I just read a paper about renegade molecular biologists

[SallyMander]

Ask me anything! :bounce:


It was neat -- they were trying to figure out if whale meat being sold in South Korean markets was illegally harvested. But you can't bring Minke whale tissue back into the US because of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, i think). So they had to set up a portable lab so they could isolate and amplify the DNA -- presumably in their hotel room -- and then bring the DNA back to the States for further analysis.

I think that's bad-ass. Does that make me a geek? :shrug:


:rofl:

[lizziegrace]

1. You're such a geek...

:hug:

[SallyMander]

3. Sigh... I s'pose you're right...

But at least it means i'm in the right field! :D


:hug: back atcha :)

[lizziegrace]

5. yes you are

;)

I'm so glad we've gotten to meet. :)

[SallyMander]

11. I know!

I keep thinking how fortunate that so many amazing DUers live nearby -- or were willing to travel for your meet-up!

I am already looking forward to the next one. :D

[ThomCat]

2. Yes, but a very good kind of geek!

:)

[SallyMander]

4. LOL... thanks

I like to think my geekitude doesn't interfere with my social life. ;)


:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

6. Yes, but I loves the "hard" sciences as well

Although Biology was not my strongest suit in college. I rocked in Chemistry until P-Chem. P-Chem made me want to curl up into the fetal position until I died.

[SallyMander]

9. My parents were really surprised when i went into biology

I snoozed through both physics and chem... i did alright, but they just never grabbed my attention. But i was the kid who was carrying frogs around in my pockets at age 6, so really they shouldn't have been too surprised. :rofl:

Were you a science major in college? Or was chem a general requirement for you?

[KitchenWitch]

12. Chemistry major!

:D

[SallyMander]

15. So you were one of those "orgo is SOOO easy"

curve-breaker types??? :P

[KitchenWitch]

20. Pretty much - Physical Chemistry was a different story though

I loved Quant and Qual Analysis, I loved Biochem, I loved O-Chem. But P-Chem almost killed me.

[SallyMander]

22. Wow - i could have used your brains

back when i was a pre-vet student! :)

[VenusRising]

7. I lurve you smart science geeks.

That's why I married one. :loveya:

That does sound like an interesting article, though. Where did you find the paper?

:hi:

:hug:

[SallyMander]

10. LOL - you are clearly susceptible to the geekiness!

My lab group reads a paper a week for lab meeting. One of my lab-mates found this one in Molecular Ecology (which is the journal we use the most). It was an interesting change of pace from what i'm usually reading!


Are you having a nice Sunday? :)

:hug:

[VenusRising]

13. It has been a really nice Sunday.

We went to Mongolian bbq, Half-Priced Books, and Starbucks.

And in Starbucks, the two guys behind the counter were talking about Chuck Norris! :rofl:

I hope you and Iza are having a lovely Sunday.

It's much nicer than yesterday.

:)

[SallyMander]

16. LOL - were they discussing the Huckabee endorsement?

What did they have to say?


We're both sitting here on our laptops like dorks... but going to dinner with some friends in an hour or so, so we'll be forced to socialize. :rofl:

Tomorrow is supposed to be 67 degrees!!! :o

[VenusRising]

19. The guy making my drink said...

There is no such thing as evolution....only animals Chuck Norris has allowed to survive. :rofl:

I then brought up the endorsement thing, and one of them said he saw Chuck Norris on Fox News over at his girlfriend's house because the girlfriend's Dad is a Fox News lover. The guy then tells me that he hates going over there because he's not a Fox News lover at all! :rofl:


ZI and I are both on our laptops, so we're all dorks together. Which is cool. :)

I'm sure Elmo will be a happy puppy tomorrow with the warm weather. He'll be ready to go outside and chase squirrels.

67!! :woohoo:

[SallyMander]

24. ...

:spray:


That's funny... well, the creationism museum is only a couple hours away! :scared:


I'll definitely have to take Elmo down to the park tomorrow... only problem is i'm sure it'll be one big puddle... and then he'll turn into a tail-wagging mud-monster! :D

[VenusRising]

26. You could poke leg holes in a garbage bag

and put socks on him. :rofl:

I don't know how much fun that would be for him, but it would be cleaner for you.

[SallyMander]

27. OMG! I'm pretty sure he'd kill me in my sleep!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


Especially considering how little he appreciated his jacket. x(


However the image alone has had me giggling for many minutes now! :D


Edit for smilie disfunction...

[VenusRising]

29. He doesn't like his jacket??

I thought he was sleeping in it like jammies. :(

I thought it was funny, too. But since he doesn't like his jacket, why waste money on a rain poncho when there is a garbage bag handy.

Just leave him some puppy treats out and he'll forget he wants to kill you. :P

[SallyMander]

32. He *tolerates* his jacket

But he definitely doesn't *like* it. And he won't run around, play, or go potty while wearing it -- so it's not that practical for going on walks, which is of course when he'd need it! What a goober.

You're right though, treats will solve all problems... and we still have many left over from Christmas visits with both his "grandmas," LOL!

[VenusRising]

37. Grandmas are great for that.

Spoil the crap out of them, and then send them home with you to deal with them.

I'm not fooled by the gag, which is why we don't have kids. :P

[nam78_two]

8. Wow-I wouldn't have thought you could do that in a hotel room

Thats pretty cool. I guess they do make portable PCR machines now:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104545/Mini-PCR-Machine

But I am still wondering about how they isolated the DNA from whale tissue. Of course I don't know a whole lot about that sort of stuff, but from what I have seen of protocols to isolate specific proteins for instance from tissue, they seem to usually involve quite a few intense centrifugation and lysis steps.

I would have to imagine these guys had access to some kind of lab wherever they were? I can't quite wrap my head around carrying out a procedure like that in a back alley or a hotel room. Of course I am no molecular biologist-I merely borrow their expertise when I need to :).

[SallyMander]

14. What do you do?

Sounds like you know quite a bit about molecular techniques!


My guess is that they used something like i did for my work -- the Qiagen "DNeasy" kits (LOL). Basically makes extraction so easy that a trained monkey could do it -- it comes with all the buffers that you need, and step-by-step instructions. Then all you need is a centrifuge, but i used a fairly small one, so that seems doable in less-than-ideal circumstances!

I'll be curious to see if my advisor knows anything more about how they did this... it's a pretty neat project, and with important conservation implications!

:hi:

[nam78_two]

28. Nah I don't know much

Just the bare minimum I need to -I am much more of a math person-the amount of information in biology scares me :hi:. I am a biophysicist, so I don't need to be super good at anything-just borrow a whole bunch from many different fields ;).

I am just familiar with some protocols for purifying motor proteins (which is what I study). Most protocols I have seen involve many centrifugation steps, lysing with dounces and finally a column purification.
I have no idea what they do for DNA purification. I always assumed those little quiagen kits are for the DNA samples you buy from Sigma etc. :). It is the isolation of the DNA from tissue that sounds hard.

[SallyMander]

30. Neat!

Yeah, i think protein purification can be much more complex -- especially if you are trying to maintain some of the superstructure -- but honestly i don't know much about it. I used the Qiagen kits for raw tissue samples (salamander tail snips) that had been collected in field (e.g. MUDDY!) conditions and stored in ethanol -- and i had no problem! I am a big fan of theirs now. :D

[nam78_two]

34. Ah-makes sense

Good luck out there fellow lab-rat :D :toast:!

[Bunny]

17. I wonder if they have their own gang colors?

:shrug:

[SallyMander]

21. Yellow, orange, pink and blue!

:rofl:

[Bunny]

25. .

:patriot:

[LynzM]

18. That's fascinating...

I admire people who can come up with a good work-around on the fly, as it were. :) I'll join you in the geekitude, if that makes me a geek, as well.

:hi:

[SallyMander]

23. That's what i love about it!

Like they thought "hmmm, we really want to do this study, but we can't ship in tissue samples... i know, let's just set up a full-on DNA lab in Korea! Why not???" :rofl:

[SPKrazy]

31. it's pretty cool actually

sort of high tech whale meat spying :P

:hi:

[SallyMander]

33. Exactly!

Biological espionage... i like it! :D

[SPKrazy]

35. actually the limits of it

are frightening when you think about what could and could not be done for good or bad.

or maybe i'm just paranoid :scared:

[SallyMander]

36. Don't mind me... i'm just going to need this little lock of hair...

:evilgrin:

[SPKrazy]

38. clone me

eeeeek

:rofl:

[SallyMander]

39. Soon we will be seeing posts from Southpawkicker

Southpawkicker2, Southpawkicker3, Southpawkicker4... :rofl:

[SPKrazy]

40. pfffttt.....

some would be very scared

others would run for the hills

me

I'd hide :hide:

no more SPK's

[BlueIris]

41. You're not a geek at all!

That is both bad and ass.

[SallyMander]

42. I thought so too!

Glad to see i'm not the only one. :D


:hi: