AZ Middle and High School Requirements.
These are some 2016 State of Arizona science requirements.
Sense of Smell is a blog on the sense of smell. It starts with a fictitious story of a middle school boy experiencing some powerful memories and physical symptoms in response to some strong odors. I started by asking questions and gave them glimpses of answers that they will not be able to understand in full until at least college. This may be a work in progress to get kids to see wonder in the world about them without thinking that they have to memorize all of the details now.
Chromosomes is a page based on teaching high school kids about non coding region of DNA, how large chromosomes and so on. The state of AZ seemed kind of obsessed with tyrosinase, and enzyme involved in the synthesis of melanin. I was shocked to learn that the “anti-sense” complement of this gene codes for a completely different protein. This page is a how to for students to explore their own gene of choice.
Color vision is about color vision, the sense of site and how blue light controls things far beyond the “memories” that the State of AZ wants middle school kids to be aware of. The interesting thing that middle school kids might want to learn on their on is how blue blocking amber filters might decrease the time it takes to fall asleep when they play with their cell phones before going to bed.
Merkel Cells is about the sense of touch. I’ve included an animation of sorts for special education kids.
Leptin and Sleep is more of a continuing education piece rather than any education requirement for middle and high school kids. This piece is about obesity associated sleep apnea, leptin resistance, and the ventilation response to apoxia.
Cheap Multi-spectral imaging is based on a hobby of mine and what I encountered when some middle school kids were taking their science assessment examination in Fall of 2019. This device cost me less than $20 to build. It also taught me how much I do not know.
AZscienceLS2_matter is about a science requirement of the same name. Plants take energy from the sun to fix carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and fats. we animals burn these compounds for energy. I thought some of the wording was technically inaccurate. I made a simple video to prepare middle and high school kids for memorizing metabolic pathways in college.
I was asked if red blood cells have organelles. RBC organelles is a blog answer.
Mathematics
Elementary Algebra was written in response to the way that simple algebra was being introduced to some antsy 5th graders right after lunch. Special education high school kids are also being introduced to very simple algebra as I learned from my substitute work with Express Professionals.
matrix multiplication was written for a student was having issues understanding matrix multiplication. What amazed me was how hard it was to find information on how to do matrix multiplication in the adult world, i.e. spread sheets.
Biotech stuff
Some of these blogs came from my consulting work for NanoPec.com, a Tucson based company.
unwanted membrane particles in filtration This is another blog written for NanoPec.com. NanoPec completely and totally abandoned the alumina nanopore filter thing.
Filtering of therapeutic antibodies This is something I wrote for a company I did consulting work for. NanoPec wants nothing to do with this. I did help them find an application for their product that they are running with, with no memory whatsoever of me!
novel pancreatic cancer treatment is something I wrote describing a compound that binds to cancer related sequences in DNA. A University of Arizona professor came up with compound.
FGF21 and NASH describes an antibody therapy undergoing clinical trials in Tucson and Phoenix to treat non alcoholic Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. This blog relived by days of writing content for Ignyta clinical trials.
I almost got into a collaboration with VJ Singh with an autoimmunity test for kids you received an MMR vaccine and developed autoimmunity to myelin basic protein or something. For a while I thought that an at home autoimmunity test might be a fun way to make money. Perhaps this should be categorized as “trouble.” This is what happens when a gal performs thousands of Western blots in part of her career.
This is another diagnostic test that should be categorized under “trouble.” Proteins in the brain can actually be released in brain exosomes into the general circulation. I did get some interest in this assay. There’s just not enough motivation and faith in the science to make this one happen.
Inorganic Chemistry
These blogs were inspired by a local Tucson company.
Aluminum metaphosphate has been used in scintillation glass to detect ionizing X-ray radiation.
Barium metaphosphate describes use of barium metaphosphate to favor glass versus crystal formation n fluoride glasses.
F doped ZnO is an exploration of doping zinc oxide thin films with floride anions as a way of replacing ITO printed on glass surfaces.
Dysprosium (III) oxide may be used as doping agents in permanent magnets, as a way to magnetized TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) particles in MRI imaging, and as a way of making white LEDs.
Argyrodite is about a lithium germanium sulfide that is being explored as a solid electrolyte in lithium ion batteries.
Trouble
And now for some posts that a consulting client was too afraid of putting on the informational website I created for them. I’ve survived a couple of months after posting this content.
How does the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine work? This was written almost a year ago. I still am not sure. Part of my consulting service is to be open to conspiracy theories and find a middle ground.
Snake venom in the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine is a good one. There are some elements of truth in this conspiracy theory. Most of it was all a misunderstanding of metaphors. The sequel is snake venom and nAChr, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.