In light of this day, here is a video where a baby gorilla gets a new mommy! YAY!
Also, I love my mom. She is pretty great and understanding and is always around to talk, which I appreciate :)
10 May 2009
Happy Mother's Day Mom!
In light of this day, here is a video where a baby gorilla gets a new mommy! YAY!
Also, I love my mom. She is pretty great and understanding and is always around to talk, which I appreciate :)
08 May 2009
A silly thingy I got in an email
It is said that engineers take 3 minutes to resolve this, architects 3
hours and doctors 6 hours. If you guess the 6th number, you can open the
excel file by using the number as the password. Once you discover it, put
your name into the spreadsheet, save it and send the saved copy on. There's
no prize here, and no jokes. Just a little bit of self satisfaction.
If your tumor starts to thud because you can't get the answer, just ask.
I will be more than obliged to help.
What is the 6th number?
1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, ______?
It came along with a message: Chemists can do it under a minute. Well, that was true in my case :)
hours and doctors 6 hours. If you guess the 6th number, you can open the
excel file by using the number as the password. Once you discover it, put
your name into the spreadsheet, save it and send the saved copy on. There's
no prize here, and no jokes. Just a little bit of self satisfaction.
If your tumor starts to thud because you can't get the answer, just ask.
I will be more than obliged to help.
What is the 6th number?
1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, ______?
It came along with a message: Chemists can do it under a minute. Well, that was true in my case :)
05 May 2009
Eh heh.
Sorry I am so lazy. :-/
I read "Into the Wild." If I ever get the ambition, I will write about it. Talk about escapist fantasies, man.
In the sciencey bits, I am reading about CML, which is some sort of leukemia, and I can't remember what the other letters stand for, but it results from a chromosomal translocation that fuses two genes together (called the Philadelphia Chromosome, I remember that much). This sort of thing usually happens from RADIATION EXPOSURE. Anyway, this particular fusion results in a constitutively active kinase, which basically means that the gene has been truncated by the fusion, and it used to be self-inhibited, and now it is active all the time, turning all sorts of shit on, like a naughty toddler or something.
And suddenly, I am distracted by The Beatles "Something" that is playing right now, because I am all sentimental lately. Something of an honest confusing love song. (I do not suggest watching the video, it takes away from the lyrics, I think)
ANYWAYS. Um, so theres this kinase running amuck, that is normally involved in regulating the cell cycle and inhibiting the apoptotic pathway (which leads to CELL DEATH) upon DNA damage (that might occur upon radiation exposure). So you see, the kinase normally is involved in killing off sick cells that have DNA damage and may turn cancerous. When it is doing things wrongly, the cells don't die, and they proliferate uncontrollably, and in this case, you get all sorts of crazy unnecessary blood cells being made in the bone marrow, and I'm not really sure of the mechanism, but it eventually leads to death.
SOOOOOO, this is a success story, because someone figured, Dude, let's just inhibit the kinase. And they were able to develop/find a specific enough inhibitor that you are just inhibiting this particular kinase and not all the other ones that have to do other normal things. BTW, kinases are responsible for putting a phosphate group on particular amino acids on proteins. (I really am so out of touch with what terms laymen know, so this probably makes no sense to anyone outside the field. But oh well, thats what Wikipedia is for.) So, they actually have a super awesome, specific drug for this form of cancer. Honestly, if you were to get a cancer, I would choose this one. Cancers are a**-scary, but its nice that this one makes so much sense.
IN ANY CASE, one of the people involved in this whole saga, Jean Wang, is coming to give a talk next week and that is why I'm learning about sh*t, because I have to, because I'm on a training grant and this is what is expected of me. But it's pretty cool.
In other news, my car developed a nasty brake fluid leak and I think I am getting ripped off by the car mechanic man, but there is not much I can do about that now.
In some even more remote news, that is related to escapist fantasies, I am daydreaming about flying away to Munich, because it is less than $400 to get there, see. But this whole paying for expensive car repairs thing is not very conducive to that sort of thing. Ah well.
I might also mention that citing so many wikipedia articles is bad form for a scientist, but honestly, we all look at wikipedia. YOU MUST TRUST IN YOUR FELLOW MAN.
I read "Into the Wild." If I ever get the ambition, I will write about it. Talk about escapist fantasies, man.
In the sciencey bits, I am reading about CML, which is some sort of leukemia, and I can't remember what the other letters stand for, but it results from a chromosomal translocation that fuses two genes together (called the Philadelphia Chromosome, I remember that much). This sort of thing usually happens from RADIATION EXPOSURE. Anyway, this particular fusion results in a constitutively active kinase, which basically means that the gene has been truncated by the fusion, and it used to be self-inhibited, and now it is active all the time, turning all sorts of shit on, like a naughty toddler or something.
And suddenly, I am distracted by The Beatles "Something" that is playing right now, because I am all sentimental lately. Something of an honest confusing love song. (I do not suggest watching the video, it takes away from the lyrics, I think)
ANYWAYS. Um, so theres this kinase running amuck, that is normally involved in regulating the cell cycle and inhibiting the apoptotic pathway (which leads to CELL DEATH) upon DNA damage (that might occur upon radiation exposure). So you see, the kinase normally is involved in killing off sick cells that have DNA damage and may turn cancerous. When it is doing things wrongly, the cells don't die, and they proliferate uncontrollably, and in this case, you get all sorts of crazy unnecessary blood cells being made in the bone marrow, and I'm not really sure of the mechanism, but it eventually leads to death.
SOOOOOO, this is a success story, because someone figured, Dude, let's just inhibit the kinase. And they were able to develop/find a specific enough inhibitor that you are just inhibiting this particular kinase and not all the other ones that have to do other normal things. BTW, kinases are responsible for putting a phosphate group on particular amino acids on proteins. (I really am so out of touch with what terms laymen know, so this probably makes no sense to anyone outside the field. But oh well, thats what Wikipedia is for.) So, they actually have a super awesome, specific drug for this form of cancer. Honestly, if you were to get a cancer, I would choose this one. Cancers are a**-scary, but its nice that this one makes so much sense.
IN ANY CASE, one of the people involved in this whole saga, Jean Wang, is coming to give a talk next week and that is why I'm learning about sh*t, because I have to, because I'm on a training grant and this is what is expected of me. But it's pretty cool.
In other news, my car developed a nasty brake fluid leak and I think I am getting ripped off by the car mechanic man, but there is not much I can do about that now.
In some even more remote news, that is related to escapist fantasies, I am daydreaming about flying away to Munich, because it is less than $400 to get there, see. But this whole paying for expensive car repairs thing is not very conducive to that sort of thing. Ah well.
I might also mention that citing so many wikipedia articles is bad form for a scientist, but honestly, we all look at wikipedia. YOU MUST TRUST IN YOUR FELLOW MAN.
16 April 2009
If you haven't seen it yet...
I have to admit, I was tearing up with happiness while watching it. It is SOOOO happy!
06 April 2009
Another Reason to Go Organic
That is, if you have to eat meat, or other animal products. Here is a synopsis of a Scientific American podcast about how flies are transferring antibiotic-resistant microbes from factory farms to US. Apparently 70% of antibiotics used in our country are applied to livestock. So, really, this antibiotic resistance problem is more about factory farms, which totally makes sense, because they are unnecessarily giving antibiotics to animals before they get sick, just so they can grow more of them in a small area. Duh.
This is interesting to me, because I am working on a project that may lead to the development of new antibiotics - but I assumed they were only for people, because they would prevent disease associated with certain bugs, not actually kill them. You would think this sort of antibiotic would be less useful for factory farmers. You can imagine at some point all our traditional antibiotics failing, and you would have bug-specific antibiotics that would be used for preventing disease in humans. This could potentially be a good thing, because then the farmers would be unable to overcrowd. Maybe.
I just think its weird how people have to deal with the consequences of farming practices with their health. Doesn't seem as worth it anymore, does it?
This is interesting to me, because I am working on a project that may lead to the development of new antibiotics - but I assumed they were only for people, because they would prevent disease associated with certain bugs, not actually kill them. You would think this sort of antibiotic would be less useful for factory farmers. You can imagine at some point all our traditional antibiotics failing, and you would have bug-specific antibiotics that would be used for preventing disease in humans. This could potentially be a good thing, because then the farmers would be unable to overcrowd. Maybe.
I just think its weird how people have to deal with the consequences of farming practices with their health. Doesn't seem as worth it anymore, does it?
23 March 2009
And Now... You are Reading the Blog of a Shiny PhD Candidate! BAM!
That's right. I have been out of commission for the past several weeks because I was studying for my oral comprehensive exam, which is something that all second year grad students have to do. Basically, you write a proposal for your research, and then you get locked in a room with three professors and you tell them about your research. And they proceed to ask you WHATEVER THEY WANT about your project or about biochemistry or chemistry in general (in my case... Presumably not if you were an English major, har har). So NOWWWW I am all fancy and am feeling pretty smart because the whole thing really went very well and I was done in an hour, which is pretty fricking quick if you ask me. ANYWAY. It was awesome. I kicked its ass. And it is such a huge relief and I am so happy that it is finally over. The morning after, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about kinetics, dP/dt = ... and I realized, I don't have to care about kinetics anymore. HA! Take that Kinetics! And now I can go back to doing things I used to like to do, there is such a feeling of freedom, and I am excited about my research as well, so Everything is all Really quite great right now!!!! HOORAY!!
I will say that the entire orals experience was really quite horrible, weeks and weeks of dread and counting down, and I got sick and had a headache for like 5 days, and THEN I got strep throat, and then Phillippe got sick and died (thats for another post), and everything was all sucky in the world and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, I couldn't even consider how I was going to do, and I was SOOO sick of studying, but I had to, just because I don't even know what I would do if I failed. But now I did it and it is GREAT.
I will say that the entire orals experience was really quite horrible, weeks and weeks of dread and counting down, and I got sick and had a headache for like 5 days, and THEN I got strep throat, and then Phillippe got sick and died (thats for another post), and everything was all sucky in the world and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, I couldn't even consider how I was going to do, and I was SOOO sick of studying, but I had to, just because I don't even know what I would do if I failed. But now I did it and it is GREAT.
17 March 2009
Homemade Mayo
Making your own mayo is officially not hard and is yummy. Besides, you actually know what is in there.
I followed this recipe, generally, except I didn't measure anything out. I'm not sure what the hot water does besides water it down, but then again, mine doesn't taste exactly like mayo, but it is pretty close. I used olive and canola oil with lemon juice and beat it with a fork. Success!
Basically, I just beat up my egg yolk, added a squirt of lemon juice, beat, add a grape size blob of oil, beat, more oil, beat, more oil beat... squirt of lemon juice, beat, oil.. etc etc until it gets to some consistency you like, and you can add salt and sugar and mustard powder if you'd like. I added a little bit of water, but I'm not sure why. It's a little runny, but maybe it'll solidify up in the fridge.
I followed this recipe, generally, except I didn't measure anything out. I'm not sure what the hot water does besides water it down, but then again, mine doesn't taste exactly like mayo, but it is pretty close. I used olive and canola oil with lemon juice and beat it with a fork. Success!
Basically, I just beat up my egg yolk, added a squirt of lemon juice, beat, add a grape size blob of oil, beat, more oil, beat, more oil beat... squirt of lemon juice, beat, oil.. etc etc until it gets to some consistency you like, and you can add salt and sugar and mustard powder if you'd like. I added a little bit of water, but I'm not sure why. It's a little runny, but maybe it'll solidify up in the fridge.
15 March 2009
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