Spontaneous Adventures

Okay, so first off, work related things. The best thing about work this week was on Wednesday morning when I scanned the latest version of the Western Blot and saw a band where we were expecting it for our protein of interest. After seeing a whole lot of nothing for approximately 5 weeks, it was really nice to get some confirmation that what we were doing was actually working. The way we finally got visible bands was by first doing an Immunoprecipitation assay, which basically purified the protein before we tried to visualize it. As per usual, this didn’t go totally according to plan, since I forgot to add the antibody (which is what binds to the protein and allows it to be purified) the first time we went through the assay. But luckily, I realized it before we tried to do the Western Blot, so not too much time was wasted.

The next day, we started another assay to purify the protein that involved an electric drill. One of the things I did not think I would say about work this summer is that I used a drill in lab. Apparently, the group who developed the protocol we were following decided to use a drill when the conventional lab tools for shearing (breaking apart) the cells did their jobs too well. What essentially ended up happening is we attached a pestle for a mortar and pestle type setup to an electric drill, as if it were the drill bit. We then (very, very carefully) moved the drill up and down in one of the standard lab-issue glass ‘mortars’, if you will (for people who know lab things, I’m talking about attaching a Teflon pestle to an electric drill and homogenizing a tissue sample in the glass tube part of a Dounce Homogenizer). Given that we were doing this at greater than 1,000 rpm in order to properly shear the cells, my postdoc decided the liabilities of letting me work the drill were not worth it. Luckily, nothing broke, so we were fine. But the dangers of running an electric drill at that speed inside a glass object probably warranted some extra caution. It remains to be seen whether this electric drill business was worth it- I’ll be running those samples out tomorrow. I hereby promise to keep you updated on whether or not the crossover between construction and biology works out as we hope.

Another thing I did this week that was (mostly) work-related was take a field trip out to Tufts (which is about five miles away in Medford) to watch a Ph.D. thesis defense. I actually only saw the public part of it, but my postdoc explained the rest to me. Basically what happens is after you finish all of your grad school work and pass all of the qualifying exams and what not (serious oversimplifying here- I’m almost certainly missing some things) you give a presentation on your work that’s open to the public. You then have a last meeting with your thesis committee, who can ask you questions on your work. The thesis committee asks all their questions and then has a private meeting where they decide whether or not you deserve your Ph.D. I believe that the idea is that by this point you have worked out all the kinks in your thesis and deserve your degree. But I imagine that this could be wrong, and I’m pretty sure that waiting for the results of that meeting would be one of the most terrifying things ever. After the closed committee meeting, they either award you your Ph.D., or they don’t, and then you celebrate (or not. But again, I think that this happens rather rarely). Anyway, this usually happens close to the end of the year, and you can then participate in the Doctoral Hooding ceremony that occurs right before Commencement. It’s kind of a big deal. :P It was really cool seeing the presentation the doctoral candidate gave- I even understood most of it! Granted, it was probably written to be understandable by the general audience, but I felt good that I understood some of the more technical things.

Okay, now non-work-things. This week was a bit filled with spontaneity. After dinner on Wednesday, my roommate and I walked over to the sailing pavilion to try to sign up for some free sailing lessons. As it turned out, they were already full for the week. While walking back, we decided we were in the mood for something sweet, and decided to go out for ice cream. On the way to ice cream, we remembered that there was supposed to be free food in the Student Center that night, and decided to detour that way to see if there was anything delicious. Much to our surprise, we ran into two of our friends there- one that I haven’t seen since the end of school, and one who was leaving for the weekend the next morning. It was a pretty good surprise. Plus, Dunkin’ Donuts had put out their un-sold doughnuts from the day, so we got free sweet things, which is always good when you’re a college student. While we were chatting with our friends, one of the guys from pika, the house I’m living at for the summer, randomly appeared and mentioned that he was headed to the weekly swing dance, and asked if we wanted to join. Since it’s summer and there was nothing else to do that night, we went. I had forgotten how exhausting swing dancing can be- I was very out of breath after just a few dances. I also forgot pretty much everything I ever knew about swing dancing, so there was a very steep learning curve. It was very fun though, so we think we’re probably going to go back again. :)  

In an attempt to do fun things on Saturday morning, my roommate and I took the T (Boston’s subway) up to Medford.  We got slightly lost and didn’t end up finding what we had intended to, but we got a lot of good walking in, and ended up seeing a lot more of Medford than I would probably have ever seen otherwise. I’d probably say that Medford is to Cambridge as West Seattle is to Seattle. Since Cambridge is already like the West Seattle of Boston, the idea I’m trying to get across here is that Medford is pretty small and residential. While wandering around, we happened upon a garage sale, at which I bought six bamboo spoon/serving utensil things for a dollar. (B2 people, we can now serve salad with something other than my pasta spoon. Rejoice! :P )

After all the walking around, we were pretty tired and hungry, so we decided to take the T into downtown and eat some dim sum. I felt a bit out of place, given that we were in the middle of Chinatown, and I was very blatantly not Asian (shocker, I know.). I obviously looked very out of place as well, since upon sitting down, I was immediately given a fork. Of course this meant that I determinedly refused to look at the thing for the entire meal, because I’m stubborn like that. I also ended up leaving all of the ordering to my roommate, who speaks fluent Chinese. This was a very good decision, as it turned out, because she made some excellent choices. It did rekindle my desire to speak lots of different languages though, so that I can take people by surprise in situations such as these, and understand and contribute to what's going on around me. Anyway, my first experience with dim sum in Boston was awesome, and definitely something I wouldn’t mind repeating at some point.

Full on good food, we headed over to the Boston Commons, where there’s a big festival going on right now. If I didn’t know better, I would say that Boston is determined to remind me that there’s more to life than science and hard facts. Basically, the Commons was full of random musical and performing acts that were designed to showcase local talent. Additionally, there were some big-name acts, like Los Lonely Boys and Los Lobos. We saw parts of each of their shows, although neither was as good as I remembered them from listening to the radio when I was younger. There’s probably some nostalgia mixed in there though, so I would definitely not say that that’s an objective opinion.

Sunday morning, we headed out on the T again to explore the SoWa Open Market, in Boston’s South End. There’s a vintage market that takes place year-round (basically an indoor flea market type setup, but only with vintage things), and during the summer there’s an outdoor craft fair and farmers’ market. There’s also a long line of food trucks that hangs out over there, although we didn’t try any of those, having just eaten breakfast. After wandering through SoWa, we walked back toward downtown Boston. After deciding that we wanted some froyo (frozen yogurt), we wandered through the Prudential Center (one of Boston’s mall-type things) and did some window-shopping. It was pretty hot outside, so the air conditioning was much appreciated. After that, we headed back down to the Commons to watch a hip-hop show, which was pretty incredible. I have zero idea how people can dance so fluidly, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to move quite as gracefully as they were doing.

That pretty much sums up my week... The only other thing left to say is something that I think everyone reading this on a regular basis already knows: One month left until I’m flying home for a week! As much fun as my summer in Boston has been so far, and as much fun as I’m sure it will continue to be, I’m very excited to be home in Seattle for a week. Mostly to see my dog. :P (Just kidding, I’m mostly excited to see the people. But you’ve got to admit, Lacey will probably be a whole different level of excited to see me! :D ) I hope everyone is doing well, and I can’t wait to see everyone at whatever point we’re reunited!