The News Review:
- ‘Really creative’ JWHS chemistry teacher receives science honor
- Story Ideas from the Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Invest in science or risk the economy
‘Really creative’ JWHS chemistry teacher receives science honor
Winchester Star – The Winchester Star – Nov 23, 2007
Her attire often includes an apron and goggles and she has one of the few jobs where it’s K to make a mess — as long as you clean it up properly when you’re done. Her job?High school chemistry teacher. And James Wood High School teacher and science department head Jill Barker is so good at what she does that the Virginia Association of Science Teachers recently named her utstanding Teacher in Chemistry.
Story Ideas from the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Newswise – Newswise (press release) – Nov 23, 2007
Using a mouse model of longevity Terry Combs and colleagues report that changes in metabolism can indeed increase longevity. They demonstrated that long-lived Snell dwarf mice burn less glucose and more fatty acids during periods of fasting and as a result produce fewer free radicals. The key to this switch may be adiponectin a hormone produced by fat cells that helps lower glucose production and stimulates cells to use fat for energy instead. The researchers found that Snell mice had three times as much adiponectin in their blood as control mice; Snell mice also had fewer triglycerides in their cells indicative of higher fat metabolism.
Invest in science or risk the economy
New Statesman – Nov 23, 2007
There have been incremental improvements recently but nowhere near enough to bring the number of students back up to pre-1991 levels. Part of the problem is that science teaching is according to Reiss hopelessly out of date with the rising expectations of today’s students. While chemistry and physics lessons used to present an opportunity to do hands-on and engaging work even the chance to explode something on a good day overbearing health and safety laws have limited the scope for practical learning. This argues Reiss is where exhibitions like the Launchpad at the Science Museum come in. “Exhibitions make a big difference they help to make science exciting again. They are closely formulated with schools to genuinely complement the national curriculum and the learning of science in the classrooms. ” Gordon Brown seemed to agree pledging £13m to the Science Museum at the press opening of the new Launchpad on Tuesday.