trishrhymes
Senior Member
- Messages
- 2,158
I have dived head first in to giving myself a crash course in both the politics of ME and the latest research in the last year or so. It's all a bit mind boggling.
One thing I quickly realised I need to do to be satisfied that I understand biomedical research is to update and deepen my knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, genetics etc. The undergrad. science courses I did are all years out of date and largely forgotten.
I have very much enjoyed exploring over the last few years the ever expanding availability of free on-line courses provided by universities via FutureLearn, EdX and Coursera.
The ones relevant here that I have particularly enjoyed are:
Coursera:
Vital signs, understanding what the body is telling us - University of Pennsylvania
Introduction to Genomic Technologies - Johns Hopkins University
Introduction to Genetics and Evolution - Duke University
Epigenetic control of gene expression - University of Melbourne
FutureLearn
Metabolomics - University of Birmingham (UK)
The science of medicines - Monash University
EdX
Cell Biology - Mitochondria - HarvardX
I also signed up for several other cell biology courses with EdX, but ran out of energy... I've promised myself I'll go back to them.
I'd say for most of these you need a good background in high school biology and chemistry if you're going to understand the detail, but they can be interesting at whatever level you can manage.
Many great lecturers explaining stuff clearly with diagrams and animations, short lectures (mostly 5 to 10 minutes) that you can watch in your own time and as often as you like, and exercises/tests to do if you want to, but no compulsion, and it doesn't matter if you fall behind or drop out. Short courses (4 to 12 weeks).
And they're all free. It's amazing.
I've also done ones on other subject from Shakespeare to computer programming to Classical Music.
Right now what little energy I have for 'study' is taken up with trying to keep up with the research stuff coming up on PR - and mostly failing!
I'll probably go back and do some of these courses again, as my sieve-like brain doesn't seem to retain much and I haven't the energy to take notes and revise like I did in my healthy student days, but I still get a lot of personal satisfaction from them.
I wonder whether anyone else has similar experiences to share.
Any other good on-line learning resources, especially for the biochemistry and cell biology that's coming up in ME research?
By the way, I've also tried some truly dreadful courses, oddly enough (!) many of them in the field of psychology.
One thing I quickly realised I need to do to be satisfied that I understand biomedical research is to update and deepen my knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, genetics etc. The undergrad. science courses I did are all years out of date and largely forgotten.
I have very much enjoyed exploring over the last few years the ever expanding availability of free on-line courses provided by universities via FutureLearn, EdX and Coursera.
The ones relevant here that I have particularly enjoyed are:
Coursera:
Vital signs, understanding what the body is telling us - University of Pennsylvania
Introduction to Genomic Technologies - Johns Hopkins University
Introduction to Genetics and Evolution - Duke University
Epigenetic control of gene expression - University of Melbourne
FutureLearn
Metabolomics - University of Birmingham (UK)
The science of medicines - Monash University
EdX
Cell Biology - Mitochondria - HarvardX
I also signed up for several other cell biology courses with EdX, but ran out of energy... I've promised myself I'll go back to them.
I'd say for most of these you need a good background in high school biology and chemistry if you're going to understand the detail, but they can be interesting at whatever level you can manage.
Many great lecturers explaining stuff clearly with diagrams and animations, short lectures (mostly 5 to 10 minutes) that you can watch in your own time and as often as you like, and exercises/tests to do if you want to, but no compulsion, and it doesn't matter if you fall behind or drop out. Short courses (4 to 12 weeks).
And they're all free. It's amazing.
I've also done ones on other subject from Shakespeare to computer programming to Classical Music.
Right now what little energy I have for 'study' is taken up with trying to keep up with the research stuff coming up on PR - and mostly failing!
I'll probably go back and do some of these courses again, as my sieve-like brain doesn't seem to retain much and I haven't the energy to take notes and revise like I did in my healthy student days, but I still get a lot of personal satisfaction from them.
I wonder whether anyone else has similar experiences to share.
Any other good on-line learning resources, especially for the biochemistry and cell biology that's coming up in ME research?
By the way, I've also tried some truly dreadful courses, oddly enough (!) many of them in the field of psychology.