What makes one microscope better than another? A few weeks ago I co-ran a week-long Physics and Human Physiology day camp for high school students, part of the University of Oregon’s “SAIL” program that especially targets low-income students. I’ve written about SAIL before (2019, 2017, 2014) — this was our 14th Physics + Human Physiology … Continue reading A Few Flavors of Microscopes — SAIL recap, 2023
Synopsis: I describe a short activity for high school students on visualizing protein structures and etching them in wood. Challenge: If you’re familiar with proteins, you might like to ask yourself before you get to Part 2: If you were to show non-scientists a few protein structures, which structures would you pick? 1. Background: SAIL … Continue reading Etching proteins — SAIL recap, 2019
Last week we had another successful run of our Physics & Human Physiology “SAIL” outreach day camp for high school students. I just realized that this is the 10th year I’ve co-run a SAIL camp, which means I should probably offer some grand assessment of it. Instead, I’ll just jot a few notes, post a … Continue reading SAIL Recap 2017
A few people have asked what the title of this blog means. In a lull between activities during the camp for post-tenth graders that I’m working with this week, one of the students asked me to tell them a story. So I told them the Indian folktale of the eighteenth elephant, which goes like this: … Continue reading The Eighteenth Elephant
The Eighteenth Elephant 