Happy Mother's Day

My parents started a family when they were very young. My mother dropped out of college and had a couple of kids, while my father was working on his degree. My mother stayed home with us until we were both in school. She attended evening classes to become a teacher. She had a number of jobs; her jobs working for an insurance company and as a high school teacher I can still remember (I was in middle/high school myself at the time).

After I had been in college for a couple of years, my mother decided to go back to school. She had started a degree in economics in the mid-late 60s, and now she choose to go back to school and get a BA in Public Administration. She had to take remedial math classes, and I tutored her. It can't have been a terrible teacher, because she scored easy A's for all her math courses. She finished her degree in record time, with flying colors.

Through it all, she managed to make sure both her kids attended track-and-field, swimming, tennis, ballet, gymnastics, and music sessions (I'm probably forgetting some). She would often spend virtually all afternoon driving us from one place to the next. Not to mention a couple of huge birthday parties every year. And home-made chicken soup or mashed potatoes with vegetables when we were sick. I took her dedication for granted at the time, but it really hit home when my brother got ill.

My mother and brother left the country, so that he could get better treatment. For almost a year, my mother spent every waking minute of her existence making sure my brother's needs were met, physically and emotionally. Nothing was too much for her if it made his day better.

I am now a mother of 3 kids myself, and I cannot begin to imagine what parents go through when they lose a child. I was there when my parents went this, but I was too busy grieving for my brother to notice. The next year of my life is sort of a blur, but I have a vague sensation of huddling close to my parents and a sense of shared grief, and trying to hold on to the memories of his life. What I do know is that one never gets over such a loss, one simply learns to live with it. And eventually one finds ways to be happy again.

My mother is getting ready to retire from her job at a bank soon. She is very active in the community, fighting against gender-inequality, and creating opportunities for women to further themselves, to become stronger, more self-sufficient. This is how she helps many other mothers.

She also has a lot of fun. She is singing, dancing, exercising, and doing all the things she never could when she had demanding, snot-nosed, ungrateful little kids running around. I rarely get to tell her this, but I hope that when I'm her age, I get to live as full, happy, and active a life as she is now.

When we were little, my brother and I would let my mother sleep in on Mother's Day. We would then serve her breakfast in bed, and bring her the presents we had gotten with help from our father a few days earlier. I remember vividly the scrambled eggs, the toast, the coffee. And I would take my guitar and play in my parent's bedroom what I'd learned the previous week. Now we live far apart, and I can no longer serve her breakfast or bring her presents on Mother's Day. But I can write this, and give her a call later. So ma:

Happy Mother's Day. Here's a rose for you:

[Photo Credit]

DNA replication

This is how DNA replication should be explained (by David Ng)! Much better than anything I can put together. HT to coturnix.

Zen mom

Can someone let my beloved husband know that I'm considered Zen mom according to the latest quiz results:

Your quiz score makes you: Zen Mom How do you do it? Even when explosions are all around, you are able to take a deep cleansing breath and chant your mantra "this too shall pass." You are a calming influence on your kids in a hectic world.

Note:
Remember: Chatterbean quizzes are non-scientific, non-fat and pretty much just non-sense. They are meant solely for entertainment purposes and are not intended to provide an accurate evaluation of anything.

www.areyouaslackermom.com

Spring semester over!

Well, Spring semester is finally over! All grades have been turned in, and presumably this means I will have my husband back. That would be nice. At least for a week, we can hang out. And then it starts all over again. Although, hopefully, it will never get as crazy again as it has been this Spring.

Oomycota are not fungi

Among the Oomycota (pronounced oh-oh-mycota), or oomycetes, are a number of very destructive plant pathogens, that have traditionally been studied by mycologists and were classified with the fungi, as "lower fungi."

The most notorious member of this group is Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight of potatoes, which was responsible for about 1 million deaths in the Irish Potato famine in the 1840s, and continues to cause losses in potato crops. Other examples are Plasmopara spp., and Peronospora spp. which cause downy mildew diseases, and Pythium spp., responsible for damping-off and a number of root rots on different crops.

These organisms were grouped with fungi for a long time, because they have a life style similar to that of the true fungi, getting their nutrients through absorption from their host or substrate. They also produce mycelium (the stringy, fluffy stuff often associated with fungi), which looks a lot like that of fungi, and they produce spores that look superficially like those of fungi. Sporangia are asexual spores from Oomycota and are formed on sporangiophores (see picture below). Under cool, wet conditions, short-lived zoospores with two different flagella can form within the sporangia. In the case of Phytophthora infestans, 20-50 zoospores can form within one sporangium, spreading the disease much faster than under warm, dry conditions, when each sporangium can only result in one infection.












Coenocytic sporangiophores with (asexual) sporangia from Peronospora sp.


Despite the similarities listed above, there are numerous differences between the Oomycota and the true fungi, and only fairly recently has DNA sequencing confirmed that Oomycota are close relatives of algae.

1. Oomycota are diploid (have 2 copies of each chromosome in one nucleus per cell), while fungi are haploid (have one copy of each chromosome in one nucleus per cell) or dikaryotic (two nuclei per cell, each with a haploid set of chromosomes).

2. The cell wall of Oomycota consists of beta glucans and cellulose, while fungal cell walls are predominantly made of chitin.

3. The mitochondria (organelles in cells responsible for energy production) of Oomycota have tubular cristae (internal compartments of mictochondria), while those of fungi are flattened.

4. Oomycota have distinctive sexual reproduction with oospores (that is where the name "Oomycota is derived from) that are fertilized by antheridia, while fungi don't have oospores, instead their sexual reproduction involves zygospores, ascospores, or basidiospores.

5. Zoospores (a different kind of spore also produced by Oomycota) have flagella that are distinct from those produced by true fungi if they do produce flagella.

6. Oomycota usually do not have cell walls between adjacent cells (they are coenocytic, see picture).

Fairly recent molecular evidence supports microscopic observations that indicate Oomycota are closely related to algae. However, mycologists continue to study these organisms in addition to the true fungi, mainly because their life styles are so similar. For plant pathologists, the newly revealed phylogenetic information has implications for population studies and control measures.

Rossmann, A.Y., and Palm, M.E. 2006. Why are Phytophthora and other Oomycota not true Fungi?
Feature Story May 2007 on APSnet
Kendrick, B. 2000. The Fifth Kingdom. Mycologue Publications. Online version.

Shaken baby syndrome

I noticed yesterday that someone found their way to my blog by searching for the term" meaning of shaken kids," strangely enough because of my post about my son learning to shake his head to communicate "no." I then did a quick search on Wikipedia on the shaking of kids. Just reading it, made my stomach turn, and I could almost not finish it.

So whoever did this search, if you read this post. Here are the facts:
1. Kids are very fragile human beings.
2. They have small, developing brains.
3. Shaking kids can cause bleeding of the brain
4. Even a small bleed can cause severe brain damage, including blindness, cerebral palsy, motor skill defects, and death.
5. I know what life is like with a child with disabilities, and I know what life is like for my child.

Whoever feels the need to shake a child. STOP! Take a break, go for a walk, call a friend, splash water on your face, step on your toes, do whatever it takes to take your mind off of this, and don't shake the child. More shivers up my spine.

Broken record

That's what I'm starting to sound like: vaccinate your children. Three cases of measles have been reported in Alachua County, Florida, all of which in people who were not immunized. One of the cases concerns a student at the University of Florida, who has been in contact with the Hare Krishna's providing food to students at the busy Plaza of the America's on campus. The Hare Krishna's have been asked to suspend their services for a few days to ensure no further spreading of the disease is possible. One of the other cases concerns a student of Santa Fe Community College, also in Alachua County.

The only way this outbreak was possible, is because people were not immunized, and if you live in that area, you're only at risk if you're not immunized. On the one hand, I don't want people to start panicking unnecessarily, on the other hand, I hope this has some impact on those who are trying to convince parents not to immunize their kids.

Update May 8: There are now 4 confirmed cases.