Love from Minnesota

Alternative title: My first conference.

I was in Minneapolis for a science conference for the last 5 days. Here's the experience in a nutshell:

1. 6am flights are dumb. I will never take one again. Please talk me out of it if I try.

2. Welcome reception: 1500 scientists, completely overwhelming; but good food though. I basically tagged along with Kevin, let him introduce me to people, and listened in on his mingling. Then the PIs told me that overwhelmed feeling never goes away. Like PI, like student I guess. Put us in a room full of people and watch the introverts in us emerge.

3. During symposium the first morning, Vincent R. of Virology Blog fame was sitting in the row in front of us. I was a bit starstruck.

4. Minneapolis was ridiculously hot and humid. It's farther north; it's not supposed to be as bad as IN! I blame the Mississippi river. I think I lost 5 lbs in sweat.

5. The poster session was basically awesome. To be honest, I was dreading it, but everyone I met was nice and encouraging. Had a few good conversations with professors. (Also, I was much more dressed up to present my poster... this pic's from the next day before I took it down.)

6. U of MN's connected buildings are like a labyrinth but with virologists running around to workshops and the occasional professor attacking a grad student's research* instead of a minotaur.

7. Got to have lunch with one of the symposium speakers. He was great. Gave me hope that there are other profs that can live up to the high standard that my fantastic PI has set.

8. Minneapolis has a great rent-a-bike system. Took off one morning and rode all around campus. Really beautiful there, although I missed the limestone.

9. There's nothing like a little college campus pub to encourage lab bonding. We are all permanently fused, I think. Too many inside jokes to count.

10. Before we went home, a couple of us went to the Mall of America. That place is insane. Particular favorites include the American Girl store and the Lego store.

*This really happened. I was at a different workshop but I heard it was tense, especially since the prof was the next speaker so decided to go ahead and come to the front to attack the work. A class on tact and skill in constructive criticism should be required for your degree.

my flash drive has limbs.

I get things done... efficiently and with a little science-geek flair

Between this cake (our Sindbis-GFP expressing fruit fly holding Sindbis virus balloons) and my organizational emails, I think I just unintentionally secured my position as the Hardy lab party planner.

Social science

My cells aren't ready for experiments and I'm dragging my feet on writing my committee meeting report intro, soooo blog post...

A couple of non-scientist friends have commented over the past year or so that it is interesting that I enjoy working in the lab so much, especially since I’m a two and typically like interacting with people. An understandable perspective. But if you peek into my life in the lab, it might give a little insight to my love of the laboratory atmosphere.

First, science as a whole is totally interactive. Scientists must communicate to make significant progress. The IU biology department prides itself on its collegiate atmosphere, both intradepartmental and interdepartmental, as well as intercollegiate. There are collaborations all over the place. For example, our lab wants to put our virus in fruit flies to simulate what it does in mosquitoes. We don’t know much about fruit flies—but the Kumar lab does! Collaboration!We have meetings every couple of weeks to talk with them about experiments and get their advice.

Second, science involves learning. All. The. Time. It never stops. You’ve got to keep expanding your knowledge base. This requires talking to lab mates to get their knowledge and sharing yours with them. Lately, Brian has been helping me troubleshoot a pesky Western blot that I can’t get to work. His advice speeds up my experimental process a lot more than if I were trying to do it on my own (although yesterday he said “Yeah, this is the point at which I’d be going to Rich—nothing’s working! Help!!” haha.) Likewise, I know a fair amount about our microscope and using it for fluorescence experiments, so yesterday I was helping Michelle adjust settings on the scope and using the computer software that goes with the camera. Beyond the one-on-one interactions, we also have weekly 1.5 hr lab meetings during which people present their most recent data and the rest of the lab members chip in by asking questions and offering suggestions for new experiments and improving current ones.

Last, but definitely not least, I work in a very social lab. Actually, we’re three labs that are kind of intertwined and everyone gets along great. Lots of friendships, and teasing, and cake! Our lab eats lots of birthday cake, and coffee cake, and practice wedding cake, and hey, it’s cinco de mayo… let’s eat cake (no joke, this happened.)

Sometimes when people hear that I work in a lab, they think that I do experiments in silence all day without any contact with other people. Totally not true. It’s not constant interaction like teaching is, but I talk to/learn from/socialize with people throughout the day. It’s great! And at the risk of letting out the secret that I’m even geekier than you think I am, I get really excited when I get to toss around ideas with other scientists. If anyone has talked with me after I’ve just gotten out of a meeting when I’ve been discussing science with my PI/other PIs/labmates/etc, you’ve seen it. All in all, science is a great field for a somewhat introverted two. Gah, I love my job.

How (not) to annoy your labmates pt 2

Defiantly crossing the acceptable-music-genre-and-volume boundary

Normally, this isn't a problem for me, but earlier this week I forgot my earbuds one day. Frankly, music is the only way I get through the stack of papers to grade without becoming depressed. So it was a dilemma to choose what I deemed acceptable music to listen to at a reasonable volume. I think in most cases it's best to go with something sort of mainstream. Acoustic is always good. Soft rock/easy listening. Limited twang. Jazz flute is most likely a 'no.' Probably best to steer clear of the the death metal if you want to stay on your co-worker's good side. So I put away my HSM soundtracks and country twang, and put on a mix of Jack Johnson and Coldplay.

Although, I did wonder what AJ, who now sits behind me , would do if I turned and asked him to sing Troy Bolton's harmonies to complete the HSM duets. Probably look at me like I'd been sampling the lab reagents and then ask to be moved to a different bay.

How to annoy your labmates pt 1

A couple weeks ago, there was a biodept product show. This basically means that several vendors set up booths in the Jordan Hall atrium and try to get you to buy everything from eppendorf tubes to thermocyclers to antibodies. They lure all the grad students there with free bagels or pizza, hoping that we'll talk our PIs (who are in control of the moolah) to buy their products. Basically we wander through the booths, acting interested, and then head for what we really came for--our lunch.

The vendors always have promotional free stuff: post-its and pens usually. My favorite are the pens shaped like pipetmen. This time one of the vendors had clappers. You know, those things that you get at sporting events that you shake back and forth to make really loud clapping noises? Really, there's only one purpose for these in the laboratory: to annoy your labmates. There are at least two of these clappers in our lab and over the past couple weeks, every once in awhile you'll hear a loud clapping noise followed by a yelp from a surprised (and probably annoyed) labmate. Yesterday, Rohini surprised/scared/annoyed Michelle. Michelle retaliated by hitting Rohini on the arm hard enough that it was still red 15 minutes later.

My first thought when this happened: Hardy lab fight club... :)

My new desk [edit]

One of our post-docs left; I inherited his desk and bench. Here are the reasons, in no particular order, why it is exponentially better than my former desk/bench combo.

1. I no longer have to move my computer/paperwork when I need to do bench work and vice versa.
2. I have a window. Granted, we're on the ground floor so I can see a limestone wall and ivy, but if I look up I can see some sky and trees.
3. My desk is across from Rohini's, who is arguably my favorite person in the lab.
4. My music horizons are being expanded by listening to Rohini's Indian music. :)
5. My cell phone has signal.
6. I'm now in the middle of the lab and closer to everything, including the lesser used tissue culture hood.
7. I have shelves, and drawers that lock!
8. I have my own set of pipettes!!!
9. I no longer have to worry that the crazy bio safety lady will come in and yell at me for having coffee cups/eating lunch at my bench.
10. There's not a MilliQ H20 carboy sitting above and constantly dripping onto my bench.


Ah the joys of my new desk and bench. :)


EDIT: Tuesday. Today Rohini and I graded papers/did bench work to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Take the previous reasons my new desk rocks and multiply them by 10. It just keeps getting better. :)