Lynette's blog

Last week the Plant Biochemistry component made yogurt! Just in case you didn't know, yogurt is a food made by the natural bacterial fermentation of milk. Ours has been incubating for the last 2 days at 45°C and its ready. If you are interested in trying some, stop by Jolly South :)

In the past few weeks the Plant Biochemistry component has been touring Botanical Biotechnology facilites such as Monsanto and Danforth! The teens also had the opportunity to visit a farm in Greenville. During the fieldtrip in greenville a few of the teens collected soil samples for research. This week, we will be testing soil samples from the Nelson, Cripe, and Aldrich Farms. The teens will be testing for the nitrogen/phosphorus content, PH, and various microorganisms that live in the soil. They want to know what is the best type of soil to grow their plants in. Stop by Jolly South to check out some of the cool plants that we are growing and testing!

Born May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, Ellen Ochoa was the FIRST Hispanic woman to leave Earth! Yep, you guessed it. Today’s woman in science is an astronaut. Ochoa was apart of the Discovery shuttle in 1993 in which the crew studied the Earth’s ozone layer. This trail blazing woman was also the co-inventor of 3 different tools NASA has adopted to improve the quality of space travel and accuracy in information attained. After her first trip into the galaxy, Ellen has since logged more than 900+ hours of space travel on other missions for NASA. A few of her awards and accomplishments include: Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, the Harvard Foundation Science Award, and Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award. Lets just sum it up and say that this awe-inspiring engineer/astronaut is the ‘bomb dot com’. We salute you Dr. Ochoa!

Since I previously worked at a Native American reserve as an archaeologist, I thought it was only right that today’s wonderful woman in science is Mary Douglas Leakey. She too was an archaeologist (study of historic and prehistoric people)! Leakey was also a self proclaimed paleontologist (the study of life in fossil form). Having no formal education, Leakey worked along side her husband Robert Leakey in Kenya and discovered evidence of early hominids (ancestral primate). Although excavating and discovering all the actual findings used in their research, Leakey’s husband (Robert), completed the publishing, thus receiving majority credit. However, one of her most profound discoveries came in 1948 when she found a fully preserved skull of a hominoid (ancestor/relative of both ape and humans). Mary made another legendary breakthrough in archaeology when she discovered 3.5 million year old foot prints!! Those footprints put previous assumptions of human evolution to shame. Our ancestors actually walked upright sooner than historical scientist initially thought! Mary Leakey unveiled so much of our ancestral past! Salute her during WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH! see attachment for pho

In honor of women’s history month, I’d like to take the time to acknowledge a few of the many influential women in science! In a field predominately lead by men, this woman became one of the first women pioneers in biology. The woman I’ve selected for today was chosen because she held a profession that one of our new YES teens would eventually like to hold, a geneticist. BARBARA MCCLINTOCK is a world renowned cytogeneticist (studies the structure/function of the cell). She attended Cornell University and attained a PhD in Botany. She discovered genes known as Transposons or the ‘jumping gene’. This gene is responsible for turning physical traits ‘on and off’ in our genome. At first ignored, her research was later recognized as a major contribution to DNA research. In 1983 McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; the only woman to receive this honor unshared. In spite of the adversities faced in the science community, McClintock was able to prevail against all odds.

Hi Everyone!! My name is Lynette Gayden and I am one of the newest members of the YES program. I am a Senior Educator, and I wanted to take the time to introduce myself to everyone. I was born in Augsburg, Germany and moved to the East St. Louis with my family in 1993. I attended East St. Louis Sr. High School, HOME OF THE FLYERS! In High school my interest included cheerleading, track and JROTC. After graduating from East St. Louis Sr. High School, I attended Eastern Illinois University and attained a Bachelor's of Science in Biological Sciences. A few of my main interest include Human Anatomy, Health/Nutrition, Animal Science, and Plant Studies. My goal is to encourage the teens in the YES Program to be enthusiastic about science and the various career opportunities it has to offer! A couple of my hobbies include: scrap booking, traveling, spending time with my 1 year old son, cooking, cleaning, and hanging out with my sorority sisters!!! ∆∑θ Sorority Inc.! I look forward to meeting you all! Peace and Blessings, LKGx2