Bench Marks

As both a scientist and a music fan, it’s a rare event when the two worlds overlap. Most songs you can find with a scientific bent are usually too cutesy, or just downright annoying. That’s why the work of Jonathan Coulton is such a pleasant surprise. (more…)

One of June’s featured freely available protocols on CSH Protocols details the use of Keller explants and sandwiches, a tremendously useful Xenopus method originally developed to allow observation of gastrulation movements, particularly convergent extension. The key is that these explants remain flat instead of curling up, and the mesoderm elongates in a plane with the adjacent ectoderm, rather than involuting. This allows you to see what would normally be happening beneath the surface in an opaque embryo. (more…)

With the explosive growth in Epigenetics research in recent years, new techniques have come along that help clarify the relationships between proteins (or protein complexes) and chromosomal DNA. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) technology allows the dynamic visualization of chromosomal proteins in their natural context. (more…)