Bio Entrepreneurs

KISTEP is a biotechnology agency where they thrive to create a science and technology-oriented society in Korea. Their aim is to strengthen the planning function to more efficiently promote national R&D projects and to foster creative knowledge in science and technology, along with new growth engines. They provide education and consult to experts and government officials in the R&D field in Vietnam. They plan to share their techniques on science and technology planning, evaluation, and management to developing countries.

I think this is a great idea for KISTEP to provide help to other developing countries so they can learn more and experience new techniques in the science and technology field. Offering their education can surely impact the world later on by distributing new technological advances. With their new product planning and technological development strategies, this can help other national R&D projects to become successful.

Links on KISTEP:http://www.kistep.re.kr/ksp/eng/about/01about.jsp

http://www.kistep.re.kr/ksp/eng/International/01consultancy.jsp

http://www.kistep.re.kr/ksp/eng/about/03vision.jsp

Lecture by Dr. Pamela Fong

The lecture by Dr. Pamela Fong was interesting and talked about many things about the eye. From an expert otometrist, I have learned many things. She told us what she looks for in a patient's eye when they come for an eye checkup. She would see what lenses are good for the eyes and decide whether the patients eye is myopic(near-sighted) or hyperopic(far-sighted). She then also checks the physical features and see if the eyes can work together.

Dr. Pamela Fong talked more about the eye and that the eye lids and eye laches protect the eye, and said she checks for diseases on them. She talked about the cornea which is the outer structure of the eye and that helps the focus of the eye. Dr. Fong would go and about the eye structures and talks about the iris which is the color port of your eye and every iris is unique because no one can have the same design/feature of the iris. The iris also blocks the light coming to your eyes.

What really got my attention was that eyes have muscles on the top, bottom, and the sides. I never knew there would be muscles on the eyes. The part where she said that grey rings around the iris shows a sign of cholestrol also got my attention because it was really something amazing. I enjoyed the cool pictures she showed us on the eyes and how some parts of the eye are different in special cases like diabetes. Overall I liked the whole lecture/presentation from Dr. Pamela Fong and gave me a better understanding of the eyes.

Here are some interesting sites about eyes: http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/eyes.html

www.noah-health.org/en/eye/topics/basics.html

Mushroom People-Dr. Freeman

The presentation from Dr. Freeman of the mushrooms was very exciting. It was a real cool experience to see fascinating/different types of mushrooms. I have never seen such cool mushrooms in my life before. The favorite mushroom i liked the most was the mushroom that made a poof like smoke when you hit the top of it. It was the most weirdest and coolest mushroom i have ever seen. I have learned about dangerous poisonous mushroooms, and i enjoyed the guest speakers story of the bug/mushroom soup. I have enjoyed and learned a lot of the presentation displayed by the guest mushroom speakers.

Giardia lamblia

Giardia lamblia causes non-bacterial diarrhea. Infection is commonly by contaminated water supply. Giardia lamblia is a diarrheal illness caused by a one-celled, microscopic parasite. This parasite has become recognized as one of the most common causes of waterborne diseasein humans worldwide and in every region of the United States. It is an internal parasite the causes diarrhea.


Giardia lamblia full taxonomy: Domain: Eukarya, Kingdom: Protista,
Phylum: Sarcomastigophora, Class: Zoomastigophora, Order: Diplomonadida,
Family: Hexamitidae, Genus: Giardia, Species: lamblia
Giardia lamblia's Habitat: Giardia lamblia lives/attaches in a small intestine, colonizing and reproducing inside. It attaches to the epithelium by a ventral adhesive disc, and reproduces via binary fission. Giardia is found in soil, food, water, or surfaces that have been contaminated with the feces from infected humans or animals. Giardia lamblia can come from contaminated water which includes water that has not been boiled, filtered, or disinfected with chemicals.
Giardia lamblia's Predators: Giardia lamblia's predators are the treatment. Treatment of drinking water for Giardia typically involves high efficiency filtration and/or chemical disinfection such as chlorination or ozonation. Human infection is conventionally treated with metronidazole, tinidazole or nitazoxanide. One of the most common alternative treatments is berberine sulfate.
Giardia lamblia's Prey: Giardia lamblia absorb their nutrients from the lumen of the small intestine, which is their prey. They use their sucking discs to eat their prey.
Giardia lamblia's Anatomy: The cysts of Giardia lamblia are 8 - 12 mm in size and are ellipsoid in shape. They contain 4 nuclei which do not tend to be obvious.The trophozoites of Giardia lamblia are pear shaped and are an average size of 9 - 20 mm. The movement of the trophozoite is described as tumbling leaf motility. Giardia often looks like a "clown face," with two nuclei outlined by adhesive discs above dark median bodies that form the "mouth."
Historical Information on Giardia lamblia: In 1681, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek first observed the trophozoite form of Giardia in his own diarrhea stools. In 1915, Professor A. Giard of Paris, named the parasite. Professor A. Giard's observations were recreated, using a single lensed microscope of the kind used by Leeuwenhoek, who showed how clearly one could view Giardia through a primitive microscope. In 1998, there was a Giardia outbreak in Sydney, Australia that was found to be due to contamination of the water supply. This was ameliorated with improved water treatment, and was another outbreak in Bergen(Norway) in 2004.
Other Information on Giardia lamblia: Giardia lamblia can be found ANYWHERE in the world! It also commonly spreads through day-care centers and it has been known to spread when diapered toddlers swim in inadequately chlorinated pools or water parks.

Links on Giardia lamblia: http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=1100,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia, http://www.cdc.gov/Ncidod/dpd/parasites/giardiasis/factsht_giardia.htm

Information on Evolution from guest speaker!

There were five main points on evidence for evolution explained by the guest speaker, Louise Mead. She has talked about biogeography, the distribution of plants and animals around the globe, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, fossil records, and developmental biology. These were the five key points she explained during her lecture. She had great slide shows explaining these five key points to the class with examples and pictures on evidence for evolution. The guest speaker, Louise Mead, taught the class that there is evidence for evolution. She talked about her experiences with salamanders that she has worked on and showed other examples on evolution. She has taught the class interesting facts on evolution and gave more knowledge on evolution.

Dinosaur Facts!!!

A new genus/species of dinosaurs have been found in Antartica! It has lived in the Early Jurassic 190 milllion years ago and is a massive plant-eating dinosaur. It is a primitive sauropodomorph and is called Glacialisaurus hammeri. This new type of species were the largest animals to ever walk on earth too. It was also extremely difficult to take out the fossils in Antartica because of the hard weather there.

I always liked dinosaurs because they were the coolest animals I've read about in books when I was little. This new species of dinosaurs really fascinates me because it has been found in Antartica, a place I would have never guessed would have dinosaur fossils buried there. I am also astounded by the fact that their sister relatives were the Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor (those both being meat eaters) , and modern birds. Modern birds being relatives to land animals really fascinates me as well.

Link to the website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071210214308.htm

Fascinating News!!!!!!!!

The fires burning in California last week led out huge, massive amounts of carbin dioxide into the atmosphere. I learned that this large scale fire could pump out as much carbon dioxide into the air in a few weeks as the state's entire motor vehicle traffic does in a year! THis is very harmful to the environment because of so much pollution. The impact of the fires can create climate changes which is not a good thing, forcefully.

Here's the link to my blog:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071101085029.htm