An evening in the garden

Almost every summer that I've been in Bloomington, I get the chance to take care of the garden of one of my professors while he and his wife go on vacation. They have a rather large garden for living smack dab in the middle of town and I love getting the chance to putter around in it. It's full of flowers in the front and vegetable and berry patches towards the back. It's always a bit (ok, a lot) overgrown and has a fair amount of weeds growing amongst the crops, but that doesn't seem to bother them.

For the past week and a half, I've been caring for the garden. Mostly watering it when the weather's dry and picking my share of fresh leaf lettuce. That's another one of the perks of garden-sitting: all the fresh produce I can eat! It's been 10 days of delicious salads. Today while I was out picking lettuce and broccoli and snap beans, I happened to turn towards the berry patch. And this is what I saw:
:) I wasn't expecting it, but the first batch of red raspberries had ripened. I picked about a quart and ate some along the way. So good!

After taking care of the garden, I decided to mow the their yard. They hadn't asked me to, but it was in dire need and I knew where they kept their lawn mower. It's a push mower... and by 'push' I mean that the only power you've got to work with is the pushing you put into it! And what followed is an hour and a half of the most satisfying manual labor that I've done in awhile. I ended up with grease and a matching set of blisters on my hands, and I loved every minute of it. There's no good way to describe the joy I got from it. It seriously made me want to offer to come mow their yard more often!

A summer evening

As daylight steadily fades to dusk
Beauty takes every form, filling our senses with delight
The breeze rustling through leafy treetops
Whispers to the water trickling a song on its way to the pond
Cardinals are bits of crimson flitting through the branches
and squirrels scamper away to forage for another meal
A sparrow tiptoes close by, curious to read over our shoulders
Here we sit, in dewy grass made with joy from the Creator's heart
Flashes of lightning highlight clouds against the darkness
Our eyes are lifted up, finding You in your creation
Seeing your power in bolts dashing across the midnight sky
Feeling your gentle touch in the summer air washing over us
Through our awe, we find voices of prayer
Celebrating your character and glorifying your triumphs
As we raise our humble refrain, the frogs join in our song
A gentle hymn from human and amphibian alike
May we never cease to praise your name.

Microbiologists are also romantics

"Isn't this beautiful?... I don't know; Maybe I'm a romantic."
--Dr. Roberto Kolter, Harvard Med

That's what the visiting speaker said yesterday during his talk. He was talking about that bacteria (Bacillus subtilis) above and I agree with him. I've mentioned previously that I find science beautiful. The organisms we study, the process of learning about them, and the complex way in which all of the biochemical processes combine to produce a living, functioning system; it's amazing and totally beautiful. Here are a few of my favorites.

Fruit fly eyes. If I had to pick my favorite organ, regardless of species, it would be the eye. They're just cool and ridiculously complex. And there are tons of mutations that cause variations on color in fruit flies. These eyes are red which is wildtype (typical) for fruit flies.




C. elegans. Otherwise known as microscopic round worms. I spent a whole summer working with these little guys and got kind of attached to them. They eat bacteria and you can only see them under a microscope. They're transparent so you can see all of their organs inside; those round things in the middle are eggs. The head is on the right. They make a squiggle pattern across the plate as they move (think a snake in sand.)


This is the nucleus of a cell (where the DNA is). Each of those colored splotches is a different chromosome. Your chromosomes are organized within the nucleus exactly the same way in every cell (ie chromosome 2 is always beside chromosome 7, etc). This has important implications for DNA replication, repair and segregation. Isn't that cool?! I think that's cool.




Most of the colorful pictures that you see in microbiology are falsely colored (like the nucleus pic above). The scientists use fluorescent probes to label the components that they want to see to make them easier to study. Not these guys. This is a type of bacteria called Vibrio harveyi. It's luminescent. That blue light you see is made by the bacteria. The cells are all communicating with each other and once they reach a certain cell concentration (quorum) the signal gets sent to turn on the light. For V. harveyi it's not such a big deal, although pretty nonetheless. But in other types of bacteria this kind of signaling is directly related to infection and pathogenesis.

And last, but certainly not least: fungi. Not quite microbiology... but near and dear to my heart. I usually blame my interest in fungi on my time working in the Zolan lab, but really I think it began long before that. My uncle and I used to go mushroom hunting out in the woods by my grandparents house. At the time he was big into mycology and taught me a lot. So here's a video which some of you have probably seen before... and I promise, once you get past the slime mold part it's not as gross. :)

[God] composes some of [His] loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope. -edited from a quote from Theodore Roszak

Beauty, part IV: Simplicity, Complexity, Majesty

November 2, 2008

The fourth and final installment on beauty. I'm not going to completely explain all my thoughts here; just follow along...

God's beauty: Simplicity, Complexity, Majesty

Simplicity. I wake up in the morning; the sun is beginning to rise. As it does it casts light over the earth. By this light I can see--see to walk, see to read, see other people, see creation, etc. Simple: sun rises, gives light, every day, I use that light to go about my daily routine.

Complexity. "Deep in the sun's core, nuclear fusion reactions convert hydrogen to helium, which generates energy. Particles of light called photons carry this energy through the sun's spherical shell, called the radiative zone, to the top layer of the solar interior, the convection zone. There, boiling motions of gases (like in a lava lamp) transfer the energy to the surface. This journey takes more than a million years. In addition to light, the sun radiates heat and a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind." (nationalgeographic.com)

To see, you need light. Light reflects off of objects, into your eyes. The light passes through the cornea and the iris, which will contract or dilate to adjust the amount of light that goes deeper into the eye. The light eventually reaches the retina where it hits the photoreceptors (rods and cones). Signals from the photoreceptors travel along nerve fibers to the optic nerve to the brain where the information is processed and interpreted. (webmd.com) It's a whole lot more complicated than this and it all literally happens in the blink of an eye.

Majesty. Job 26: 7-14
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.

He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.

He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.

The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.

By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.

By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.

And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"

God's beauty is far greater than I can comprehend, but I know that I see it or at least glimpses of "the outer fringe of his works". Nature and science are just oozing with God's beauty. From the simplest bacterial cell (which is honestly still pretty complex) to the most complex chemical reaction, God's creativity shines in the range of his creation.

Beauty, part III: When beauty goes bad

November 1, 2008

The past week has been a rollercoaster; good news, bad news, joy, frustration--all rolled into the past 7 days. It's been a bit of a rude awakening. My life is messier than I'd like to let on and or even admit to myself for that matter. The beauty from the Spirit that should be shining through is dampened by my humanity and selfishness.

What causes beauty to go bad? There are daisies that are planted outside of the building that my lab is in. A month ago they were absolutely beautiful, full of bright white and yellow blooms rising up to meet the sunlight. Over the past several weeks they've been deteriorating. Many of the blooms have fallen off their stems, and those that have survived are beginning to wilt and will be taken hostage by the frost soon. Death is what it all comes down to. Nothing on this earth can last forever. All that's living (by worldly standards) is destined for decay and ultimately death. We can even see it in ourselves--my eyesight hasn't been 20/20 since I was 9.

The thing is... as much as pop culture tells us death is natural, it's not. Things were perfect and beautiful until the fall... and then it all went downhill.

By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.
Genesis 3: 19

Man's sin caused a rift between us and God. We sin. We choose our own way over God's. We drive a wedge between us; tell Him that we can do it on our own. By doing this, our connection with God is broken... our connection to life is broken. No life=death. There's no beauty found in sin and death. It's the complete opposite of God and the life he has.

So what causes beauty to go bad?

But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15

And how can it be restored?

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8: 13-14

Coming soon... part IV

Beauty, part II: Life

October 29, 2008 (part 2 of 4... I think)

The other night I was with the Yellow House ladies carving pumpkins and watching Halloween movies. Hocus Pocus was playing the background as we sat chatting away, covered in pumpkin guts. At one point, I was struck by a connection between the movie and beauty. I know it sounds strange, but just stay with me; it's not as much of a stretch as it seems.

The basic premise of the movie is that 300+ yr old witches are brought back to life and then must capture the souls of children, dementor-style, in order to stay alive and become young and beautiful again. For them, life and beauty go hand in hand. Death results in deterioration. That's the case for us too. In many cases beauty is directly correlated to life. Nature is one of the most obvious. The spring is one of my favorite seasons (currently in a tight race with fall for first.) Trees begin budding, flowers bloom, and the world just seems to overflow with colors and activity. Thriving with new life, rejuvenated after the bare winter.

This is true for people too. When they're filled with life, beauty just flows out. But where does life come from?

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)

God is life. When I see/hear/experience my friends filled with the Spirit, it's beautiful. In particular, I'm thinking about the joyful faces and voices during worship and prayer. The more we are filled with the Spirit, the more we exude life and as a result, beauty.

Beauty: Food for thought

October 24, 2008

A few of my favorites. Thoughts to come later.














from the top: fall colors, frosty apple, haley and bobby (7mth?), sunset over campus after a storm, butterfly at the orchard, foggy day at Chateau de Chillion in Switzerland, friendship (Melissa and Kendal), flying over the Alps, metaphase during mitosis

What is beauty?

October 21 2008

I was finishing dinner with Jenny and Mateo last weekend when the conversation topic turned to beauty and our perception of it. At one point, someone asked "But how are we defining beauty?" We sat there with wrinkled foreheads and squinted eyes trying to come up with the best definition we could. We moved on from there, never actually coming up with one.

So before I try launching into a analytical blog post about it, I'll turn the question to you:

How do you define beauty?

Quote of the day

Beth, asking about my claim that I had beautiful pictures of cells from my experiments last week:

"Are they inherently beautiful or just scientifically beautiful?"

Answer: To most people probably the latter, but I think there's beauty in living, growing, healthy cells.



Baby hamster kidney cells--alive and dead via viral infection
(these were grown via cell culture, not directly from a baby hamster)