TC Update

I don't want to jinx anything, but I have been thawing cells one line at a time and they are - so far - growing pretty well. But I am still a little verklempt because I think multiple problems were occurring simultaneously. And we all know it's shit having more than one variable at a time!

I ordered an expensive new cells from a company a couple weeks ago, thawed them out in the fresh and clean incubator (with no other occupants) and guess what?

Yep. Not the bleb monsters, but the spindly, leaving bits of themselves behind, non-mitotic problem again.

Turns out we (the lab) had switched FBS (fetal bovine serum) from HyClone to Atlanta Biologicals because we "got a good deal" and "the 3T3 cells looked okay". Gah! (By the way, the 3T3's don't really look okay.) So I threw some Clonetics FBS on my cells (along with some mycoplasma treatment, just in case) and lo and behold: they expand, with reasonably normal looking morphology.

My peoples - you can't just go around changing FBS and expect everything to be hunky-dory.

I think the terrible problems of April-May were a combination of cells being sickly, not liking the discount FBS (expensive tastes, wouldn't you know), and being consequently even more sensitive to whatever maux was griming up the incubators and t.c. hoods.

So now: lots of experiments, and ordering expensive things, and more experiments. And writing a paper. I really need to get this story done and out.

I've Been Memed-

- I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.- Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.- People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.- At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1) I bite my nails, cuticles, and the insides of my cheeks, sometimes suck on my necklace, and grind my teeth in time to the songs in my head. Some might call this an oral fixation.

2) Letters and numbers have associated colors which I see/feel/taste/sense when I think about them. Often the color is more of a taste or feeling the back of my mouth than a visual kind of thing. (Though I realize that saying "I taste the color" doesn't really clarify the experience.) For example, the number 71 is like macaroni and cheese, because 7 is bright yellow and 1 is white, like cheesy noodles. Sometimes this makes for helpful mnemonics, such as that the University of Pittsburgh was founded is 1787, which makes sense because Pitt's colors are blue and gold and together 1787 are blue and gold (8 being dark blue). This also makes entering long columns of data into Excel an interesting trippy experience. (The word for this experience is "synesthesia". It's, for me anyway, slightly less interesting than it sounds.)

3) I really hate it when people walk behind me on the sidewalk.

4) I have imaginary conversations out loud when I am by myself.

5) I remember my dreams almost every morning. Sometimes I sing in my dreams. Usually songs that I know or make up new words to, but occasionally music that I don't recognize.

6) I like to swear and I don't usually bother to try not to anymore.

7) Sometimes the phrase "rana means frog" pops into my head for no discernable reason.

8) I like to take different routes places I go all the time. If I have to go the same way to work every day I get very cranky.

Tagging ......... you! (Eight of you. You know who you are.)

Oh Woe

I'm not great ... you know what my data tell me? It tells me to do the experiment again. And then maybe another time. Sigh. It must be done, of course; I knew it would have to be.

I am also not sure I am clever enough to wrap my mind around what these graphs are telling me. Maybe when I have repeated the experiments. Maybe not. I need a supercomputer in my brain.

Low Hanging Fruit

I think I know something that no one else in the whole world knows.

It's not a very important thing; it's not which four genes turn a somatic cell into a stem cell or anything. Probably if I told you what it was, I'd have to give a lengthy disquisition on what I was even talking about before I got to the part about why you or anyone might find it interesting, period. Probably I could tally up the people who would find this thing interesting using three, if not two, digit numbers.

But I think it might be something that several people whose work I admire would find quite interesting, which is good enough for me. Better than good!

I started to cry on my way home today thinking about this.

Then I was walking down a street I don't usually walk on and I came upon a red raspberry bush just dripping with ripe raspberries.

It's too good to be true. You should hear my heart beating right now. Maybe it's the coffee, but I think the coffee is just an enhancer of the more potent effect of data.

DATA!!!

DATA!!! DATA DATA DATA DATA DATA!!!!!!!!!!
DATA that sort of looks like previous data or differs in more-or-less explicable ways!!!!!
DATA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now all I need is to catch the rare, prized, and elusive beast called the molecular mechanism ...

Redistribution of wealth

I wore my "America Is Scary" t-shirt yesterday to general approbation of Cambridge coffee-shop denizens.

This morning Springy was saying SOCIALIST things about SOCIALIZED medicine, which is clearly SOCIALISM. Springy is the RED MENACE.* Now he's talking about how if we all Pay In to the System, the wealth would be REDISTRIBUTED EQUITABLY. Hyperventilate!

The Free Market is the Invisible Hand of God, Springy!* You Eurotrash pinko commie bastard! Springy is probably also gay. And drinks the blood of cloned babies. (Which is equally bad.)*

*Irony alert.

CNN: Glasgow terrorist attack: eyewitness describes scene

This guy also has a brilliant Weegie accent. Subtitled in Australia.

Dude, seriously, though. People need to stop fucking with air travel. It does not make me sensitive to your plight if I have to get to the airport like nine hours ahead of time.

John Smeaton - Come to Glasgow and we'll set about you.

I went to university in Glasgow. I love that town. In many ways it resembles my own hometown, Pittsburgh, in its no-nonsense, no-frills approach to life.
Happy 4th of July, everybody!

Day-am!

How about this Scooter Libby not-pardon? Springy says it better than me. Please read!