penn

I (heart) Biochem

I gave a "presentation" of my summer work yesterday at a lunch meeting. I was in no way prepared; one of the professors just asked me to get up and give a short talk after everyone else had presented. I stood up and explained my work as best I could (some of it's complicated, and I don't yet understand all of it). I thought it went fairly well: people seemed to understand what I explained.

Afterwards, I spoke to one of the professors about it. He said I did alright, but he didn't understand all the techniques I talked about. That really frustrates me. In my work, I use standard biochemistry tests (such as running a Western to determine relative protein concentrations). I don't think I do anything that is particularly out of the ordinary. However, only some of the chemistry professors understand the reasons for, or goal of, my techniques. The prof I spoke to just reminded me that, next time I give a talk (when it's not sprung on me last minute), I need to take a few minutes to discuss the techniques I use, how they're run, and what the goal of the techniques are. I suppose it's good feedback -- it's just frustrating. Perhaps biochemistry really should be its own division.

Wallflowers!

Yay for insurance -- I am getting a new laptop. Now I just have to figure out what I want.

In other news, I went to go see the Wallflowers tonight. Before I went, I had never really heard any of their stuff -- I mean, I'd heard it on the radio, but I would not have been able to tell you the name of any of their songs.

They were . . . . amazing. I had a great time! The music was beautiful, smooth, excellent . . . . wow. After the concert, my boyfriend and I stuck around the back gate (he's a music junkie and loves to meet and greet band members). I snagged an ad poster for the show and got that signed by the whole band. I also got a nice big hug from Jacob Dylan (lead singer) and Greg (the bass player). All in all, it was a fun fun night. I didn't even mind the pervading stench of pot smoke.

Stolen Laptop :-(

My laptop got stolen today :-( I am majorly bummed. Here's to hoping it is still insured so I can get a new one.

Updates

Updates on previous posts: The liver cells from the last day are growing quite well (see Thursday, July 17th) and I've decided to sign up for Urban Environmental Policy (Wed, July 16th).

Reading makes me happy

I apologize for the disconcerting lack of recent posts; it makes me upset, but I just haven't been in a writing mood.

I did manage to finish two books: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande and My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather.

The former is an excellent "sciency" book, but the language is simple enough for the lay person to understand. Included are previous articles of Gawande's (including "Crimson Tide", which was published in The Best American Science Writing 2002, about a blushing newscaster) and anecdotes from his time as a med student and resident. He also takes time to wax philosphical about the institution of surgery and medicine. While most would think this sounds boring, I assure you that his prose is succint and his stories moving. In fact, I bought the 288 page book on Sunday afternoon and finished it Monday evening.

The latter (the Cather book) was also an enjoyable read that I devoured during and after work on Tuesday. The quick read was eased by the short length: the book is only 80 some pages of engrossing story in a medium-large typeface. I'm a big fan of Cather; she's a Nebraskan author (though she was born in Virginia) who manages to capture the feel of the beautiful plains state that so many others disdain. I lived in Nebraska for twelve years, and I have never been able to see the rolling sandhills and prarie grass as anything but exotic and lovely. My Mortal Enemy is worth giving a quick look -- as that is all it takes to read the book -- but if you want to truly delve into Cather and her Nebraska loving, check out My Antonia or O'Pioneers.

How to kill a sturgeon

At work, we're developing a cell culture protocol and attempting to culture hematocytes (in other words, liver cells). For the past three days, my coworker and I have performed live dissection on sturgeons in order to pull out a clean liver to culture.

It sounds weird, and several people have already asked if I get any "take home bennies" (ie fresh sturgeon fillets) from my work. Sadly, I get no meat, but that's alright with me. Most of the chemicals we pump into the sturgeon are fairly healthy, but we use an anesthetizing agent, and I don't think I want that running around my blood stream.

I've got pictures of the dissection in my camera, but I haven't gotten them developed yet. When I do, I'll post them up here. For now, I'll just describe the fun procedure:

On Monday, my coworker and professor went to the fishery to pick up four live sturgeon. All week, we've kept them in a cooler with an oxygen bubbler; it's cramped, but most of them didn't seem to mind. We only had one fly the coop: we found him beneath the sink the next morning. He was dried to the floor.

By Tuesday morning, we had all the media and solutions prepared, so we did a dissection. First, we took a shallow pan of water and added MS2 to it. This numbs the fish without killing him; it's akin to being anesthetized for surgery. After the fish stops trying to jump out of the water or slap you in the face with his tail, we take the fish (still in water) over to our lab.

Our lab is somewhat small, so we do the dissection on our desk. First, we lay the fish in a dissecting tray with the ventral side up. Then, we make a slit up the ventral side from the urethra to the still-beating heart.

The liver is located on the left ventral side of the sturgeon. We snip part of the blood vessel leading (from below) into the liver, and then we push a small tube into the vessel and clamp the vessel and tube together. The tube leads to a syringe that is filled with Leffert's + EDTA and Heparin (the EDTA to remove the red blood cells and the heparin to prevent clotting -- Leffert's is just the buffer). We then cut the heart and bleed the sturgeon.

Fifteen minutes and three syringes later, we have exaguinated the liver of red blood cells. We then rinse with Leffert's calcium (EDTA also binds calcium, and we need calcium to digest the liver) and then wash the inside of the liver with Leffert's calcium + collagenase to break the protein bonds between cells.

From there on, it's a time-consuming matter of removing the liver, separating and suspending cells, and then culturing them. What intrigues and disturbs me most about the dissecting days is the great pleasure I take in opening up that sturgeon while his heart is still beating. Something about it is amazing and appealing to me.

Fun fact #1: While cutting the dead sturgeon apart to release the liver, I would sometimes hit a nerve or reflexive muscle, causing the sturgeon to spasm or open and close his mouth despite the fact that he was dead.

Fun fact #2: You can push in a sturgeon's cheeks (near the gills) and make the mouth open and close.

Fun fact #3: Fish anesthetizing agent eats through floor wax on the biology department's floor.

Schedule by America

At the end of spring semester, I signed up for fall classes: ecology, vertebrate zoology, non-fiction creative writing, chimp behavior, and wetlands research (and it's only all 15 credits). However, I really enjoy the research I'm doing now, and I would like to continue my research in the fall.

If I do biochem research in the fall, I would probably drop wetlands monitoring. If I drop wetlands monitoring, I would be able to take Urban Environmental Policy, which sounds like an uber-cool class. It is about maintaining a green space/usable city balance and the choices made in urban planning for Portland. It sound spiffy, and it would balance my schedule out some more. Also, I've always wanted to take a poly-sci class.

To add Urban Policy without removing a class would be to carry 18 credits. I could do it: I've done it before. However, I want to take this semester a little lighter. I'm studying abroad in the spring, I don't need a huge amount of credits to graduate on time, and I'd like a little free time. Now, I could drop Chimp Behavior, but I've wanted to take that class since freshman year. Overall, I'm just not sure what to do. If anyone out there is actually reading this, feel free to give me your opinion: penn at pacificu.edu is my email address.

From The Morning News!

Thanks to Aaron for a great article about the slippery slope of binge drinking studies.

Effects of Marijuana and other drug info

Yesterday, we talked a lot about "controlled substances". The professor who oversees my research (well, who designs it and lets my coworker and me run with it) is a biochemist; she's taken lots of classes in neuropharm, neuropsych, etc. (She was also an aspiring psychology PhD.) Consequently, my coworker and I usually ask her any bio-related questions we might have.

We mostly talked about the damage different drugs do to your brain. According to her, the least damaging "controlled substance" for your brain is marijuana; it's even less dangerous than alcohol.

Now, marijuana does some bad stuff. If you chain-smoke it, it's worse for your lungs than cigarettes. Marijuana has more tar and is rarely filtered; the one exception we noted was in the use of a water bong. Also, apparently, the more THC, the less tar. However, the experts are still out on whether or not smoking pot does sustained brain damage in measurable levels (ie more brain damage a year after quitting than normal living does). It certainly does impact brain activity in the short term. For more information, you can always look up some research on the subject.

I also learned that meth is the worst drug, overall, because it does concentrated brain damage. Many drugs damage the whole brain: this is just like everday living at a more accelerated pace.

Alcohol hurts your brain in a fairly simple manner: osmosis. It's a molecule that floats around in your blood stream. In the process of osmosis, water moves from areas of high concentration to low concentration. As the alcohol level of the blood increases, water leaves the body (including the brain) to dilute the alcohol in your blood, thereby causing fuzzy headedness ("buzzed"). Apparently, the same thing happens with salt. You can gradually build up a tolerance to the substance that makes it life threatening to go cold turkey. (warning: possible urban legend -- if you can back this up with an article or reputable source of some sort, please let me know) My professor told us about a kid who was literally eating tablespoons of salt. They took him to the doctor, who immediately prevented him from taking in more salt. In a few hours he died, because his body had built up a tolerance for high salt levels. Your body does the same thing for alcohol and many other substances; hence, we have detox for alcoholics instead of throwing them in jail to go cold turkey and die.

Rapid consumption also has it's dangers; another example of the benefits of tolerance AND the dangers of rapid consumption can be found in an observation of drinking games. Another fun, yet unsubstantiated, fact: pounding a fifth of alcohol in one shot, or pulling a John Belushi, is lethal for almost everyone. It's too much all at once.

**REVISION** Check out Alice! for more info on the effect of marijuana. This goes to show that, even if marijuana is less harmful than other stuff, it's still harmful. The best way to prevent harm is to take no drugs at all. Think about it.

Intro to Elay

I'm a student at Pacific University, and I am majoring in biology; however, I've always been interested in writing. Ideally, I'd like to practice writing on a daily basis using blogger. If I like it enough, science journalism just might be my career.