I am know an instructor!!
I am almost one day into it and I'm loving it!
We have had the last week of Summer school and so far we have:
- Visited the University Athletics Facility (we got a tour from the "Strength and Conditioning Coach"... all 6'3" and 240 lb. of him!)
- Let the students work out at the student gym... The sight of 4 fifteen year old guys racing each other on Elipticals is just plain funny!
- We've taught them forensic blood detection (woohoo! for luminol!), PCR and DNA fingerprinting, nutrition, and analyzed biosoap (a by-product from diesel)
- Toured the General Research Facility (the have a sleep-study room, a bosy pod to measure lung capacity, BMI, etc., and the stuck me on a treadmill to measure my lung capacity... which was not that flash)
It really has been awesome!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
End of an Era...
My regular audience will notice the change of template... New times call for new templates!
I have worked my last day as a postdoctoral research fellow. Tomorrow, I start my new career as an instructor of science and math (the title doesn't give the position justice... it's very cool!). I would say it is a leap into the unknown, but having volunteered at my new job, and having spent some time with my new colleagues (including a mexican-themed potluck), it's more "known" than not (anyway, I'm not much of a leaper... more of a "cautious first stepper").
No more shall my hands be calloused by my pipettes. No more shall I be the man with the butter-yellow tape (yes, very natty!). I walk away from an office (shared in recent months, but still an office), a lab, and ultimately from research.
I leave behind a lab full of friends:
- The redneck/goth graduate student who is so good and so depended upon that I refer to her as "Postdoc Lite". A lover of angry German music, Russian horror films, Panera (especially their chicken and wild-rice soup), and the only person in the lab who was anal enough to understand my anality (and yet be impressed by its depths). When talking about the weird and wonderful animals in Australia she exclaimed: "That's because y'all broke off too early!"...
- Our research assistant from India. The only other person in the lab who understood cricket (and thus had a special place in my heart), she and I were so polite to each other that there were days when it actually delayed our work! She has a wicked sense of humor that is far too quick for many, but a joy to hear, and she cooked the yummiest smelling lunches. Her husband is about to join the lab as a research assistant ("I'm senior", she pointed out), which should be fun for all concerned!
- The graduate student who started just a month before I arrived. We attended classes together, ate McFlurries when the going got rough, I was the first non-family member to hear of her engagement, and one of the first to find out she's pregnant (a fact that many, including the boss, still do not know). Sweetie and I are having her and her husband around for dinner tonight. He's off to his army posting and she's almost finished. I wish her all the best!
- Finally, my minion... Well the research assistant who worked with me on my project for so long, and who will be finishing it up for me. After years of the senior postdoc in the lab having a number of research assistants to help him, I finally got one of my own. She promptly took off to Hawaii for her honeymoon! Still, she worked hard, made progress where I had got bogged down, and we became good friends. She's got some big plans for her future and I'm sure she'll do just great.
I look back at the past four years, at a job that bought me to the States, introduced me to my soon-to-be wife, and ultimately lead me to my dream job. It's been fun, but it's time for me to go.
Wish me well as I cautiously step into the somewhat known...
I have worked my last day as a postdoctoral research fellow. Tomorrow, I start my new career as an instructor of science and math (the title doesn't give the position justice... it's very cool!). I would say it is a leap into the unknown, but having volunteered at my new job, and having spent some time with my new colleagues (including a mexican-themed potluck), it's more "known" than not (anyway, I'm not much of a leaper... more of a "cautious first stepper").
No more shall my hands be calloused by my pipettes. No more shall I be the man with the butter-yellow tape (yes, very natty!). I walk away from an office (shared in recent months, but still an office), a lab, and ultimately from research.
I leave behind a lab full of friends:
- The redneck/goth graduate student who is so good and so depended upon that I refer to her as "Postdoc Lite". A lover of angry German music, Russian horror films, Panera (especially their chicken and wild-rice soup), and the only person in the lab who was anal enough to understand my anality (and yet be impressed by its depths). When talking about the weird and wonderful animals in Australia she exclaimed: "That's because y'all broke off too early!"...
- Our research assistant from India. The only other person in the lab who understood cricket (and thus had a special place in my heart), she and I were so polite to each other that there were days when it actually delayed our work! She has a wicked sense of humor that is far too quick for many, but a joy to hear, and she cooked the yummiest smelling lunches. Her husband is about to join the lab as a research assistant ("I'm senior", she pointed out), which should be fun for all concerned!
- The graduate student who started just a month before I arrived. We attended classes together, ate McFlurries when the going got rough, I was the first non-family member to hear of her engagement, and one of the first to find out she's pregnant (a fact that many, including the boss, still do not know). Sweetie and I are having her and her husband around for dinner tonight. He's off to his army posting and she's almost finished. I wish her all the best!
- Finally, my minion... Well the research assistant who worked with me on my project for so long, and who will be finishing it up for me. After years of the senior postdoc in the lab having a number of research assistants to help him, I finally got one of my own. She promptly took off to Hawaii for her honeymoon! Still, she worked hard, made progress where I had got bogged down, and we became good friends. She's got some big plans for her future and I'm sure she'll do just great.
I look back at the past four years, at a job that bought me to the States, introduced me to my soon-to-be wife, and ultimately lead me to my dream job. It's been fun, but it's time for me to go.
Wish me well as I cautiously step into the somewhat known...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Gift That Keeps On Giving...
We use to have a multi-talented postdoc in the lab. He was dynamic, imaginative, and very productive. He is directly responsible for my current project (or rather my "official" project), and for the projects being undertaken by the three graduate students in the lab. He has published in Nature, PNAS, and had 3 back-to-back-to-back J.B.C. articles. For the non-scientific readers, this is quite a resume. He is now at Harvard.
We have recently had cause to revisit the proteins he researched. When you publish a paper on a protein you place the protein sequence in a database for everyone to access (or reference the sequence if it is already there). This sequence represents the exact sequence of the protein you investigated.
We have just re-checked the full-length sequences of the protein he used. From the full-length protein he made several smaller fragments. There are 5 mutations spread across the fragments he made. These are bad mutations and all should have been noticed and fixed.
Three of the fragments have been sent to the lab of a collaborator. All of these must be repaired, re-made and re-sent (it will actually be quicker to start these from scratch than to repair his fragments). The whole lab will stop their work and work solely on this for the next three weeks to fix this part of the problem.
The project of one graduate student involves looking at one of the fragments and changing the first two amino acids (the fragment has 246 amino acids) in a number of combinations to monitor the effect. All of the fragments with the changes at positions one and two are from the same flawed fragment. All 20 are useless and it will also be quicker to make them again from scratch.
We use to have a multi-talented, but sloppy postdoc in the lab...
We have recently had cause to revisit the proteins he researched. When you publish a paper on a protein you place the protein sequence in a database for everyone to access (or reference the sequence if it is already there). This sequence represents the exact sequence of the protein you investigated.
We have just re-checked the full-length sequences of the protein he used. From the full-length protein he made several smaller fragments. There are 5 mutations spread across the fragments he made. These are bad mutations and all should have been noticed and fixed.
Three of the fragments have been sent to the lab of a collaborator. All of these must be repaired, re-made and re-sent (it will actually be quicker to start these from scratch than to repair his fragments). The whole lab will stop their work and work solely on this for the next three weeks to fix this part of the problem.
The project of one graduate student involves looking at one of the fragments and changing the first two amino acids (the fragment has 246 amino acids) in a number of combinations to monitor the effect. All of the fragments with the changes at positions one and two are from the same flawed fragment. All 20 are useless and it will also be quicker to make them again from scratch.
We use to have a multi-talented, but sloppy postdoc in the lab...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Week That Was...
The blogging world has been rather quiet recently... Well, the siblings have been busy: One is counting down night shift... Another is counting down grants... And one is kicking sequined butt!
Given the lack of blogging I felt I should venture out and put fingers to keys... Much like a movie premiering in the off season, this post will end up looking better than if it was put up against some competition...
It's been a strange and busy week:
On Tuesday I discovered that a postdoc from a collaborating lab is (at least partially) incompetent. A quick protein chemistry lesson: To determine the concentration of a protein solution, you measure it's absorbance at 280nm. As all proteins are different, you then us a correction factor (called an extinction coefficient) to determine the actual concentration.
So what's the problem? Well for the past two and a half months I've been doing experiments with proteins that this postdoc had purified. By chance I checked the concentration of one of these proteins on Tuesday, only to determine a very different concentration! Reviewing the protein notes I discovered the postdoc had failed to use an extinction coefficient when determining the protein concentrations! She had done so on 4 different proteins that I have been using. While it has been possible to re-analyze all the data, it is safe to say that I was not amused! I rang her lab to explain the problem (she didn't seem to see what was wrong) and talked to her a second time shortly afterwards when she rang back to give me the "corrected concentrations" (I have measured them all myself and I'm using my own numbers). After the second phonecall a graduate student in the lab said it was remarkable that I had remained so calm on the phone...
On Friday my boss lost some papers. I have recently cleared out a number of references that an old postdoc had left behind, so the boss assumed I had thrown his papers out! After getting rather snotty with me he appeared from his office 10 minutes later to remark: "Here they are! Right where they should have been. I just kept missing them!"...
On Wednesday I applied for my new job (they finally posted it!)! The emailed me Thursday to say they got the application and that they would schedule an interview shortly...
One of our graduate students had a horrid week at work. Friday afternoon, her husband showed up out of the blue with a dozen of the largest and yummiest cup cakes I've ever seen.
"This is because your week sucked" he said. "You can share them with the others if you want!"
It's been a strange week...
Given the lack of blogging I felt I should venture out and put fingers to keys... Much like a movie premiering in the off season, this post will end up looking better than if it was put up against some competition...
It's been a strange and busy week:
On Tuesday I discovered that a postdoc from a collaborating lab is (at least partially) incompetent. A quick protein chemistry lesson: To determine the concentration of a protein solution, you measure it's absorbance at 280nm. As all proteins are different, you then us a correction factor (called an extinction coefficient) to determine the actual concentration.
So what's the problem? Well for the past two and a half months I've been doing experiments with proteins that this postdoc had purified. By chance I checked the concentration of one of these proteins on Tuesday, only to determine a very different concentration! Reviewing the protein notes I discovered the postdoc had failed to use an extinction coefficient when determining the protein concentrations! She had done so on 4 different proteins that I have been using. While it has been possible to re-analyze all the data, it is safe to say that I was not amused! I rang her lab to explain the problem (she didn't seem to see what was wrong) and talked to her a second time shortly afterwards when she rang back to give me the "corrected concentrations" (I have measured them all myself and I'm using my own numbers). After the second phonecall a graduate student in the lab said it was remarkable that I had remained so calm on the phone...
On Friday my boss lost some papers. I have recently cleared out a number of references that an old postdoc had left behind, so the boss assumed I had thrown his papers out! After getting rather snotty with me he appeared from his office 10 minutes later to remark: "Here they are! Right where they should have been. I just kept missing them!"...
On Wednesday I applied for my new job (they finally posted it!)! The emailed me Thursday to say they got the application and that they would schedule an interview shortly...
One of our graduate students had a horrid week at work. Friday afternoon, her husband showed up out of the blue with a dozen of the largest and yummiest cup cakes I've ever seen.
"This is because your week sucked" he said. "You can share them with the others if you want!"
It's been a strange week...
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Simple Things
It snowed all last night! We have a fairly decent covering of snow on the ground, on houses, and on cars. Watching the snow fall and accumulate last night and this morning made me think of the simple things in life. I hope I never fail to appreciate the simple joy associated with:
- Snow. It was so wonderful to stand at the window, with Sweetie in my arms, and watch the snow falling. This morning we awoke excited to see how much snow was outside. We were not disappointed!
- Natural beauty. Sweetie came in last night and gave me a bright yellow daffodil covered in snow. Nature knows a thing or two about beauty!
- Technology. It seems a strange thing to list, but consider this: I tried to delete a file the other day only to be told "The title of this item is too large for the recycle bin"... Remarkable!
- Being able to see your breath on a cold day. Try it! There's a definite child-like joy about it.
I could go on (and I usually do!), but I won't. Everyone has some simple thing that brings them joy. Enjoy them!
-----
Finally, I will leave you with some Latin:
"Gustatus similis pullus"
Translated: "Tastes like chicken"... Everything sounds better in Latin!
- Snow. It was so wonderful to stand at the window, with Sweetie in my arms, and watch the snow falling. This morning we awoke excited to see how much snow was outside. We were not disappointed!
- Natural beauty. Sweetie came in last night and gave me a bright yellow daffodil covered in snow. Nature knows a thing or two about beauty!
- Technology. It seems a strange thing to list, but consider this: I tried to delete a file the other day only to be told "The title of this item is too large for the recycle bin"... Remarkable!
- Being able to see your breath on a cold day. Try it! There's a definite child-like joy about it.
I could go on (and I usually do!), but I won't. Everyone has some simple thing that brings them joy. Enjoy them!
-----
Finally, I will leave you with some Latin:
"Gustatus similis pullus"
Translated: "Tastes like chicken"... Everything sounds better in Latin!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Work
I had the following exchange with my boss yesterday:
"Doctor X wants to nominate you for postdoc of the year", he said.
(Cheering from the other postdoc in the office)
"Really?" I ask.
"I think it's ridiculous. I mean really... You have no publications... None, zip! You got that grant, but so what? Now if you have a couple of papers maybe, but I think you'd be just setting yourself up to bomb out of postdoc of the year." He said.
"Okay", I mumble.
After the boss walked out of the office there was a short silence before the other postdoc apologized for his premature excitement.
"Well", I said, "At least I have a boss who keeps me well grounded!"
---
In other news: I have been working with a Science Outreach program at my University. Basically, it's designed to get school children interested in science and to show them that science can be fun! I love it, and it's what I'm aiming to do after my postdoc. The Monday after next I will be leading the class in a chemistry lab, which will be a lot of fun. I found out yesterday that a local station will be filming the day for a news article! It's all very exciting!!
It's a good thing I have people around to keep me grounded, or it might all go to my head! :-)
"Doctor X wants to nominate you for postdoc of the year", he said.
(Cheering from the other postdoc in the office)
"Really?" I ask.
"I think it's ridiculous. I mean really... You have no publications... None, zip! You got that grant, but so what? Now if you have a couple of papers maybe, but I think you'd be just setting yourself up to bomb out of postdoc of the year." He said.
"Okay", I mumble.
After the boss walked out of the office there was a short silence before the other postdoc apologized for his premature excitement.
"Well", I said, "At least I have a boss who keeps me well grounded!"
---
In other news: I have been working with a Science Outreach program at my University. Basically, it's designed to get school children interested in science and to show them that science can be fun! I love it, and it's what I'm aiming to do after my postdoc. The Monday after next I will be leading the class in a chemistry lab, which will be a lot of fun. I found out yesterday that a local station will be filming the day for a news article! It's all very exciting!!
It's a good thing I have people around to keep me grounded, or it might all go to my head! :-)
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Absurdities
Three thing today have struck me as somewhat absurd...
1. Nature Publishing seem to have figured out that I only need (and subscribe to) one copy of their journal, as they have indeed stopped sending me two copies... This in itself is not absurd, but all the events leading up to this have been!
2. I am under consideration to be in the 2009 edition of "Who's Who America"... Seriously! This is absurd for too many reasons to list!
3. Finally, an absurdity from the world of sport... At the beginning of December Shaquille O'Neal (playing for Miami) was mistakenly fouled out of a game (he had 5 fouls and not the 6 fouls required for "fouling out"). This was a mistake by the scoring officials who were employed by the opposition team (Atlanta). The NBA decided that this was a major error as the scores were very close, and that the removal of Shaq from the game may have contributed to Miami losing. So the NBA declared that both parties were to replay the remaining part of the game (all 51 seconds!) when they next meet to play each other... in March! So, replaying 51 seconds of a game, on a different court, some 3 months later is absurd enough, but it gets worse... Yesterday Shaq was traded to another team (Phoenix), making him ineligible to play in the remaining 51 seconds, but Miami and Atlanta are still required to go through with it!!! So two teams are required to replay 51 seconds of a basketball game because a player who won't be able to play was mistakenly not available to play the original 51 seconds... Uh huh!
1. Nature Publishing seem to have figured out that I only need (and subscribe to) one copy of their journal, as they have indeed stopped sending me two copies... This in itself is not absurd, but all the events leading up to this have been!
2. I am under consideration to be in the 2009 edition of "Who's Who America"... Seriously! This is absurd for too many reasons to list!
3. Finally, an absurdity from the world of sport... At the beginning of December Shaquille O'Neal (playing for Miami) was mistakenly fouled out of a game (he had 5 fouls and not the 6 fouls required for "fouling out"). This was a mistake by the scoring officials who were employed by the opposition team (Atlanta). The NBA decided that this was a major error as the scores were very close, and that the removal of Shaq from the game may have contributed to Miami losing. So the NBA declared that both parties were to replay the remaining part of the game (all 51 seconds!) when they next meet to play each other... in March! So, replaying 51 seconds of a game, on a different court, some 3 months later is absurd enough, but it gets worse... Yesterday Shaq was traded to another team (Phoenix), making him ineligible to play in the remaining 51 seconds, but Miami and Atlanta are still required to go through with it!!! So two teams are required to replay 51 seconds of a basketball game because a player who won't be able to play was mistakenly not available to play the original 51 seconds... Uh huh!
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