Textfull Thursday AKA life lately

Boy, is this blog neglected or what???

Let's try and fix the situation, shall we. 

In a nutshell, life 's been a bit mad this past week. Basically, I could be found in exactly two locations. One being the lab, the other being my bed. Nothing in between. Crazy, but weirdly gratifying, since long hours in the lab mean tons of experiments done. Booohoohoooo. 

SOTD: Alanis Morissette - Not the Doctor. Duh!

Of course, I might be embellishing a teeeeeeny tiny bit. Long hours in the lab might mean tons of experiments done, sure, but they not necessarily bring useful data. Often, shit does not work. But us postdocs love science, so we are willing to push it until our brains turn into something that resembles a jellyfish left on a sandy beach. Welcome to my life...

Running three projects at once. Ordinary business.

Of course, long hours in the lab ALSO mean that certain things, like for example those hardly relevant things such as housekeeping/ironing/groceries/life, are left sadly neglected.

Don't tell my mother! She'll kill me!

What is not neglected is my desk at work. Although most of the hours are spent at the bench or in cell culture, one must get caffeinated regularly. And one must scribble stuff in notebooks etc. Especially when one has a terrible, terrible short-term memory.

This one happened last Sunday while some westerns were washing. 

Although I mostly traded daylight for lab glory, I had the chance to peek out the window before leaving the apartment each morning and make an informed decision about what to wear. Yes yes, I am gifted that way.

Last weekend was very generous in terms of weather. Fortunately, it kept behaving reasonably well throughout the week. And why would that be relevant, you may ask. 

HERE's my answer: no snow = no salt = dry clean pavement = no need for sturdy saltproof snowproof boots. Enter, pretty shoes!

Pumps.
Three days in a row.
FINALLY!
Top to bottom:
Miss Sixty
Stuart Weitzman
Alice & Olivia

Now excuse me, but I have a nap to take.

Nighty night.

Jules

Bonus entry. Just because.
Thank you endlessly, AM!

We've all been there...

... you know where. Yes, there. On the verge of a shiny new career. Still in the honeymoon phase of our love affair with science. 

Lucky for us naïve bitches, the genius behind the Upturned Microscope gives us a bit of tough love. Bless him. 

And feel free to cyberstalk/follow his comics. They are ALWAYS perfect.

Source.

Cheers to all postdocs. Guys, we are awesome!

Jules

Why, oh, why?

Science is awesome. When things work and you find what you are looking for. Then again, sometimes a funny result opens the floodgates and you just WANT to find out more because you're curious, although it might not be exactly what your project was about. Then again, sometimes you feel like banging your head violently against the wall. 

When that happens, it's time to bring out the lab jokes. And rum.

Source.

Because, technically speaking, rum is a solution.

Jules

Pink post for Pink October

Pink!

Eveything should be pink today and for the rest of the month*.

Why?

Because October is the pink-ribbon wearing, breast-cancers-awareness-rising, girl-boob-power enhancing month. And it shall be acknowledged.

Source.

Breast cancers are there, their incidences are rising, both in women and in men. But luckily, gals of all shapes, colors and ages are able to speak about it. 

And thanks to being so loquacious, we are increasingly more able to catch the disease early. And breast cancer research is neatly funded, also thanks to the loquaciousness of some incredible women and widespread support, meaning that today we know a lot more about it and can fight it with pretty darn good weapons. 

That does not mean that the fight is over. Or that other (neglected) cancers should be jealous of all the attention breast cancers get. But hey, who doesn't love boobs!

SOTD: Aerosmith - Pink. It couldn't have been more obvious

Having something evil growing in your boob is becoming less and less taboo, it's not shameful anymore. I simply wish that stigmas would disappear when it comes to other cancers, too. I wish people would stop immediately assuming that, when somebody gets diagnosed with one of the lung cancers, "they brought it on themselves, since they were probably smoking". There are many kinds of lung cancers, a lot of them have nothing to do with smoking or other risky behaviours. Or if somebody gets skin cancer, it might not be exclusively because they used to broil themselves on the beach without appropriate SPF. Nobody "deserves" cancer, regardless of how badly they conduct their lives. 

In honour of all the awareness and pinkiness, and just in case you didn't get enough pinkiness reading this pinky post, here is some more pink from New York. 

Ms. Westwood's wisdom - sounds apt.
Pink sandals I wore A LOT this summer, like I wore A LOT
of SPF.
Ladurée's Rose macaroon.
Cava rosado in Madrid last April.
Blueberry, raspberry and yoghurt ice cream at 
Grom back in August.
Tom Wesselmann's Mouth 7 at MoMA.

I'll be wearing a pink ribbon today. And I'll think about all the people in my life that have been affected by breast or any other type of cancer. And I'll probably go to sleep wearing this cool tee. 

You girls and boys, think about boobs today, spread some awareness and, if you can, donate. Not just for breast, but for prostate, colon, lung, skin, cervix, brain, throat, pancreas, liver... There is plenty of choice in the cancers department. And there will be millions of fundraising options, I am sure. 

Awesome card = sweet surprise in the mail = pinkiness galore.

Cheers to healthy breasts and the gorgeous women attached to them. And the men, too.

Jules

*Maybe not the WHOLE whole month...Worry not, dears, this awful pink font will be gone soon :)

Marry me, Julian Barnes! Or something.

I'm currently reading three or four books, see. 

I simply do not possess the resilience to have just one book open and read it in one go. I guess I am a book glutton. Of course, that means that I am capable of "reading" a book for six months. Maybe because that particular one is my "lunchtime" book, or my current "serious" read, or my "trashy secret guilty pleasure of the moment that can only be consumed in absolute privacy". Meh... 

Maybe I just suck at being consistent.

Well, by far my favourite "unwind with a glass of pinot in the evening" of the bunch is Pulse, Julian Barnes' collection of short stories.

Lovely cover. And this book is made of paper. And ink.
And has pages and the lovely book smell!
Kindle is a little jealous, I think.

And here's the reason why - ok, one of MANY reasons:  

----

"The chocolates?"

"No, the drawings."

"I used to love a cigar. It didn't have to be a whole one. Half would do."

"They gave you different cancers, didn't they?"

"What did?"

"Cigarettes, pipes, cigars. Didn't pipes give you lip cancer?"

"What did cigars give you?"

"Oh, the poshest kind."

"What's a posh cancer? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?"

"Bum cancer's got to be the bottom of the pile."

J. Barnes, Pulse - At Phil and Joanna's 1

----

That's a dinner conversation a group of friends are having during dinner. I'm still chuckling. A few minutes ago, I was laughing hard. 

I love you, Barnes.

Jules

Indoor weather phenomena and other shenanigans

I ♥ science, no doubt about it. 

Science is fun. And exciting. And surprising. And humbling. And it can be a bit magical, too.

SOTD: The Moody Bues - Tuesday Afternoon. Because there's nothing better than a bit of magic lab fog on a day like this...

But, honestly, sticking around the lab for endless hours can mess with your brain. Rational thoughts become more and more tangled around fuzzy ideas and you slowly start to go crazy. 

When THAT moment arrives, you absolutely need to unwind. Coffee usually saves the IQ, but sometimes you just can not leave the bench to go get yourself a steaming cup of brown lifejuice with just the perfect dash of milk in it. YUM! 

When that happens, alternative unwinding techniques NEED to kick in...

… enter: MAKING FOOOOOOOOOG!!!

Woo-hoo!

Simple, fun and really cold. Just pour water over dry ice. But, please, make sure NOT to toss the dry ice chips directly into the sink or drain, because THAT might make your drain pipes crack (=worst case scenario) or just block your drain for hours due to a chunk of superchilled ice forming in the drain (=most annoying case scenario). 

Stay entertained.

Jules

A constant surprise

It's no secret I love New York. 

And the list of things I love about this city is constantly growing. From the enormous and glamourous, all the way to the touchingly humble and the mundane. Of course, there's many things that constantly remind me New York is not perfect, but its perks surely make up for a whole lot of its shortcomings.

Witty signage is one of those things that makes New York so fuckingly New York-ish and, thanks to what's pictured below, has just cemented its spot among the top 20 things I absolutely, irrevocably, undoubtfully, definitely love about it. 

Seen today at one of the research campuses on the UES.

New York, I love you!

Jules

Fuck you, infection!

Dreadful day today!

Although it started all nice and mellow with sunny weather, exceptional coffee and some more deubiquitinases papers reading (just let me have the excitement about this one, kay?), the day finished on a substantially bitterer note. Yuck!

I had a meeting with the boss after lunch - the day was actually still in the "yay, positive!" zone at that point. And even after the meeting, we were still firmly in the "yay, positive!" zone. Because the boss is a cool guy and the meeting went well and I left his office with the impression that I am gradually getting where I was supposed to be getting. So, "yay, positive!" all the way, right.

Right?

Hmm…

Around 4 pm the results from Mycoplasma testing of my cell lines came in. And again, they were positive. Which means that MOST of the cell lines I was supposed to work with are infected. With a sneaky, nasty infection that does not significantly affect their growth in my case (meso cell lines pretty much grow like crazy), but definitely DOES affect other aspects of their biology. The very aspects I was supposed to investigate in these very cells. 

YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!

Source

For those who've never heard of Mycoplasma before, let me just introduce you. These devils are tiny bacteria without a cell wall. Why is that piece of information crucial? Because most antibiotics used in cell culture are actually the ones that kill bacteria by interfering with their cell wall. Since Mycoplasma do not have a cell wall, those antibiotics have no effect on them. And to add to the messiness, Mycoplasma are a really widespread "occult" contaminant of cell cultures. Many researchers do not really care about the little fuckers. But since this type of infection can seriously affect a lot of cellular processes, having Mycoplasma in your cell culture can skew a substantial part of the results generated using said cell culture. NOT exactly what I was aiming for.

Well, all in all, it is not as tragic as it sounds, since we have ways to get a new, healthy stock of some cell lines and we can cure the irreplaceable ones. So it's definitely not the end of the world… That would be the rational response to such crappy news. 

My response was a bit less rational.
I was so mad that I was "blessed" with inheriting infected cell lines that I just dragged my bummed ass to my favourite coworker's bench and sat there for half an hour, feeling sorry for myself and angry at no one in particular (Mycoplasma is definitely NOT something people would get on purpose). A whole bunch of people tried to cheer me up or to explain to me that they were not the cheer-you-up kind of people. The poor devils don't know me yet, so I then explained to them that I did not need nor expect any cheering up or anything of the sort. I just need a bit of time and something to distract me. 

SOTD: Richard Cheese - Die, Motherfucker, die (Dope cover). Need I say more?

You think I overreacted? Me too. But you see, it was not the horribly high Mycoplasma titers themselves that bummed me, but the fact that I CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO WORK on my project and this "nursing the cells" gig I'll have to do now means that I'll have to wait a few weeks more for the real action to start. Emphasis on wait. 

The distracting obviously worked, as I now feel better. Luckily, my favourite coworker is a workaholic overachiever and I suspect we'll find ways to keep me busy while we wait for the grass to grow cells to heal.

Jules

p.s. Check this out. And donate if you can. Because these guys rock!

Final experiment

The last two weeks at the old job started today. Oh, Time, why art thou flying by thus quickly?

Just looking at all the folders, papers, microscope slides, folders and binders of student material and all the other crap that somehow has to be moved out of my office and into a happy storage place, makes me cringe. Planning farewell drinks with the coworkers, on the other hand, is a superfun activity. 

But I will deal with the packing at some point, promise.

What I wanted to talk about today, though, was MY LAST EXPERIMENT in the old lab. It was just a side project/part of a collab, nothing major. Needed to measure the apoptosis levels in cells exposed to some chemicals. All in all, no more than a few hours of work. But I loved it, mostly because I've spent far too few hours in the lab lately and I really missed the action. 

SOTD: Zheng Lab, "Lady Science" - Bad Project. OBVIOUSLY

I don't really miss the 10+ hour experiments or spending 17 days in a row in that hood, but I did feel some withdrawal in the past 6 months, when most  work days revolved around teaching and students. 

There is still a flask of cells growing as backup, which will probably (very solemnly) meet their end tomorrow. RIP, human osteosarcoma cells.

Obviously, I went all nostalgic and dramatic at the end of today's experiment, saying goodbye to the centrifuge and hood, just to keep up with my "Drama queen" nature. And I went a bit crazy with the nitrile glove, because there's no proper lab send-off without some smiling blown-up gloves and some giant bubble wrap popping.

So long, my dear cells and multichannel pipette. 

Besides office packing, I still have to wrap up some teaching-related stuff, but as far as labland action goes, nothing until New York. 

I just hope my general crankiness and sleep deprivation (due to some self-inflicted issues in relation to certain people) decide to leave me alone so I can enjoy the last days at work. 

Jules

P.S. Sincere apologies for the crappy photo quality. My very average phone has been the main photo-snapping technology I own since last September, when camera decided to die. Fingers crossed a more blogging-friendly solution will come in my possession soon