<![CDATA[Bone Lab Radio

<![CDATA[Bone Lab Radio - Blog]]>Mon, 18 May 2020 23:42:11 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Episode 6 - Mystery Skeleton]]>Sun, 29 Oct 2017 16:16:48 GMThttp://www.bonelabradio.org/blog/episode-6-mystery-skeletonHave you ever wondered if there was a skeleton in your backyard? What about finding a skeleton while out on a hike? Would you know how to identify which bones were which? Could you figure out what kind of animal the bones belonged to? In this episode, we join a group of children as they try to assemble and identify the bones of a mystery skeleton.

We begin at the Discovery Center in the Museum of Science Boston, where we meet a group of children and youth staff volunteers at the mystery skeleton station. Margarita Forbes, one of the staff volunteers, is guiding the children through the activity, primarily by asking them questions.

As the children assemble the bones of the skeleton and see how the pieces fit together, we discuss the intent behind the design of the activity with Rachel Fyler, the Education Associate for Childhood Development at the Discovery Center. She introduces us to the concept of inquiry based learning, and teaching with the goal of letting the students be the scientists.

Next we drop in on a book reading at a public library outside of Boston. Here, we find Sara Levine reading to a group of children and their parents from her book, Bone by Bone. This book is a question-based tour of vertebrate anatomy. Sara has brought a lot of props to her reading, including several skeletons that the kids are encouraged to compare and assemble.

We wondered how these interactive learning activities could be incorporated into more formal teaching settings. We spoke to Dr. Sumudu Lewis, Director of the UTeach program at UMass Lowell to get her insights on this issue. She told us about the structure of the Uteach program and its goal to change the way we teach our teachers.
We then go back to the Discovery Center to catch up with our group at the mystery skeleton. We catch them just as they are putting the final pieces together and deciphering the puzzle.

To help us identify the mystery skeleton, and to learn more about how inquiry based approaches to teaching are helping children have fun while learning, tune in to the latest episode of Bone Lab Radio.

For more information about our resources, check out our links and descriptions below.

Discovery Center, Museum of Science Boston

Settled within the Museum of Science Boston, the Discovery Center offers an assortment of fun, hands-on activities that are designed to encourage discovery through play. The Discovery Center caters especially to children from infancy to age eight and their accompanying grownups. The learning process is fostered by a core staff of interpreters, often young adults, who enhance the learning process by inspiring curiosity and wonder.

Sara Levine graduated from Haverford college with a degree in English before obtaining a a doctorate in Veterinary medicine at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. She is now an Assistant Professor at Wheelock College, where she teaches several courses including Human Biology, New England Ecology, Human Disease, and Dinosaur Biology! She favors a hands-on and practical approaches to learning.

Dr. Levine has written several children’s books. Her first, Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons, won Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year (2014) and the Utah Beehive Prize (2016). Her second book, Tooth by Tooth: Comparing Fangs, Tusks, and Chompers, won the 2017 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Her third book, Fossil by Fossil: Comparing Dinosaur Bones, will be published in 2018. Find more about her books here.

Dr. Sumudu Lewis is the director of the UTeach program at UMass Lowell. UTeach is a practice-oriented teacher preparation program focused on math and science content and teaching using inquiry-based and project-based instruction. The goal of the UTeach program is to develop young teachers whose professional practice embraces inquiry design and engagement through application.

Credits:

Artwork: Michele Woronowicz

Production: Jeannie Bailey, Jennifer Fish, Jenny Qi, Ralph St. Louis, Kate Woronowicz

]]><![CDATA[Episode 4 - Life and Limb]]>Mon, 30 May 2016 17:24:28 GMThttp://www.bonelabradio.org/blog/episode-4-life-and-limb

For some people, a chance life event can change everything. Injury or disease may require amputation- the loss of a limb. But not necessarily a loss of your game. In this episode, you’ll hear the story of these special athletes, the coaches that inspire them, and the doctors and that heal them.

We begin at a basketball clinic held at the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). As we walk in, there’s a heated scrimmage between members of the Golden State Warriors Coaching staff and members of a basketball team calledAMP1. AMP1 is a basketball team composed of players from all over the country, all of whom are amputees. They practice on their own, and then fly in to play games or run clinics, like those organized by the Amputee Comprehensive Training (ACT) Program at UCSF.

People of all ages and backgrounds came to participate in this clinic. We hear some of their stories and why they came to participate. The overriding theme is that the participants enjoyed meeting other people like themselves- other people with prosthetic legs. They really benefit from being in a supportive community that makes them feel safe trying new things- things they haven’t done in some time. It’s also nice to get some support from the local professional basketball team and to get a high-five from Warriors coach and former NBA player, Luke Walton.

After getting an experience of what it’s like to play high performance sports as an amputee, Alex takes us on a tour of the facility at UCSF where custom prosthetics are made. He’s tells us about the process of working together with patients, and helping them achieve their goals. They’re not just looking to walk again, but rather they want to play sports, go hiking, swimming, and/or many other activities that most of us take for granted.

Generating an artificial limb is not as straight-forward as you might think. A lot of people think you can just stand on the end of the limb, but when the bone is cut, it can be quite painful. This is because limbs normally have built in shock absorbers, such as joints that help absorb the pressure of impact of the body’s weight against the ground when walking or running. In the case of an amputee, the pressure of the body’s weight must be distributed somewhere else.

In this month’s episode, we learn about how prosthetics are personalized to the individual amputee. In doing so, we gain some insight into the personal connection between patient and prosthetic. Although there may be some parallels between prosthetics and mechanical things like bikes, Alex and his colleagues see each prosthetic as an extension of an individual.

To hear more about these stories, and about how modern technology combined with old school heart and desire are helping amputees stand-up and shoot for their dreams, tune in to this month’s episode of Bone Lab Radio.

AMP1 Basketball is the only organized team of amputees playing stand-up (rather than wheelchair) basketball in the United States. They are coached by co-founder Tyler Hyatt. Tyler spoke to us about his experience as an amputee and player with AMP1 basketball.

Watch a video of them playing here.

Alex Hetherington graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Bioengineering. He has conducted medical device research in both industry and academia. At UCSF, Alex coordinates care and treatment plans for prosthetic prescriptions. A primary goal of his research is to define improved patient outcomes and novel prosthetic concepts. Alex is also the Director of the ACT Program within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF, where he organizes the basketball clinic and other activities for amputees.

Credits

Music: I am Running Down a Long Hallway - Chris Zabriskie, Along The Hwy - Alex Fitch, Viper - Ray Rude

Artwork: Michelle Woronowicz

Production: Jeannie Bailey, Jennifer Fish, Jenny Qi, Kate Woronowicz

Episode 4 - Life and Limb by The Bone Lab is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

]]><![CDATA[Episode 3 - Good Vibrations]]>Mon, 29 Feb 2016 07:51:54 GMThttp://www.bonelabradio.org/blog/episode-3-good-vibrations

Think of your favorite song. How does it make you feel? What images do you see when you hear it? Before reaching the brain to create those feelings and images, those musical sounds take a strange, physical, mechanical, and sometimes violent path through the ear.

A large part of how we perceive the audible world depends upon a set of tiny, vibrating bones--bones that often get overlooked until something goes wrong. In this month’s episode, we tell the story of these unsung skeletal heroes, the role they play in hearing, and how unforeseen circumstances can cause irreparable damage.

But first, let’s get acquainted with those three tiny bones known as the ear ossicles. They’re called the malleus (hammer), the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup). The Bone Lab’s artist, Michelle Woronowicz, has drawn them situated inside the head to show their size and location. The ear ossicles sit inside an air filled chamber called the middle ear, which is located between the tympanic membrane at the edge of the outer ear, and the cochlea of the inner ear. As you can see, the ossicles are in just the right spot to transmit sound vibrations from the outer ear to the inner ear, where sound waves are sent off to our brains.

This diagram shows the three main regions of the ear. The outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

This diagram has a color coded key with names of parts of the ear we talk about in this episode.

In this month’s episode, Dr. Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Jauregui, an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor spoke to us about how these bones help us hear, as well as some of the everyday activities we do that could be dangerous, such as listening to loud music, or even using Q-tips!

We also learn about tinnitus, the perception of noise or ringing in the ears that no one else can hear. Did you know that Ronald Reagan suffered from tinnitus after a pistol was fired close to his ear while filming a movie? In addition to our guests, many other musicians also suffer from tinnitus, including Ozzy Osbourne, Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand! Even Charles Darwin is reported to have suffered from tinnitus.

Special thanks to our guests, Dr. Eric Pietras and Tom Honey, who talked to us about their experiences with tinnitus.

This is Eric Pietras. He makes music that incorporates ambient recordings. He shared a story about his experience with hearing loss and tinnitus caused by an extremely loud rock show.

Dr. Eric Pietras is a scientist, at UC Denver. He’s also a musician. For Eric, music is very personal- in music he sees memories, reflections of particular moments in time. That’s why he was especially frightened by the prospect of losing his hearing after a close encounter with speakers at a Flaming Lips concert. The sound was so loud that his ears actually bled. As a result of this injury, his hearing went from that of a twenty year old to that of a forty year old. But still, Eric is lucky. He isn’t completely deaf. In fact, he still composes electronic music and hosts a weekly ambient and experimental music radio show entitled Sounds In the Dark on the internet radio station, BFF.fm.

This is Tom Honey. He creates music under the handle Good Weather for an airstrike as a way to combat the sleeplessness he suffers from as a result of tinnitus.

We also heard from Tom Honey, who produces ambient music under the handle “Good Weather For An Airstrike.” He was motivated to start this music project as a means of dealing with tinnitus and the insomnia it can cause. In Tom’s case, it wasn’t one particular event that triggered tinnitus, but perhaps rather long-term use of headphones and listening to music that may have been too loud. Now, he has chronic ringing in his ears, that he describes as a nagging sensation that he just can’t shake. At night, when it’s quiet, it’s the only thing he can focus on. Tom realized that he could distract himself from the ringing in his ears by listening to soothing music, especially when he’s trying to fall asleep. He discovered certain types of music really helped him sleep, and he began his own music project, which is specifically designed to help people sleep- and that’s a good thing!

To hear more about their stories, along with a tale of the unsung heros of our skeleton, the ossicles, tune in to this month’s episode of The Bone Lab.

Credits

Music:Beams by Eric Pietras, The Silent World by Happiness in Aeroplanes, Pink Gradient by Podington Bear, A Song For Libby by Good Weather For An Airstrike, Like Swimming by Broke For Free

Artwork: Michelle Woronowicz

Production: Jeannie Bailey, Jennifer Fish, Jenny Qi, Kate Woronowicz

Episode 3 - Good Vibrations by The Bone Lab is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

]]><![CDATA[Episode 2 - Bones Don't Lie]]>Fri, 29 Jan 2016 08:00:04 GMThttp://www.bonelabradio.org/blog/episode-2-bones-dont-lie

Picture the flag on a pirate ship. What do you see? A grinning skull and bones crossed in an ominous “X.” These bones are always gleaming white. But have you ever thought about how they got that way? Those pristine bones used to be wrapped in sheaths of muscle that moved them around, skin and hair that protected them. This episode tells the story of how a living, breathing organism turns into a pile of bones, and how those bones can tell us about the lives they led hundreds, or even thousands of years ago.

As biologists, we tend to think about how bones develop and grow in living organisms and how they carry us through our lives. We can look through a microscope and show you how bone cells divide, how cells produce the hard mineral and tough fibers that makes a femur, how individual cells die. But what happens to the body after the organism dies?

This episode tells the story of how a living, breathing organism turns into a pile of bones, and how those bones can tell us about the lives they led hundreds or even thousands of years ago. That old saying is wrong. In a way... dead men do tell tales. Bones have stories to tell.

But first, before we can get to the story of bones, we need to know more about decomposition, the process by which organic matter is broken down, or, more simply, the process of rotting. To get more information on this subject, we spoke with Myeashea Alexander, a trained anthropologist and rockstar blogger. She had a lot of colorful descriptions of what happens when our bodies decay. While it may be gross to us, decomposing flesh is a tasty buffet for lots of other animals.

In the lab, we take advantage of flesh-eating beetles to help clean bones that we study. The beetles are so meticulous in their feeding that they clean flesh from places that would be virtually inaccessible to dissection tools. The brain, the flesh between individual delicate ribs. It’s all gone. And we can retrieve even the teeny tiny bones of a rat paw from our beetle colony.

In the lab, we look at bones to understand their development, evolution, or disease. However, bones can actually tells us many things. Anthropologists (scientists that study humans) often want to know the age, sex, height, and/or ancestry of individuals or populations. By studying human remains in the field, anthropologists can develop biological profiles and life histories of individuals and societies.

Christine sent us this photo of a team excavating tombs in Mongolia.

To understand how this is done, we spoke to Christine Lee, an assistant professor at California State University Los Angeles and a bioarchaeologist who travels all over the world to piece together ancient lives and cultures, particularly in China and Mongolia. She told us how bones can inform us about the movement of populations and interactions between different groups.

While this episode is largely about bones and the stories they tell about the dead, it’s also about the lives of those people that study these bones. Working with the dead is not for everyone. It presents many challenges, from dealing with smelly, gross decomposing bodies, to traveling out in distant, far off lands with unfamiliar cultures. For Christine, working in the field involves sleeping in a tent, not being able to bathe for days, and if you do bathe, it’s in a cold river flooded by glaciers. Then there’s the fact that there’s “going to be a lot of men, and...it could be chaos.”

To illustrate how harsh the conditions can be in the field, Christine sent this picture of some Mongolian students rebuilding gers (traditional Mongolian housing) after a rain storm.

Follow along with the stories of the bones and their storytellers in this month’s episode of The Bone Lab.

Myeashea Alexander is a physical anthropologist, photographer, and rockstar blogger. She has worked with the Smithsonian, The Franklin Institute, and The Clinton Global Initiative University, and she was a recent attendee of a national science communication conference ComSciCon, where Jenny fortuitously met her. She also blogs about her diverse experiences and expertise. Find out more here:

https://therockstaranthropologist.wordpress.com/

Christine Lee is a Bio-Archaeologist and Assistant Professor at California State University, Los Angeles. She is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a TED Global Fellow. Her research interests include the effect of imperialism on local populations in China and Mongolia. You can learn more about her work here:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/christine-lee/

Traditional Mongolian Music (not used in the episode but really cool)

Tuvan throat singing

“All Mongols” ethnic group singers

Credits:

Music: Happiness in Aeroplanes, Project 5am, The Losers

Artwork: Michelle Woronowicz

Production: Jeannie Bailey, Jennifer Fish, Jenny Qi, Kate Woronowicz

Episode 2 - Bones Don't Lie by The Bone Lab is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

]]><![CDATA[Episode 1 - About Face]]>Wed, 09 Dec 2015 08:00:02 GMThttp://www.bonelabradio.org/blog/episode-1-about-face

When Francis was born, nobody knew whether he’d survive. The doctors didn’t know what happened. His parents were in such a state of shock that they immediately abandoned him. Strangers underestimate him just because he looks different. Despite this, he found the strength to fight against negative attitudes and achieve things that no one expected.

Development in the womb is a complex process. How do we grow from a single, fertilized egg cell into a living, breathing baby? Somewhere along the way, we develop roughly 200 specialized types of cells that make up our nerves, our muscles, our bones, and everything else. This sequence of events is extremely sensitive, and there are many opportunities for development to go wrong. The odds are stacked against us before we're even born. For every three fertilized eggs, chances are that only one of them will survive to term. That’s how complicated this entire process is.

This episode is about our friend, Dr. Francis Smith. He was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. It’s a genetic disorder where the bones of the face and ears do not form.

Francis, 2 years old, before any reconstructive surgeries.

When Francis was developing, something happened to the cells that were building his face. These cells failed to develop. This caused extensive defects in the bones that make up the face, ears, and jaw.

Francis, in the middle of some microscopy.

Francis drew these pictures based on CAT scans of his own skull at age 7. He was born with incomplete eye sockets, no cheekbones, a cleft palate, meaning that his mouth and his nose were not completely separate, and a jaw so small that it squeezed his airway shut.

Since then, he's had rib grafts to replace his missing cheekbones and lower eye-socket rims, plus multiple upper and lower jaw surgeries.

All these procedures helped Francis breathe and eat more naturally. This gave him the independence to pursue his education. But his struggle wasn't just physical. He was teased by classmates and teachers. People would take one look at him and assume he had a learning disability. He describes elementary and middle school as some of the hardest times of his life.

Fortunately, he found a supportive environment in high school, and that's when he was encouraged to follow his interest in medicine. It’s probably not a surprise that he wanted to become an expert on skulls. He followed the typical pre-med student track in college. He moved to London to earn a Masters degree. And we met Francis while he earned his PhD at University of California, San Francisco.

Nearly every time we saw him on campus, he was carrying a violin case. He’s been playing music since he was a child, but, during the course of the interview, he revealed that he was born without ear canals or those tiny bones behind the eardrum, the ossicles. Despite this, he somehow learned to play piano and taught himself to play violin.

Francis's ear has no opening to the outside, no ear canal through the bone, and no ossicles.

Normal human ear

A major motivator in Francis's life is his identity as a Treacher Collins Syndrome patient. He is active in the craniofacial community and often attends conferences and retreats designed to bring patients with craniofacial syndromes together. One of the retreats that Francis attends was founded by Cher after she played the mother of a boy with a craniofacial condition in the 1985 movie "Mask." He and Cher keep in touch and she often invites him backstage at her shows.

Francis with Cher at a craniofacial retreat in 2000.

Hanging backstage with Cher in 2014.

At the top of this post, we wrote about the incredible odds against each of us as we develop from a fertilized egg into a functional adult human. These odds against Francis led to his unusually hard life, but through a lot of perseverance, he’s managed to turn it into something extraordinary.

Follow Francis's journey, and hear him play some piano in this month's episode of The Bone Lab.

Credits:

Music - Sunhiilow, Eric Pietras, Francis Smith, Broke for Free

Artwork - Michelle Woronowicz

Production - Jeannie Bailey, Jennifer Fish, Jenny Qi, Kate Woronowicz

Episode 1 - About Face by The Bone Lab is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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