Cynically Optimistic

Oh, the times they are a-changin'. I think I've decided to go to graduate school this fall. With application deadlines fast approaching and yours truly not yet having taken the GRE, it appears this fall will be busy and stressful, and not just in relation to the lab. The impetus for this decision had to do with the grant situation in the lab, which I wont really delve into. Suffice it to say, for a few days it seemed as though we would be without money completely for several months, but then the boss man did his magic and now we'll be ok. But even he still thinks I should go to grad school.

Now, the choices are wide open for fields and programs, but I think I'm going to try and find something that fits in New York City. I've always wanted to be a real city mouse, and I don't think there's another way I can afford to live there without cheap student housing. Just to keep my options open, I'll probably also apply to UW in Seattle and UC San Francisco. And the location I don't pick now could always be a post-doc in 5 years.

This all looks like a big plus on paper, but there's one tiny thing that I was hoping to be able to do before graduate school. I have this fantasy trip to Southeast Asia planning in the back of my head. The idea was to stay on another year, allowing me to amass the small fortune needed to stop working 3 months before grad school started and spend the entire time tramping around Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and possibly Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. I can't really forsee another point in my life where I'll be able to get away for that length of time purely for my own benefit.

That's not to say that it's for sure that I'll be in grad school next fall, just that I'm applying. And the first step is that this weekend I'm going to take the practice test on the computer for the first time and see how well I can do. Oh, and get home in time to watch the Hawks.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Those in the know, know that I've had a stressful week at work leading up to today. This is due to the university being due for an audit by the Environmental Protection Agency. Instead of having tax dollars actually pay for the EPA to perform the audit, which I guess they can't actually do because they don't have enough staff, the university hired an outside contractor to perform the audit and report back to the feds, and charge us massive fines if we are in violation. By massive, I mean $10,000 per violation, which isn't a lot in corporate terms, but for us that money has to come out of research grants or department budget, both of which are extremely tight after Congress decided to restrict the NIH funding budget (that's a topic for another time).

During July we had been receiving updates almost daily on what specifically was allowed and not allowed. Yes you can wear shorts, but if you have long hair it must be tied back or put up. Any organic solvents near sinks must be in secondary containment. Regulated medical waste containers shouldn't be able to walk around by themselves. A lot of time was spent re-labelling bottles "Phosphate Buffered Saline" instead of "PBS", just to be in compliance. That particular example doesn't sound like a huge deal, but if you've got a tube of DNA in a Tris/EDTA buffer, the label must say, "Deoxyribonucleic Acid in Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane and Ethylenediamine Tetraacetic Acid" which is pretty difficult to write on a 1.5 mL microcentrifuge tube.

On Friday we were informed that ours was the first building on Campus to be inspected, a mixed blessing. I show up early (for me) at about 9 and wait. And wait. And go to lunch. And wait. Finally, around 2:30 they arrive, and Nerd-ette the inspector does her thing. I gues she was out of college for a couple of years, probably had a chemical engineering degree. Her safety goggles were not sexy. After a cursory glance, she starts in with the questions in rapid-fire. I try to be as amicable as possible and answer cheerfully. She noticed we had one label on a waste bottle without a name identifying it's contents. Luckily I fixed it right away and that's considered okay to do, and not a violation. Then she makes a lap around the lab and heads out the door. No inspection of tubes of DNA or anything. I kind of felt bad she didn't look harder since I gave everyone in the lab such grief over this.

But the good news is we passed with no violations, no fines, and it's Monday so the rest of the week can go back to normal. YA-HOOOOOOOO! I deserve a beer.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that I've got a kitchen, and a roommate who likes to cook and eat, I've been trying out new recipes. Most of the time we just use whatever we have lying around the house. The other day, Encarni got out some Spanish recipe magazines and books and was looking for something interesting. We kept coming across ingreedients neither of us could translate, or decipher from the picture. Google to the rescue.

This brings us to Nutmeg, a.k.a. Nuez Moscata. Who knew all the crazy stuff this thing could do. If you eat 3 whole nutmegs, that's a lethal dose. And if you eat2 tablespoons of powdered nutmeg, it's effects are hallucinogenic and toxic. Don't believe me? Check it out. Can be metabolized to form TMA and Mescaline in the body. Freaky Deaky!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I'm perusing Science Magazine, like you do, and I came across a little blurb about how there are actually 3 separate species of Elephants! Bollocks I say - for I distinctly remember being taught in school that that there are only 2 types: African and Indian. The way to tell them apart is that African Elephants have large floppy ears, and Indian Elephants have smaller ones.

Apparently there are two species of African Elephants: African Savanna and African Forest. The Forest species is smaller and less aggressive than the Savanna species. So, forget what you used to know and learn this: 3 types of elephants. Crazy genetics. The thrust of the Science article was that the mitochondrial DNA of the Savanna Elephants shows that it's possible for the species to cross, and it's mostly male Savanna mating with female Forrest Elephants, those horny devils.

Oh, and now we refer to Indian Elephants as Asian, because they're not limited to India. Apparently I'm not very PC either.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A paper to which I contributed a fair amount of work was recently published in online format. It was accepted a few weeks ago without revisions and will be printed in a couple of months in the proper format.

25 Bonus points to the first person who can find the only other (scientific) journal article that has my name on it. 1000 bonus points to anyone who reads the entire paper and has an interesting question or comment. -50 points for anyone who doesn't watch The Amazing Race at 10 PM EDT on Tuesday! (Check your local listings)

Posted by Jeff Smith at 02:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)