Contrary to popular belief, things DID happen to me during the downtime of my site. Here’s a few examples…
School pretty much finished up until Fall. My TAship is paused until I teach (probably) micro lab again, so I have all kinds of time to focus on the lab. I also finished my unnerving but nonthreatening genetics course with a B. Overall I guess it was a good semester, though mostly because it was much less hectic than the first.
I HAVE done a little internet-related work. Mostly writing articles for GeeksAreSexy.net again. This time I created Science Is Sexy: What’s The Big Deal About Synthetic Life? and REVIEW: Is Betterment.com Really a Better Way to Grow Your Money? It was nice to get writing again and find something I genuinely wanted to write about.
My lab work is going really well! Thus far I have created a very successful transformant (a kind of genetically modified bacterium) and am currently working on deleting a gene from that bacterium. If I can remove a gene and then replace it with my modified version, I’ll have essentially completed the “mutation and rescue” paradigm of molecular genetics. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.
As an added treat for those interested in the above, here’s a picture of said transformant (the change is that one of its proteins is now fluorescently marked, so this is a fluorescent microscopy image), click it for a large view:
Right now the above bacteria are being a bit stubborn about giving up their genetic material (I mean I only want to blow up their outer layers and strip out their identities, geez!) so I’m cycling through a number of techniques that SHOULD be helping. Thus far, no luck. It’s still nice to feel like I’ve already done SOMETHING in lab this season.
As it goes with magic…I am kind of taking a little break. Hobbies are only fun when you’re mentally engaged. Just like my writing, sometimes the activity gets a little stale and I need some time away so I can miss it. I’m pretty much just in maintenance mode…I still carry cards and can entertain a bit, but not a lot of new stuff is coming out at the moment. I think it’ll probably pick up in Fall (also, Summer is horrible for card magic…humidity and “stickiness” are no fun for paper).
Lastly, on a pop culture note, I just saw Prince of Persia and LOVED it! If you would like to see Disney’s Aladdin in live-action form, this is the movie for you. The plot is pretty compelling too!
I’m so glad all this registration nonsense is behind me. Now I can just get back to guilting myself into blogging at a regular pace!
["Stand Back" image from XKCD]
June 3rd, 2010
Posted by
Jimmy Rogers |
Blogging/Writing, Geeky Stuff, General News, Grad School, Magic, Movies, Science |
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So after my registrar, Dotstrar, vanished, leaving only a vacant website and email accounts that bounced-back all incoming messages, my registration lapsed and I lost the domain. Fortunately my host was able to hold of my data (read: blog posts) on their servers until now. I have transfered my domain over to a new registrar (GoDaddy, who seem to be the cheapest without being based in some 3rd world country) and the Science and Magic should be uninterrupted from here on out!
I hope some of you are still aware of this blog’s existence…I should have a new update post out this week! I’ve been busy during all this downtime!
June 2nd, 2010
Posted by
Jimmy Rogers |
Site Maintainence |
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Here’s a look at my usual schedule during the busy times of grad school:
6:30-7:30am
Awake repeatedly to multiple alarms (needed from lack of sleep).
8am
Leave for school
8:30am
Begin prep for the lab I TA (Microbiology)
9:05-11am
Teach the lab and handle the 20 things that will unexpectedly go wrong
11:10am-11:50
Grab some lunch at the food court (while tasty and filling, not too nutritious)
12-3:30pm
Work in the lab doing a number of protocols including enzyme digests, PCR, bacterial cell culture, and numerous gels (did most of those)
3:30-4pm
Chat with other grads waiting for class to start
4-6pm
Take graduate Genetics (looking at gene expression in detail)
6:15pm
Head home in medium traffic on Rt. 1
The rest of my evening involves a combination of dinner, grading papers/project/exams, reading several journal articles (avg. length 10 pages), and diverting myself with Hulu. It should be noted that Twitter and podcasts permeate the whole day.
At about midnight (hopefully) I get to bed and wake up around 6am for the first time, clocking in about 5 hours of total sleep…starting the whole saga over again.
Overall, a very stressful way to be…part teacher, part student, part experimental scientist. At least it’s never the same two days in a row!
March 3rd, 2010
Posted by
Jimmy Rogers |
General News, Grad School, Science |
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Wowee I have been so super busy since my last update. More details on that in a bit, but first I have a neat announcement!
A couple weeks ago it my editor over at GeeksAreSexy.net (for whom I freelance occasionally) asked me if I wanted to do an interview with Discovery. I was surprised at first that they would even know we existed, but it turns out that all of our sciencey stories over the last year have come to the attention of one of their podcasts.
The Discovery News Friday Feedbag podcast takes a few science stories each week and discusses them in a casual atmosphere. They have a growing listener base and one of those loyal listeners forwarded our site to them. Last Thursday (after quite a bit of planning and then snow and then more planning) I chatted with them via telephone on the show. It was an incredibly fun experience and I’m glad that new media gives me a chance to share it with all of YOU.
Here’s the link to the podcast’s episode page….or if you don’t want to subscribe on iTunes, right-click and save this link to get the MP3 file. I’m about 1 minute into the file. Also here’s our announcement about it on GeeksAreSexy.
Aside from being famous on the internet I’ve mostly been hard at work in grad school. I have gotten a little closer to understanding my research project and ran my first successful PCR (which I got right on the first try). If you don’t know what that is, just think of it as a complex chemical reaction which occasionally decides it’s not going to work at all!
Classes have been pretty interesting this semester, as they are significantly more microbially centered. I’m really enjoying Microbial Pathogenesis, despite it’s 8AM meeting time.
On Friday I saw a talk by Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV. While I already knew the story of the virus pretty well, I was impressed by how amusing some of his personal stories were.
Lastly I’ve been helping out with new grad student recruitment and look forward to meeting the second batch of applicants next week.
February 28th, 2010
Posted by
Jimmy Rogers |
Blogging/Writing, Geeky Stuff, General News, Grad School, Science, Web Culture |
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After a few weeks back in the lab I seem to have little to show for it. My transgenic bacteria from last semester all seem to have succumbed to the cold, dry environment of our lab fridge so I’m starting somewhat from scratch at this point. I was able to save my original B. megaterium strain; though, so I haven’t been set back too far. Also, I’m going to work on a new method for preserving my stocks in a colder freezer, so this lesson might have saved me from losing future (and more important) work.
On another science front, I used my time over winter break to write a few articles pertaining to science for my old friends over at GeeksAreSexy.net. Here’s a list:
Some of the articles got rather nasty comments, so it wasn’t the greatest ego booster, but I think readers sometimes expect everything they see nowadays to become comprehensive and include every possible detail. It seems like sometimes there’s no space between layman and expert anymore.
With more paid articles came more ways to promote my blog and my Twitter account. For that reason I actually started POSTING again to said Twitter account. Feel free to follow me if you aren’t already via the Twitter tab on the right.
Lastly, I haven’t mentioned the great art of magic on here in quite a while, but after a bit of a hiatus and a period of only doing the same tricks over and over, I have started working on some new material. In fact, I recently started actively routining my effects to flow easily from one to another (less “what should we do next” in the future I hope). The newest effect I’m working on at the moment is very challenging and requires a lot from me. But I hope in a few weeks to be able to debut it for you all!
Thanks for reading my update. The best way to follow my hijinks on the web is Twitter, as I’m always posting there and sometimes to Facebook.
January 18th, 2010
Posted by
Jimmy Rogers |
Geeky Stuff, General News, Grad School, Magic, Science, Twitter |
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