Imagine you’re at Starbucks. You’re halfway through a co-worker’s order (“half sweet, no foam, saffron-scented, opium-spritzed, …”) when two men wearing coveralls come in. You hear them talking about a car they’re fixing. Their garb has grease on it, various stains of indeterminate origin. They saunter up to the till, place their orders, and get their drinks before you because the trainee taking care of your order is running to the Starbucks across the street to find more panda blood for your co-worker’s beverage. Tapping your foot impatiently, you notice that the two guys in coveralls have parked themselves in…
The Science Creative Quarterly
By timonbuys
Timon Buys is currently a graduate student at the BC Cancer Research Centre. He draws inspiration from Bill Watterson and Terry Fox. Also, he gets pleasure from palindromes like Bob, kayak, and DNA.
OF EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE
In the Beginning… Many people believe that there is a conflict between science and religion when it comes to the question of how life began on Earth. While only a minority of people situate themselves squarely on one side of this debate, the topic tends to draw the attention of everyone. This is because the answer to the question of where we came from serves as the jumping off point for defining our morality and our purpose here on Earth. Quite simply, once we know what brought us into being, we know where to ask for instructions. Consequently, any explanation…
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO POST-DOC (WE SALUTE YOU)
You come to hate airports. And the juggling act forced on you by Christmas mayhem. And the thousand other tribulations that you’re heir to when you and your partner have been living apart for more than two years. Two years. The post-doc opportunity of a lifetime took my wife to MIT in August 2005, leaving me in Vancouver with only a couple years of my doctoral degree under my belt. We weren’t even married at that stage. Engaged before she left, we distracted ourselves during our first year apart by planning our nuptials. W-day was in July 2006, including a…
DRUGS ARE THE ANSWER
– FROM THE ARCHIVE – Okay. Experiments are failing. Confidence is disappearing. Each dark day feels a little more desperate than the last. I am in dire need of course correction and I’ve stumbled onto an absolutely foolproof solution that will undoubtedly have me rocking the bench again very, very soon. Drugs. That’s right. Drugs are the answer. And nothing weak either. Though the irony of abusing nicotine while studying lung cancer scores well, cigarettes just don’t have the kick I’m looking for. With firsthand experience attempting to pipet after guzzling a sixer, booze are out too. And you can…
LIKE, “-OMIC” GOD!
– FROM THE ARCHIVE – Let us marvel at the proliferation of the term “ome”. First off – let’s define the term “-ome”. As near as I can tell, it means “whole” or “mass”. “-ome” takes into account the totality of a thing – it defines a field. Hence the “genome” is the sum of all genetic stuff and the first “-ome” I remember encountering – “biome” – is the complete collection of living and non-living components within a defined region. In addition, my thesis (as far as I understand it) deals in the realm of pharmacogenomics, a term that…
SCRUBBED (WHITE COAT, STILL WRONG TIME)
Read the first installment here Today, I encountered a surgeon at Starbucks. His scrubs and lab coat weren’t surprising and neither was his flashy that’s-right-I’m-a-funky-surgeon bandana. In this neighbourhood (I work and live by Vancouver General Hospital), I guess we all become somewhat inured to this practice. What did make this particular instance surprising was the fact that yon scrubber was also wearing blue surgical booties over top of his shoes. Small twigs and grit sullied their bottoms. The heels were looking frayed. It had rained yesterday, so they were even a bit soggy. Was the surgeon simply trying to…
WHITE COAT, WRONG TIME
– FROM THE ARCHIVES – Imagine you’re at Starbucks. You’re halfway through a co-worker’s order (“half sweet, no foam, saffron-scented, opium-spritzed, …”) when two men wearing coveralls come in. You hear them talking about a car they’re fixing. Their garb has grease on it, various stains of indeterminate origin. They saunter up to the till, place their orders, and get their drinks before you because the trainee taking care of your order is running to the Starbucks across the street to find more panda blood for your co-worker’s beverage. Tapping your foot impatiently, you notice that the two guys in…
FREQUENTER LIST 2006: TIMON BUYS
– PART I: A HAIKU – Phenol: Chloroform Give me a clean interphase Or I must repeat – PART II: TEN SEVEN LINKS – http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/view.php?id=001 – The humor of these increases exponentially with the number of consecutive hours spent awake (keep selecting “next”). http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/drum.php – Odd. http://extremeironing.com/ – Extremely odd. A paper http://www.ambion.com/main/explorations/assessing.html – Kinda tame, but useful when first starting out with RNA samples. http://www.well.com/user/cynsa/newbutt.html – Juvenile and disgusting. Shame on you. http://www.engrish.com/ – PART III: TWO PICTURES ONE LARGE PICTURE – (A pretty great pic from the top floor of the new BC Cancer Research Centre. Credit for…
DRUGS ARE THE ANSWER
Okay. Experiments are failing. Confidence is disappearing. Each dark day feels a little more desperate than the last. I am in dire need of course correction and I’ve stumbled onto an absolutely foolproof solution that will undoubtedly have me rocking the bench again very, very soon. Drugs. That’s right. Drugs are the answer. And nothing weak either. Though the irony of abusing nicotine while studying lung cancer scores well, cigarettes just don’t have the kick I’m looking for. With firsthand experience attempting to pipet after guzzling a sixer, booze are out too. And you can forget pot: my lack of…