Nature: Teaching Children Genomic Concepts Using Harry Potter Vocabulary

Today I found this Correspondence published in Nature four years ago. An Australian group of researches are trying to teach some basic concepts of Genetics, at least, to anybody who wanted to learn using the world-wide known vocabulary and characters of the sequel of Harry Potter. Enjoy it!

"...This suggests that wizarding ability is inherited in a mendelian fashion, with the wizard allele (W) being recessive to the muggle allele (M). According to this hypothesis, all wizards and witches therefore have two copies of the wizard allele (WW). Harry's friends Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom and his arch-enemy Draco Malfoy are 'pure-blood' wizards: WW with WW ancestors for generations back. Harry's friend Hermione is a powerful muggle-born witch (WW with WM parents). Their classmate Seamus is a half-blood wizard, the son of a witch and a muggle (WW with one WW and one WM parent). Harry (WW with WW parents) is not considered a pure-blood, as his mother was muggle-born."

PubMed

I found out this exciting article published on June 2009 in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing. The title is "Growing up at the intersection of the genomic era and the information age" [Citation: J Pediatr Nurs 2009 Jun;24(3):189-93. Epub 2008 Apr 28.].

I quoted the abstract:

"Children actively seek to make sense of their worlds based on the information they receive and their experience. For children growing up at the intersection of genomic era and information age, the array of information and experience continues to expand. This article highlights the importance of exploring these early contexts for learning, including the children's exposure to books and mass media, and the impact of early learning on later health literacy and behaviors. This article presents a case study discussing the inheritance of cystic fibrosis using the Harry Potter book series."

Another article:

(Acknowledgments to Daniel and Daniela)

Harry Potter and the curse of headache.

Sheftell F, Steiner TJ, Thomas H.

The New England Center for Headache, Stamford, CT, USA.

"Headache disorders are common in children and adolescents. Even young male Wizards are disabled by them. In this article we review Harry Potter's headaches as described in the biographical series by JK Rowling. Moreover, we attempt to classify them. Regrettably we are not privy to the Wizard system of classifying headache disorders and are therefore limited to the Muggle method, the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edition (ICHD-II). Harry's headaches are recurrent. Although conforming to a basic stereotype, and constant in location, throughout the 6 years of his adolescence so far described they have shown a tendency to progression. Later descriptions include a range of accompanying symptoms. Despite some quite unusual features, they meet all but one of the ICHD-II criteria for migraine, so allowing the diagnosis of 1.6 Probable migraine."

unedited

REVIEW: The Mistake of the Allies

Recently, it has been documented the phenomenon of inducible tolerance to the clastogenic effects of Arsenic (REF). Some therapeutic uses of arsenic-containing compounds have been developed in the last years. Arsenic-containing drugs are today almost exclusively used in the treatment of protozoan infections (REF) and acute promyelocytic leukaemia (REF). Another revolutionary study probed that after arsenic-induced malignant transformation, these cells appear to acquire resistance to apoptosis (REF).

Based on this results, my proposal is based on the regrettable situation happened at the end of the World War II, when many war-criminals avoided the justice taking advantage of the suicide. If the actual knowledge about the induction of Arsenic tolerance had been known before, the Allies had anticipated the dead of lots of criminals giving some microdosis of Arsenic, preventing the well-known nazis' final.

Odio Cuernavaca

Después de, tal vez, dos semanas de llover diario y durante todo el día, mi casa empieza a padecer de filtraciónes de humedad, los artrópodos huyen de sus habitats comunes y migran hacia mi cuarto y por último, manifestaciónes de humanos obstruyen la única salida que hay de mi colonia hacia las escasas opciones gastronómicas de esta desagradable ciudad.

Law of cat composition

Law of cat composition. A cat is composed of Matter + Anti-Matter + It Doesn’t Matter

Cats in Physics, the 25 laws here.

Ashtanga

Esta semana estaré practicando Ashtanga Yoga

Saludos al Sol, Vela, Arriero, Rueda, Garza, Triconasana, Perro, Bebé, Cobra, Guerrero, Plancha, Inversiones...