Scientists of Helium

Hello! Introduce yourselves here...we may or may not have met on the larger Helium boards.

I'm Alicia, I have a PhD in Experimental Pathology. My dissertation involved genetics research and I have taught grad school pathology courses. I now edit scientific manuscripts and dissertations full-time.

I have broad interests in all of the sciences, and am most fascinated by what I don't know!

Hi,

I am Jennifer Allsbrook!  I am a high school biology teacher who has a passion for the life sciences.  I have a Masters of Life Science from the University of Maryland.  I've been teaching for 16 years.  I love to learn and take every opportunity to read and write about science.  I have been a member of Helium since the summer of '08.  My future aspirations include writing some children's science books and my own biology textbook.  I would also like to go back to school to earn a PhD in molecular biology.  I particularly enjoy researching molecular genetics topics, metabolism, and signal transduction pathways.

Jennifer

Hello, I'm Becky from Dorset in England. I've recently gained a BSc with the Open University.

er, becky from dorset here again, accidently hit the send button before i'd finished my intro.

to continue...

I'm currently working as a typesetter of scientific journals and books, but looking for something a bit more hands on since getting my degree.

looking forward to some topical discussions in this group - my interests are mainly in environmental issues, but also geology, local natural history, gardening /home produced food, vegetarianism, parenthood etc

anyway, I expect you're all busy watching some historic moments unfolding in Washington right now, it's about time! Let's hope he lives up to expectations.

speak soon,

Becky

Hi guys! Good to see you here.

Hello I am Laura from the UK. I have completed several degrees in life sciences including a honours in biology and a postgraduate diploma in biomedical science. I am also a health professional and my main interest is heart health.

Hi, my name is Martin Bell, and I have a Master of Science in Microelectronics & Microcomputing, and a Batchelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

I have only started writing for Helium recently (November '08).

What's everyone's favorite sites or journals for getting science news?

I like to keep up with a little bit of every field so I have Eureka! RSS'd (escience news) and I get the Nature news alerts in my email, but most of their articles require a subscription, so it's a tease lol I used to have a print subscription to Science and Discover but they lapsed, and I get American Scientist from Sigma Xi, which is sometimes interesting but too far between to be a useful "keep up" tool.

Print journals seem to be out, but I was wondering if that's true among all of us.

Hi all,

I subscribe to Scientific American and Discover (which are useful with my students).  I also have a subscription to The Scientist which is for me (it's usually over my students heads).  I also use some open access journals online such as Journal of Biology.  

Jennifer 

I thought I would share this website with you all.  Join if you like.  The blogging section needs some good writers!

http://www.myyoscience.org/

Jennifer

I've bookmarked the site :) Thanks for sharing! Hopefully I'll have more time to really look at it later.

Hi all, I'm Jim Bessey from upstate NY, near Rochester.

I'm not a scientist, nor do I hold any advanced degrees. But I love science, and subscribe to Discover Magazine to try to keep abreast of what's happening in all sorts of scientific venues.

I'm fascinated by astrophysics, particle physics, neuroscience, imaging technology (Rochester is the home of Eastman Kodak), and behavioral science. Not that I know much about any of these, but I do understand most of what I read about these fields.

I'll be over here... (a Jay London reference, probably overly obscure, sorry)

~Jim

Hi Laura, Martin, and Jim :) The more the merrier!

Hello,

I'm Eric. I used to work in a lab that studied protein and DNA. I digitized gels which had protein spots on them and studied the pictures, and fixed the computers. I'm also interested in Astronomy and space travel. Funny most of my articles have been on other stuff.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan. That is a bit odd, and makes it hard to get a job, but I may work on batteriers in the future. I also did ok in my "Dismal Science" - a.k.a. Economics - classes, and some of my articles have been on that topic.

Hi all. I'm John McDevitt aka McD. Once upon a time (before I hung up my T-square and retired from architecture) I spent most of my professional career working with scientists, doctors, etc. I was the project architect for building 49 (I think I have that right) at the NIH campus in Bethesda.

Did a lot of buildings for big pharma, biotech, the government. My first project as a young architect was on the team designing and building Boehringer -Ingelheim's first production facility in the US. Then lots of labs, animal research facilities, etc.

I finished my career with an almost 11 year stint at Thomas Jefferson University in Phila. as a Project manager / architect in facilities design and construction. Translation: I did a lot of lab renovations, medical practice offices, classrooms.

So, I'm not a a scientist. I once told a Chairman of one of the medical colleges that I was a building doctor. LOL

McD

Hello!  My name is Bettina Bergh, and I am an entomologist.  I have been doing my "A Look Into The Insect World" lecture for libraries, schools and groups in the Augusta, GA area for 29 years.  I am also a former nurse and a zookeeper, and have been writing down some of my misadventures at these jobs.  I am working on a book for children that is written in haiku and uses my late father, Philip Bergh's, nature slides for the illustrations.  I plan on writingarticles about insects for children in the future.

Hello!  My name is Bettina Bergh, and I am an entomologist.  I have been doing my "A Look Into The Insect World" lecture for libraries, schools and groups in the Augusta, GA area for 29 years.  I am also a former nurse and a zookeeper, and have been writing down some of my misadventures at these jobs.  I am working on a book for children that is written in haiku and uses my late father, Philip Bergh's, nature slides for the illustrations.  I plan on writing articles about insects for children in the future.

A colloboration between Univ. of Michigan Museums, The University Museum of Paleontology at Bonn, Germany, and the Geological survey of Pakistan have found and described a pregnant Eocene whale fossil in which the fetus is positioned for a birth on land.

I linked to the paper at PLoS above.

I have three degrees (two B.S. and an M.S.) and work with numerous groups in the Caribbean.  I also am a guide and do hiking.  I created the zone, Hiking and Nature, and comments are valued!

Hi James,

I just had a good, long look at your zone and left you some commentary there.

Looks great!

~Jim   http://www.helium.com/zone/990-jim-bessey-writers-portfolio

My favorite place for research news is Science Daily at www.sciencedaily.com.  Their news is factual, up-to-date, and is based on research studies.  Also pseudo science is not included. 

Colette Georgii

Hi! I am Colette Georgii (my pen name).  I am a Social Scientist considering my degrees - BS in Ed with a concentration in the Social Sciences, MS in CED (Community Economic Development (Economics), and an MBA (more Economics and a lot of advanced math like Quantitative Analysis and topics like Regression Analysis and Research Statistics which is actually the same as Behavioral Statistics).

I am also interested in all the Sciences and like reading about new discoveries.  I always got good grades in the physical sciences in high school and college with my highest grades being in Physics and Geometry in high school; I did exceptionally well in Biology, Biology Lab, and Physical Science in college considering that these were not my majors. 

Some of my science accomplishments from high school were an achievement award for a Science Fair project in ninth grade and a 20 page paper about the Cyclotron in my Senior year of High School; and for Social Science I wrote a term paper entitled The Grounds for Divorce in the United States complete with footnotes, contents page, and acknowledgements page. 

I am particulary interested in Environmental Science, which I was introduced to in Urban Sociology.  I became more involved with environmental subjects while managing a food cooperative in the 90s.

I wrote a paper for Urban Sociology entitled, Love City, A planned Urban Environment.  The professor told the whole class to read my paper.  I also included drawings (I am also an artist). 

My MBA program included a course entitled, Business, Government, and the Environment.  I wrote a paper for this class entitled, Groundwater Contamination, where I did research into a Superfund contamination site in New Jersey.  I interviewed some of the people actually involved with the project. 

I regularly read the New Scientist, a great weekly for a good overview of the latest in science news, and it's good for jobs too. their website www.newscientist.com is also very good.

The NewScientist had this synopsis of a Nature paper in which they used UV light to form nucleotides from five elements thought to be present in the early days of the plane, indicating that the RNA molecules could've formed in one fell swoop rather than in individual parts.

A 47 million year old fossil found in Germany in the 1980s is discussed in the recent issue of PLoS One as being a transitional fossil from the Middle Eocene and an ancestor of all primates.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005723

It seems that this find is being uber-hyped, and likely at the detriment of other archaeologists and paleontologists. The researcher kept the find under wraps until they could get production companies and media outlets to cover them all at once - i.e. instant fame. But the find is just one important fossil in a long list of important finds.

Dr. Myers at the University of Minnesota had a discussion about it on his blog. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/05/the_darwinius_hype_is_beginnin.php

Hi, My name is Matthew Geiger; I have a BS in physics and pscyhology based politics.  I've been writing for helium since last year.  Recently, I decided to start a zone on technology and innovation that could help bring members of the scientific community closer to anyone facing issues science and technology could solve.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been a very good response, so I was wondering if anyone would like to comment on my posts or add a few links.  thanks.

http://www.helium.com/zone/2307-innovations-and-technologies-that-can-change-the-world