Ending the Drought
So, it’s been a while since I last posted. I admit that this is partly explained by me simply not writing, but luckily it’s not all my fault. Several days ago when I sat down to make another post, I attempted to view the main Research Blogs website and the screen came up completely blue except for the top where it would say “Duke University” and “Student research” and all that. I was very confused by this, and was unable to write anything. Luckily today I find myself able to log on and I am hereby ending the blog drought.
Life in the lab is going well. I am still essentially doing the same things (western blots) over and over, although each time is a different variation. Right now I am trying to measure activation of the protein Rac1 in HeLa cells, and western blotting is a very good way to quantify this activation. Basically, I will be stimulating my cells with Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) to promote Rac activation for varying times and measure the activation. Of course there will also be control cells with no activation involved as well. The big problem this past week was that my cells grew extremely slow. I will be able to make my cell lysate samples on Monday, but that is almost a week later than originally planned. It has been very frustrating because I did not get much done this past week all because some cells in a 10 cm dish did not feel like growing! Oh well, I guess its better that they grew slowly instead of becoming contaminated with bacteria. On Tuesday I checked my cells and started panicking because I thought that I had contaminated them. I told Hideji, so then he came and looked and told me that they were fine. What a relief! Anyway, hopefully things will proceed smoothly from Monday on and there are no more roadblocks.
Once again, it is time for my discussion of non-research related subjects.
1.) This is late, but who predicted that the Spurs would crush the Cavs?
2.) Wimbledon is underway, and once again Roger Federer is the favorite. I like Federer a lot, but I would like to see someone else breakthrough here, such as Andy Roddick. Roddick is playing well right now, and is one a collision course with Federer in the semi-finals. Roddick’s record against Federer is an abysmal 1-13, so chances are Federer will beat him again, but we can always hope. I would have like to see fellow American James Blake go deep in this tournament also, but he found a way to lose in the 3rd round to a Spanish clay-court specialist. Notice I did not list Rafael Nadal as someone I would like to see win here. He may have a shot sometime down the road, but not now. Other than Roddick, there is a small list of other players I would like to see win, but Roddick is the only one with a slight chance.
3.) You may have been able to figure this out after my last long post, but I strongly, strongly dislike the New England Patriots. It’s really tough to put my finger on the exact reason, but for now I will say Bill Belichick. What kind of coach wears a hoodie with cut off sleeves on the sidelines? There are many other reasons, but this is the first one that came to mind.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:36 am
andy garcia height
Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !