The Curious Biologist

My supervisor used to always tell me, “Some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue”. I think I know exactly what he means now. Despite my best efforts, Western blots just don’t behave.

Fresh plasmid, fresh transformation, and no growth on the negative control. Hell yeah!

Great shot of some cellulose biofilm. This sucker weighed almost 10 grams dry!

Urea makes the coolest crystal patterns!

6 litres, ready to go!

Anyone who does protein work knows how beautiful it is to see these!

Expressing.... again.

There are lots of great careers in microbiology both with and without degrees!There are many labs, both public and private, that perform routine microbiology testing for pathogens, water quality, food quality and safety, soil sampling, and public health concerns. These places often hire assistants and technicians with varying requirements. At my former workplace, you could earn a very reasonable wage with a 9-month certificate or be a supervising technician with a 2-year diploma.

Big yields mean big work-ups, which also mean big mugs of coffee and long days.

Is it just me, or do Western blots frustrate everyone else to no end?

Nothing puts a smile on your face quite like a gel that looks like this!

I think it looks a tad overgrown, don’t you?

Yuck! Always wash your lettuce!

Ochem is always a popular answer, I was lucky enough to have a fantastic teacher, but others I’m sure weren’t as lucky! That’s what my roommate always says is the #1 GPA killer, but I disagreed. I can relate to physics. I had the worst prof you could imagine. We’re talking broken English, reading verbatim from the textbook and waving his hands around to demonstrate the laws of thermodynamics in what I can only describe as interpretative dance. I’ve never had it explained to me the same way twice since then, either. For me the worst was probability and statistics. The course was compulsory and taught through the math department, so it was a purely theoretical course rather than teaching from an applied or practical perspective. I will never forget the 3-page proofs...

Believe it or not, it’s not fungi... some Actinomyces spp. on AIA from an environmental sample. Check out the funky colour on the background!

A perfect gradient is always so satisfying. Brownie points to whoever can guess which assay I’m running!