Amanda McBrien
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Posts by Amanda McBrien
Christmas Tree Science
Dec 21st
We have several holiday traditions at my house, which include baking cookies, decorating the house, and of course the tree. I have a love-hate relationship with my Christmas tree every year. Not a holiday season goes by without me cursing the tree and its insidious needles throughout the house. Oh, and don’t forget the ornaments that the dog just can’t keep out of her mouth. But the smell of the tree is all I need to get in the holiday spirit!
Interestingly enough, the Spruce, a very common Christmas tree species, has seven times more DNA than a human. How is that, you More >
Some Cells Have 23 Chromosomes
Nov 25th
It is a game of chance! With one spin of a wheel, X and Y chromosomes, represented by pink (X) and green ping-pong balls (Y), are passed from each parent to a child. When the wheel stops, the baby is either a boy or a girl – depending on which chromosomes were inherited. It is a simple, yet powerful tool that demonstrates basic chromosomal inheritance. It is easy to see that every time the wheel is spun, there is a 50/50 chance of having a boy or a girl.
Demonstrations with this wheel have led to some very interesting student responses and questions. I have More >
Sleep Science
Sep 30th
Have you ever wished there were more hours in the day? I know someone who insists on extending his days by consuming energy drinks. In his opinion, sleeping is a waste of precious time. Unfortunately, for most humans, 8 hours of sleep is required to function properly. Some people can manage with far less sleep, which for those of us who really NEED 8 hours of shut-eye, is hard to imagine. For me, sometimes it seems even 8 hours doesn’t suffice, which is evidenced by my morning alarm-snooze-alarm-snooze routine, and my sofa sleeping habit in the evenings.
In an August article More >
Do Genes Always Follow the Rules?
Aug 31st
As a teacher, I find that the presentation of classical Mendelian inheritance is important, but can be misleading. Do genes always follow the rules that the “Father of Genetics” observed in his garden? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Mendel and his contribution to genetics, but the exceptions seem much more interesting!
For example, many genes are pleiotropic, meaning they affect more than one phenotype. How about the recent development on red heads and anasthetics? I happen to live with a red head, from a long line of red heads, so in our family this was a topic of discussion for days. The mutation More >
