Biology – Sciences Library News

Aug 16 2018

Top 10 Things to Know About the Sciences Library

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

10. You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

9. You can email, call, or schedule an appointment with one of our librarians (Laurie Neuerburg or Leo Clougherty) if you need help finding books, articles, or anything else for your research.

8. You can use our scanner on the 1st floor for free.

7. You can take a rest and study comfortably using our bean bag chairs, tables, armchairs, and carrels.

6. It’s easy to visit us from downtown–you will find us on Iowa Ave across from Joe’s Place.

5. Our mascot is a gorilla named Chauncey.

4. We can help you find datasets online and properly manage your own research data.

3. Our building was designed to be an anatomical theater for medical students and so the back of the building has a semicircular shape!

2. You can use our subject guides to find the best resources for your research in astronomy, biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics, and more.

1. We provide free coffee and tea!

Aug 10 2018

Natural Language Searching in NCBI Databases

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

NCBI has improved its search functionality in the “all databases” search to be compatible with natural language searching. In the past, natural language searching for sequence data brought up too many results or sometimes zero results. Now you can search NCBI more intuitively than before and receive good results for genes, nucleotides, and assemblies! How do you get started with NCBI’s new natural language searching?

Go to the homepage of NCBI. The default search shows “All Databases” in the drop-down box. Here you can try out some of the improved search queries:

Genes

[Species name] + [gene symbol]
- Chelonia mydas SDHA

Rat B2M

Nucleotide Sequences

[Species name] + [gene symbol] + mRNA/transcript/CDS
- Salmo salar SUMO1 mRNA

Mus musculus Abcg2 transcript

Cow CA2 CDS

Genome Assemblies

[Assembly name]
- GRCz11

[species name] + assembly/genome
- Chicken assembly

Escherichia coli genome

Aug 09 2018

Beekeeping 101 Event is the Bee’s Knees!

Posted on August 9, 2018August 9, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

There was a lively “hive” of people at the Sciences Library for Beekeeping 101!

We heard an informative talk about bees and beekeeping from Jim Davis.

Then we made a bee-line for the courtyard to take a closer look at bees and how they compare with other insects.

Finally, some of us acted out the waggle dance of the honey bee!

A huge thanks to Jim Davis of the East Central Iowa Beekeepers Association and the Iowa City Science Booster Club for making this an enjoyable and educational day for everyone!

Jul 12 2018

Sunsetting of the Open Access Fund

Posted on July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

For several years, UI Libraries has maintained an Open Access (OA) Fund to help researchers pay for the article processing charges (APCs) on open access publications. This fund supports authors choosing to make their publications open for anyone to read, broadening their audience and providing wide access to important research. We have decided to sunset the OA Fund for APCs within two years due to budget constraints. We found that the fund did nothing to offset our rapidly increasing journal subscription costs. In fact, the fund largely supports the same publishers to which we pay our pricey subscriptions. Given this reality, the final year that funding will be available is 2020, and the amount of funding for 2019 has been reduced from $3,000 per article to $2,000 per article. Additionally, each author will only be eligible to receive funding from the OA fund one time per fiscal year in 2019. Articles must have been accepted into a high quality, peer-reviewed, open access journal with ethical standards.

Though the OA Fund will be sunsetted, there are other options to support open access publishing. Authors can take advantage of green OA through the Iowa Repository Online (IRO) or pre-print and post-print repositories. Additionally, authors might be able to find grants or ask their departments to fund APCs. In the meantime, the UI Libraries will be exploring sustainable models to fund open access publishing in the future. If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to Mahrya Burnett, Scholarly Communications Librarian, mahrya-burnett@uiowa.edu or 319-335-5937.

Bombus huntii, M, face, Pennington County, SD_2012-11-14-15.34.51 ZS PMax. Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Jun 26 2018

Beekeeping 101 at the Sciences Library

Posted on June 26, 2018July 2, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

Join us for Beekeeping 101 at the Sciences Library for an all-ages beekeeping talk and activities on Tuesday, July 31, 2-4 pm!

2-3 PM (Sciences Library room 102): Jim Davis of the East Central Iowa Beekeepers will give a talk on the management of bees, why bees are important, and what you can do to help all bees.

2-4 PM (Sciences Library courtyard): The Iowa City Science Booster Club will lead activities for learning about bee diversity and the bee waggle dance.

Free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Laurie Neuerburg in advance at 319-467-0216.

Summer 2018 Sciences Library Workshops, Model of atom symbol

Jun 22 2018

Summer Workshops at the Sciences Library

Posted on June 22, 2018June 27, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

The following workshops are open to all students, faculty, and staff. There is no need to register in advance.

EndNote Workshop – Wednesday, July 18, 2-3 PM, Chemistry Building, W258

In this workshop you will learn how to use EndNote to:

Collect references for articles, books, websites, and other sources using Google Scholar, InfoHawk+, and popular databases like Web of Science and Scopus;
Organize your references into groups and share your reference library with collaborators;
Use the Cite While You Write plugin for Microsoft Word to insert citations into your papers and format them into thousands of different styles.

EndNote Web is available for free to all members of the University of Iowa community. EndNote Desktop is available for free to all UI graduate students, faculty, and staff.

Biology Databases Workshop – Wednesday, July 25, 2-3 PM, Biology Building, B20

In this workshop you will learn how to:

Use BioCyc to research metabolic pathways and genome databases.
Find articles in BIOSIS Citation Index using advanced searching, combinations of searches, and alerts.
Identify the most important biological research articles on your topics of interest using Faculty of 1000 (F1000).

If you’re interested, but unable to attend these workshops, private appointments and webinars can be arranged. If you have any questions or if you’d like to request a workshop for your class or group, please contact Laurie Neuerburg or Sara Scheib for more information.

Jun 08 2018

BioCyc: A Collection of Pathway/Genome Databases

Posted on June 8, 2018June 8, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

We now have access to BioCyc, a collection of Pathway/Genome Databases (PGDBs). You can search BioCyc by gene, protein, enzyme, or metabolic pathway. You can use advanced tools to view metabolic diagrams, to perform data analysis, and to compare organisms. You can register for a free BioCyc account if you would like to customize your viewing preferences, to create SmartTables to store datasets, and to run and save metabolic models. You can export high-quality metabolic diagrams and create your own PGDB from an annotated genome file.

These organism-specific databases are divided into three tiers based upon the level of data curation, with tier 1 databases having the highest level of curation by scientists. Tier 2 databases have had moderate curation, and tier 3 databases are computationally created with no curation. Examples of the most popular tier 1 databases are Escherichia coli K-12 substr. MG1655 (EcoCyc), Homo sapiens, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c. When you start out in BioCyc, the default organism database is E. coli K-12. To change to a different database, you can click on “change organism database” at the top right of the page. After you choose a new database, you are taken to a summary page for the database. Then you can click on a chromosome (or genome) to view annotations in the genome browser.

HawkID authentication is required for off-campus use of BioCyc. Do you still have questions? Contact the Sciences Library for help!

Jun 05 2018

Beekeeping 101 Exhibit at the Sciences Library

Posted on June 5, 2018June 7, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

Swing by the Sciences Library to see our new exhibit, Beekeeping 101! It features a real honeycomb, wooden bee houses, smoker can, and protective suit. The exhibit includes resources for learning more about beekeeping as well as bee conservation. Thank you to Jim Davis and Jeremy Richardson for sharing their beekeeping supplies with us!

May 18 2018

Bees: Savoring the Fruits of Their Labor

Posted on May 18, 2018May 18, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

Bee visiting white flowers Summertime is watermelon season, and while you bite into that juicy watermelon, do you stop and think about the bees that made the existence of the melon possible for you? Whether bees are part of a managed colony or wild bees, whether they are honey bees, bumble bees, or mason bees, they spend their days pollinating the fruits, vegetables, and flowers that you enjoy!

A rusty patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, queen, racine wi, LW Macior 1965 sideface_2017-01-26-12.54 — A rusty patched bumble bee from the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab’s Photostream.

Bee populations have been on the decline in recent years, and the rusty patched bumble bee is an endangered species in the Midwest. Luckily, there are simple and easy ways that you can roll a welcome mat out for bees where you live. You can cultivate native pollinator plants, reduce your use of pesticides, and if you are really feeling the buzz, use this identification guide Bumble Bees of the Eastern United States to participate as a citizen scientist in Bumble Bee Watch.

Bees do sting, so refrain from petting these fuzzy little creatures. This 1991 government poster found in the Iowa Digital Library says it best:

May 01 2018

Origami: A Blend of Art and Mathematics That Advances Science

Posted on May 1, 2018May 2, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

What does the ancient paper folding art of origami have to do with science? While origami can be simple and fun for children, the applications of origami in the sciences have been sophisticated and complex. From mathematics and engineering to medical devices, origami has been the inspiration for responsive, elegant, and flexible innovations in science.

If you need a study break to clear your mind, try out origami at the Sciences Library. We have origami paper on hand for you. You can use our instructions for simple models, search online for diagrams, or create your own designs!

Combining origami with computer programming, Robert J. Lang has designed over 700 exquisite origami models displayed on his website, and he has applied his expertise in origami to problem solving in engineering and physics. Notably, he helped to design a prototype for a large folded telescope lens that was meant to fly compactly into space within a rocket and then unfold smoothly upon reaching its destination.

Researchers at Harvard and MIT have developed self-folding robots based on origami. In their research, it took less than five minutes for their robot to assemble itself from a flat template and then walk on its own. The idea is that self-assembling robots could be sent as flattened objects into tight spaces and then assemble themselves upon reaching their destination. The hope is that these robots could potentially be used in rescue work in unsafe areas due to wreckage or fallen debris.

The development of medical devices inspired by the folds in origami is underway. Examples of products being designed are stents, catheters, and drug delivery mechanisms that travel through the body in a collapsed, folded form and then expand to carry out their function. While more research is required before these devices are approved for medical use, it is thought that these origami-inspired designs will be safe devices that are minimally invasive to the body.

Read more about origami at the UI Libraries: