  I am to research an endangered organism for a project and I chose the Red Cockaded Woodpecker.  For my presentation I played around with Prezi.  I am used to workin with Powerpoint but I am willing to ive this a try.  There was no cost to the trial I chose to use.  I chose a blank template so I could add whatever I wanted to it.  I love how you can add pictures and even video clips to your presentation in this program.  You are able to chose the shape of a text box that you wish for information in.  The wheel seems to make things easier to add objects to your presentation.  As I was viewing other presentations, I want to figure out how to make the pages fade in and out when going ot the next item you are going to talk about.  I am still going through all the tutorials and learning.
 It is a very buusy time for me right now because I have a three week old baby so time is critical for me.  If I can not figure out all the options I want to use I may still go back and use Powerpoint.