Category: Uncategorized
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Reintroducing ChiTownBio And Buckling Down On Our Vision
ChiTownBio is dedicated to putting the knowledge, skills, and tools of biotechnology into the hands of all Chicagoans who want to explore the living world and use it to benefit our community. It’s been a long time since I wrote anything for our blog, and it’s time that I reintroduce our mission. We’ve been struggling…
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Lake Michigan: Chicago’s Great Lake and our mission to combat dangers to our environment, leisure, and our shared future
Every year, at the end of September, ChiTownBio hosts a beach cleanup event as part of The Alliance for the Great Lakes day of action. For the last few years, we have been assigned Osterman Beach, and we have led a group of volunteers in scouring the beach for trash and litter and collecting and…
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Plastics make it possible. But what is it?
In 2014, Illinois became the first state to ban microbeads in cosmetics and soaps. By the end of this year (2019), no microbeads will be legally sold in the state. Multiple states have followed suit, including many of the important Great Lakes states. What exactly are microbeads? Microbeads are tiny pieces of plastic that do…
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August Update
Hello Chicago Citizen Scientists, Amateur Biologists, and the Generally Curious, After two years of growing our community, conversing with members, developing our brand and giving talks, hosting demos, and participating in fairs and festivals, ChiTownBio is excited to be moving into the next phase of our growth. After generous donations for community members and grants…
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A Newbie’s Adventures in Programming Python
Here at ChiTownBio, we encourage exploration and the DIY mindset in more areas than just biology. We love to meet people who are avid makers and programmers as well! In fact, programming is a super useful skill for DIY biology in both analyzing data and designing low-cost hardware, so I’ve been teaching myself some new…
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TO INFINITY….with mushrooms!
This week, our Slack (Private online chat board) has been abuzz as always with various conversations, but one became pertinent for our event tomorrow at Empirical Brewery. This week, we’re going to be working with mushrooms, looking at kingdom Fugni in all its glory. We’re going to be building sculptures, learning to grow mushrooms, playing…
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It’s Migratory Bird Season: Time to Fall in Love with Hox Genes
I can remember the first time I saw a Cerulean Warbler. When I moved to the city of Chicago many, many years ago, it was the heart of winter. I spent a number of hours a month in the conservatories of Chicago, and the Lincoln Park Conservatory convinced me to train as a docent in…
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When 3D printing meets biology.
ChiTownBiologist Ese Osaghe has been talking about bioprinting since the moment he became involved with ChiTownBio. For the uninitiated, bioprinting takes an additive manufacturing (i.e. “3D printing”) approach to creating biomaterials. Bioprinted materials have the potential to print new tissues and organs on demand, to create sustainable and high-performance biomaterials, and to rethink how we…
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Octavia Butler’s Dawn: A Review
For our first biopunk book club, ChiTownBiologists read the multi-faceted, thought-provoking book Dawn by Octavia Butler. In Dawn, humans have been decimated by global war and are “rescued” by a tentacle-y alien species called the Oankali–with a catch. The Oankali will help rehabilitate and rebuild humanity if they interbreed with them in a complex form…
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Thanks to the Harrison Foundation for their support!
We wanted to give a HUGE thanks to the Donald C. and Laura M. Harrison Family Foundation for their generous donation to ChiTownBio! Their support will go a long way in helping ChiTownBio find a permanent lab space, purchase much needed equipment, and offer new programming to all the ChiTownBiologists out there! The Donald C.…