Gone with the internet - How the old education was lost

Despite its young history, Computer Science Education has seen a number of "revolutions". Being a veteran in the field, the author reflects on the many changes he has seen in computing and its teaching. The intent of this personal collection is to point out that most revolutions came unforeseen and that many of the new learning initiatives, despite high financial input, ultimately failed. The author then considers the current revolution (MOOC, inverted lectures, peer instruction, game design) and, based on the lessons learned earlier, argues why video recording is so successful. Given the fact that this is the decade we lost print (papers, printed books, book shops, libraries), the author then conjectures that the impact of the Internet will make this revolution different from previous ones in that most of the changes are irreversible. As a consequence he warns against storming ahead blindly and suggests to conserve - while it is still possible - valuable components of what might soon be called the antebellum age of education.

Functional genomics of the Drosophila melanogaster X chromosome and the role of DWnt5 during development

The collection of X chromosome insertions (PX) lethal lines, which was isolated from a screen for essential genes on the X chromosome, was characterized by means of cloning the insertion sites, mapping the sites within genomic DNA and determination of the associated reporter gene expresssion patterns. The established STS flanking the P element insertion sites were submitted to EMBL nucleotide databases and their in situ data together with the enhancer trap expression patterns have been deposited in the FlyView database. The characterized lines are now available to be used by the scientific community for a detailed analysis of the newly established lethal gene functions. One of the isolated genes on the X chromosome was the Drosophila gene Wnt5 (DWnt5). From two independent screens, one lethal and three homozygous viable alleles were recovered, allowing the identification of two distinct functions for DWnt5 in the fly. Observations on the developing nervous system of mutant embryos suggest that DWnt5 activity affects axon projection pattern. Elevated levels of DWNT5 activity in the midline cells of the central nervous system causes improper establishment and maintenance of the axonal pathways. Our analysis of the expression and mutant phenotype indicates that DWnt5 function in a process needed for proper organization of the nervous system. A second and novel function of DWnt5 is the control of the body size by regulation of the cell number rather than affecting the size of cells. Moreover, experimentally increased DWnt5 levels in a post-mitotic region of the eye imaginal disc causes abnormal cell cycle progression, resulting in additional ommatidia in the adult eye when compared to wild type. The increased cell number and the effects on the cell cycle after exposure to high DWNT5 levels is the result of a failure to downregulate cyclin B and therefore the unsuccessful establishment of a G1 arrest.