Blotty Blot Blot

Soooooooooo a big thing in molecular biology/genetics, as someone out there probably knows, is the blot. As in, blot analysis. As in, Southern blot. Northern blot. Western blot. Every time we go back through and learn the whole procedure again (since 9th grade, I've probably learned it 5 times?) I spend most of the class period doing two things:

A) Wondering why I ever put forth the effort and energy toward researching about and learning the blot analysis procedure ON MY OWN...the FIRST TIME, seeing as it's clearly something that every teacher ever feels the need to reteach.
B) Contemplating why on Earth hoity-toity, high tech scientists, constantly in a race to the next Nobel Prize or to the next random pooping mechanism that they can name after themselves, NAMED THE THING A BLOT.

Neither question of mine has, unfortunately, ever been answered. But as a part of that effort I put forth in learning blot analysis, I DID make my very own contribution to science by making a mnemonic device to remember which blot deals with which macromolecule. Prepare yourselves (it's a cheer, say it with enthusiasm):

South, North, West! D and R Protest!

IT RHYMES!! I know, genius, right? To anyone that hasn't stopped reading yet (My deepest apologies but it is, after all, your fault) this OBVIOUSLY means that South = DNA, North = RNA, and West = Protein.

Sad story, though. It never really caught on. But it helps me go to bed at night if I retain the one small thread of hope that says, hey, you know what? You probably helped someone through their first cell biology class. I mean, probably not, but you do what you gotta do to live with yourself.

My last random comment about blots-- my favorite part of any diagram showing the procedure for a Southern blot is the fact that ontop of the chemical gel, nitrocellulose paper, bio-sponge, and finely tuned buffer solution invariably sits "stacked paper towels." And is labeled as such. Textbook authors couldn't cut the guys some slack and call them "absorbant fiber sheets" or something of the like??? Haha, it makes me smile.

No really, my last random comment-- I think I just saw ET go past Ehringhaus. Well, not ET I guess, but the kid on the bicycle with the sweatshirt hood and all? I guess there really wasn't an alien. OKAY ALREADY, I saw a kid with a hoodie riding a bicycle!!!! It seemed cool circa 15 seconds ago.

Why television is good for you

"I guess I'm gonna have to call this thing for the Democrats. The people have spoken and apparently they're tired of freedom. Don't get me wrong, I'm just disappointed. I thought this country would last longer than 230 years...Don't think you're off the hook voters, you're the ones who made this bed. Now you're gonna have to move over so a gay couple can sleep in it. Tomorrow you're all going to wake up in a brave new world. A world where the Constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones created in a stem cell research lab run by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags! Where tax and spend Democrats take all your hard-earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio and teach evolution to illegal immigrants. Oh, and everybody's high!"

- Stephen Colbert

So... the election is over but it remains to be seen if anything really changes besides who television comedians make fun of. Hey- it's change nonetheless so I'm happy :)

The Next Generation of Scientists

The world should be a little frightened of the next generation of scientists. Or maybe just of me. This only comes to mind now, as I sit here researching for my biology research paper in which we are supposed to point out the flaws in a previously written research paper of our choice. Not really because I can't understand a word of the literally over 100 papers I've read to find one, and not necessarily because I don't even know enough biology to KNOW if the crude experiments done on jellyfish in 1915 produced reasonable results, but moreso because I just used an "Ask a Real Scientist" website as a background research source for my project. I was specifically interested, as was 11-year-old Maryam from Ohio, in the discovery of membrane diffusion processes. I think the source is legitimate though, the person who answered the question signed his response "spaceman".

This is going to be a hell of a paper.

Dove Promises....

The "Dove Promise" I just read inside the wrapper of one of the chocolates says

Be the change you hope to see.

HMMMMMMMM, I mean OKAY. But see, here's the thing. I'd be glad to do that but I already promised this other guy that I would be the change I want to see in the world... so I think I'm going to have to go with my previous commitment on this one.

Wait, who was the man who said that?

OH YEAH- Ghandi.

Can Dove really not come up with 8 different promises to circulate through their millions of candies that don't RIP OFF some of the most well known quotations of all time?? I'd boycott if the chocolate wasn't so good.