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Friday August 18, 2006
Welcome to Plant Growth and Development Hi! Both of your instructors are new to web blogs but we thought that they would be a great way to have a discussion about plants. So bear with us if we make mistakes. One of the first things I found out is that Safari (Macintosh) doesn't support posting. Firefox is great.
We'd like to hear from you about why you want to take this course, what kind of research you're doing, and anything else you'd like to tell us.
Here's my spiel: I'm really looking forward to learning about development and thinking about all the levels of regulation and interaction that are important for plant growth. Francis Collins (former head of the Human Genome Project) has a new book on his personal resolution of science and religion. What do you think of his idea that DNA can be thought of as scripture? Well, it's an interesting idea but I think RNA rules! Is there a master regulator? Or does everything work together? (I don't want to get into a discussion about religion, BTW, just wanted to get the ball rolling on some ideas!)
As you'll find out, Bob is a real geneticist and I'm a real plant person. I try to think like a geneticist but sometimes it's hard. I do bow before the awesome power of Arabidopsis genetics.
I do research on virus-induced gene silencing and also on transgenic methods for increasing ER calcium stores. I hope that some day this research will lead to more sustainable agriculture. I like the research because it never goes in a straight line and what you think will happen often doesn't. It's the challenge of re-thinking and then getting a clue that maybe you're on the right track that is really rewarding.
I have a 16 year old daughter who is learning to drive and who plays mellophone in marching band. My husband is director of the Plant Transformation Lab across the street from my lab. And we have a very sweet 9 year old German Shepard dog who likes sticks more than anything else in the world.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Trackback URL: http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/plantdev/entry/welcome_to_plant_growth_and
Thanks for getting the Blog going, Niki. This is also my first Blogging attempt.
To apply labels in science is a very standard and interesting thing in and of itself. These labels really define how we look at the data we observe and, I suspect, strongly bias or channel how we construct our reality. This maybe an interesting topic for discussion, or at least something to keep in mind as you continue on you scientific development. The most creative discoveries are of course by people who can look outside these categories or labels and/or combine several together in a new way.
As Niki mentioned my ?labels? are Geneticist and Developmental Biologist. Of those I probably bias my thinking mostly as a Developmental Biologist. I will try to help you see what some of the standard ways that a Developmental Biologist or a Geneticist looks at and perturbs phenomena. I happen to work in the flowering weed Arabidopsis thaliana which I love to work with. I used to work with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster which I also still think is cute.
I hope that this will serve as a good way to exchange ideas during the semester and to discuss some aspects of the papers and course topics that we touch upon in class and then later something pops into your head that doesn?t really make sense. Following out the things that don?t make sense is often where discovery happens. Memorizing and fitting things into the existing models is easier and what we do most often. It is clearly the necessary bread and butter of any scientist. Hopefully we can help you get better at this as well.
Bob
PS. For those who dont know me as well and want to check out my research web site follow this link:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/genetics/franks/franks.html
Posted by Bob Franks on August 21, 2006 at 10:10 AM EDT #
Hello Everyone! I have been working in Bob's lab as a MS Master's student for the last year, but have recently switched programs to non-thesis. This is because I am hoping to go to dental school, NOT because I don't like research! I love the lab enough that I'll still be frequenting my bench, trying to get as much done in the next year as possible. Since I have spent the last year hunting a mutation that affects floral development in the venerable Arabidopsis, I'm hoping that this course will increase my understanding of plant development to the point that when I actually FIND my mutation--maybe I'll be able to understand what it does!
My wife Nancy and I are recent denizens of Raleigh, having moved here over the summer after a year of commuting from Durham. We have a 14 year old chocolate lab who ignores sticks but loves table scraps, and a 1.5 year old mutt who chases anything that moves.
Posted by Mark J. Vaders on August 23, 2006 at 12:11 AM EDT #
Touching on one of Niki's comments: That she likes science because "it never goes in a straight line".
I also like this very much about scientific research. It is sometimes the cause of frustration, but it is also the fun part. Two nice effects of this are that you are always learning something new and that it allows one to follow serendipity or luck in what ever direction it happens to lead. I like this, I know others are not as comfortable with this, but to me that is the fun of it.
Just this past two weeks in the lab we believe that we have isolated two genes that play a role in ovule/seed development along with SEUSS a third gene that is of interest to our lab. SEUSS is a transcription factor and so we thought that these two genes might be involved in transcription. However, what we now believe is that one of the genes is a membrane-bound receptor kinase and the second is involves in plant hormone synthesis. I therefore have a lot of new things to learn about these two areas in the coming months.
Posted by Bob Franks on August 23, 2006 at 10:00 AM EDT #