Five at Five

Five quick quips as we round-up the week here at New Voices...

Cancer and cancer research are always hot button issues and this week was no exception with lots of ink covering cancer from patient advice (cancer is like improv?) to new graphic warnings for cigarettes to how a sitting at work can lead to specific types of cancer.

Ed Yong (again) shows us how research can be made accessible to the public with his piece on herding HIV to an evolutionary dead end.

Here at New Voices we talk about the NIH a lot, but were surprised to learn today's 27 institutes started as a one-man shop in 1887.

Good news for those who don't have time to call Congress during the day: 33 members of Congress sleep in their offices. I wonder if any of them are using hammocks to help them sleep more deeply?

On this day in New Voices
2010 - We got an inside look at the Barresi Lab at Smith College.
2009 - We talked about Engaging Audiences.

Good luck Molly Round-Up

Hooray for Friday! It means the last day of in-office work for many of you, but also the weekly New Voices round-up. (You know that's what makes Fridays so exciting!)

Unfortunately, our Friday is bittersweet this week with the departure of our newest blogger, Molly Maguire. Molly finishes her internship today and is moving on to a position as an associate at Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC. We are sad to see her go, but excited for her new adventures and looking forward to hearing about her work there soon.

In that spirit of new adventures, two federal agencies have made major announcements this week:

The FDA releases the new sunscreen guidelines in time for another fun-in-the-sun summer. Looking for some good beach reading? Seems like neuroscience and brain books are the page-turners for 2011.

The USDA releases new food guidelines, explicitly encouraging Americans to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. While raw fruits and veggies are predictable, it turns out figuring out what really has whole grains can be a bit trickier.

On this day in New Voices:
2010 - We launched our summer series, Images from Around the Lab. If you'd like to contribute pictures from your lab, drop us a line in the comments or via email at programs_at_researchamerica.org.
2009 - New Voices Matt, Takao and Rashada participated in the first blog point/counterpoint on policy related to Combating Cancer.

Comic Break

Comic credit: PhD Comics

We figured that if we needed a little laugh to get us through until Friday, you might too.

Mystery Labs Revealed

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Mystery Lab Contest this week - submitters and guessers alike. The winning image is from Day 1!

Congratulations to Nicole, who describes her work as follows:

"My general field is engineering or biomedical engineering. This image is from an intermediate step in a computer vision project aimed at better detection of breast cancer in mammograms. The original image is an x-ray of the breast, or mammogram, and through automated image analysis my goal is to determine if the normal structure of the breast tissue has been disrupted by abnormal growth, for example cancer.

Radiologists train for years to be able to detect abnormalities in mammograms with their natural equipment, i.e. their eyes and their brain. The goal of my project, and projects similar to mine, are to teach computers to "see" images at least as well as a human can, and perhaps to add to human abilities with additional mathematical tricks that computers can use and are not easy for humans to do."

Nicole is currently a PhD working on her MD in Chicago. She'll be receiving her copy of Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future soon and we look forward to hearing more about her research and career. We already know she's a good communicator, because she got the message out and received 43 comments for a total of 9,847 points!

Our other contestants also deserve kudos for submitting amazing research images.

• Day 2's image of electron microscopy (in this case, white light scattered by gold nanorods) comes from the University of South Carolina.
• Day 3's image of auditory sensing is from the Brain and Behavior Laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
• Day 4's image is of quantum physics - trying to accurately measure Planck's constant - at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Remember you can always submit photos of your research to the New Voices Images from Around the Lab series by emailing an picture to hbenson at researchamerica.org. We look forward to seeing your research!

Mystery Lab Contest - Day 4

This week on New Voices we'll be sharing images of research submitted by readers. Help your fellow researchers win the contest by guessing what type of research is being done based on the image below. Can today's image beat yesterday's? Come back tomorrow to see who won and find out what's been going on in the Mystery Lab!


Today is the last day of the Mystery Lab Contest , but you can always submit photos of your research to the New Voices Images from Around the Lab series by emailing an picture to hbenson at researchamerica.org.

Mystery Lab Contest - Day 3

This week on New Voices we'll be sharing images of research submitted by readers. Help your fellow researchers win the contest by guessing what type of research is being done based on the image below. Can today's image beat yesterday's or Monday's?

You can submit your entry into the Mystery Lab Contest by emailing an image to hbenson at researchamerica.org. If we receive more submissions than we have room for in the competition, those images will be considered for our Images from Around the Lab series.

Mystery Lab Contest - Day 2

This week on New Voices we'll be sharing images of research submitted by readers. Help your fellow researchers win the contest by guessing what type of research is being done based on the image below. Can today's image beat yesterday's?


You can submit your entry into the Mystery Lab Contest by emailing an image to hbenson at researchamerica.org. If we receive more submissions than we have room for in the competition, those images will be considered for our Images from Around the Lab series.

Mystery Lab Contest - Day 1

This week on New Voices we'll be sharing images of research submitted by readers. Help your fellow researchers win the contest by guessing what type of research is being done based on the image below.
You can submit your entry into the Mystery Lab Contest by emailing an image to hbenson at researchamerica.org. If we receive more submissions than we have room for in the competition, those images will be considered for our Images from Around the Lab series.

Can you identify the Mystery Lab?

Stop, wherever you are. Quick, grab your phone or closest camera and take a picture of what's in front of you. Send it to hbenson at researchamerica.org to enter the Mystery Lab contest.

What is the Mystery Lab contest? A chance to show off your research. Monday through Thursday next week the most creative four images submitted will be posted in the order they were received. New Voices readers will be asked to guess what field of research is being represented in the photo (biology, chemistry, marine science, physics, mathematics, etc.)

How to participate: Send an image of your work with the general field you work in as the subject to hbenson at researchamerica.org or via Twitter @NV4Research. Then encourage your friends to guess each day next week.

How to win: The winning entry will be determined using the following formula:
Number of guesses x total daily visitors

The prize: The submitter of the winning entry will receive a copy of Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. If the winner already has a copy of this fabulous book, we'll work something out.

Send your entries as soon as possible to be considered! Help us see what real science looks like.


Original image source

More of the Greco Lab at Yale

Last week on Images from the Lab we took a look at the Greco Lab at Yale University. This week we're diving farther into their world and checking out some of the different things they use for their data collection and microscopy.

The -80 degree freezer

Blocks on ice waiting to be cut

The cryostat where blocks of mice tissue are cut into thin slices for imaging

Freshly cut slides

Microscope in cell culture room with a camera and fluorescent light to view green fluorescent protein (gfp) and red fluorescent protein (rfp) cells

Thanks goes out to Elizabeth Deschene for providing these images.

We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from the Lab.

The Greco Lab at Yale

This week in Images from the Lab we're taking a peek inside the Greco Lab at Yale University. The principal investigator, Valentina Greco, PhD, and her students work on studying stem cells in the hair follicles of mice.

The Greco Lab at Yale University

A bench in the lab where stem cells in the hair of mice are studied.

Hot water baths, kept at 37 degrees Celsius.

Cell culture hood with UV light on. The UV light is turned on when no one is using the hood to kill anything inside and keep everything sterile.

A centrifuge (left) and an incubator for cell cultures (right)

Thanks goes out to Elizabeth Deschene for providing these images. Come back next week for more images from the Greco Lab, including a closer look at their microscopy techniques.

We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from Around the Lab.

Pipetting at Harvard

Azucena Ramos pipetting in a lab at Harvard.

Thank you Azucena! We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from Around the Lab.

Neurobiology at Work

This week's Images from Around the Lab were submitted from a neurobiology lab at the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists manipulate a frog oocyte (read: really big cell) using a technique called patch clamp recording. With this quad patch clamp, scientists can inject currents of different concentrations and voltages across a cell membrane.

Images of a cell after it has been injected with a tracer.

We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from Around the Lab.

Sontheimer Lab, University of Alabama at Birmingham

This week's Images from Around the Lab takes us south to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

A 3T Siemens Magnetom Allegra Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Spectroscopy scanner (for heads only).

The Detecto 6550 is a folding, portable wheelchair scale.

NIH ARRA funding is supporting members of the Sontheimer Lab team (from left to right): Lindsay Moore, Tiffany Dy, Brian Haas, Tia-Tabitha Barclay, & Vishnu Cuddapah. One line of study the lab is working on is glioblastoma multiform - a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer.

Harald Sontheimer and Tia-Tabitha Barclay

This is the electophysiology rig, which is used to look for electrical properties in cells. By examining biopsied cells from patients (or samples of cells that have been implanted in the brains of mice), scientists hope to develop therapeutic targets. Because the settings need to be exactly right to get a good look at the electrical signals, there's a lot of "voodoo" about using the rig. After a lab member had a particularly good reading, a nearby Spiderman action figure became a good luck charm and is now secured to the rig for continuing good mojo.

This week's Images from Around the Lab were contributed by Harald Sontheimer's team in the Functional Neuroimaging Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Special thanks to Research!America's Stacie Propst for taking the photos and to Vishnu Cuddapah for explaining the equipment and the use of action figures in the lab.


We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from Around the Lab.

More of the Barresi Lab, Smith College

Last week we took a look around the Barresi Lab at Smith College. This week, we're back in the same place looking at more of the tools they use for their developmental neurobiology research.

Instant Ocean salt, used to keep the proper levels of salinity in the system

Racks of clean supplies ready to be used for new fish

Brine shrimp hatcheries, breakfast and dinner for the zebrafish

Racks with tanks of about 15 fish each

More fish in tanks, in the second fish room.

This week's Images from Around the Lab were contributed by the Barresi Lab at Smith College. Special thanks to Rachel Stein for organizing the photo shoot and Michael Barresi, PhD for letting us take a peek into the lab.


We want to see images from your workspace too! Email hbenson at researchamerica.org to share your photos in New Voices Images from Around the Lab.