apalazzo | July 9, 2008From Normandy we headed to the Breton coast. But first we passed through Mont Saint Michel, a large rock that sits in the crux of a large bay that divides Normandy from Brittany.
Mont Saint Michel is sometimes described as a tidal Island although it is in fact connected to the mainland by a man made road. There you'll find a small medieval town full of shops and tourists. As you climb towards the abbey, the view is spectacular. To give you an idea, here's an areial shot of the hamlet:
We were fortunate enough to visit the island at low tide when the water recedes for miles. In the…
apalazzo | July 7, 2008In the next couple of posts I'll quickly recap some parts of my trip. (Hey it's my freakin' blog and I get to post on whatever subject I want!)
The story begins when we landed at Charles de Gaul Airport. From there we met up with old friends and drove off to Caens, Normandy, birthplace of Guillaume le conquerant (aka William the Conqueror.) The term Normands is derived from the words "north men" and refers to the fact that this area was settled by viking tribes in the times of Charlemagne. Besides October 14th 1066, another important date in Normand history is June 6th, 1944 aka D-Day. And so…
apalazzo | July 5, 2008Sorry about the incredibly long delay in posts. I've been away. Specifically Brittany, Paris, Bavaria, and Iceland to experience the white nights.
Now I'm back and I'm not travelling for awhile. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.
apalazzo | June 13, 2008The trip to Toronto was great. I met a lot of great people there and I think that I made a good impression on the members of the Biochemistry Department at the U of T.
Since this was my first real job interview, I didn't know exactly what to expect. In the end I decided to "let myself go" and enjoy talking shop with all the excellent researchers I met. Science is for the curious, and at times like these its best to let your inner urge to learn and discuss to take control. Go out and explore. And that's what I did over the course of three days. In between all these appointments I had the…
apalazzo | June 12, 2008Yesterday I had a great time visiting the biochemistry department at the University of Toronto. I met up with Lary Moran of Sandwalk who gave me a tour of the place. (We also got caught up in a huge discussion that culminated in a bet ... I will disclose the details at a future date.)
Later that night I met up with some local bloggers, Philip of Biocurious, Eva of Easternblot and John of Confession of a Science Librarian. Eva should be posting some pictures at some point.
I'm going to start preparing for today's talk. Wish me luck.
apalazzo | June 8, 2008Well I won't be doing much blogging in the coming weeks. Last Wednesday I found out that I will be giving a talk this Thursday at the University of Toronto. This news came to me while I was smack-dab in the middle of one of these huge experiments. Of course the experiment failed (but I did learn something!) The trip to Maple Leaf land means that I will be missing our upcoming New England RNA Data Club (aka NERD Club). It looks like I'll be landing in Toronto Tuesday night. So Wednesday I'll be reconnecting with my homeland (and practicing my powerpoint presentation).
Incidentally the title of…
apalazzo | June 6, 2008The first one since April.
Here it is:
hint: Blogs are hot.
So if you know the identity of the mystery campus please leave a comment. If you're at this campus, maybe I'll see you next week!
apalazzo | June 5, 2008From Andre at biocurious:
Janet Iwasa has had an unusual scientific career. After finishing her PhD with Dyche Mullins at UCSF she started a postdoc in Jack Szostak's lab at Harvard but not to do bench work or even simulations like her postdoc colleagues. Instead, Janet is a full time animator and graphic designer.
Some of Janet's work can be viewed at her website, onemicron.com. Her latest work, a website called Exploring Life's Origins explores the early evolution of cellular life, including the RNA world hypothesis and the emergence of a protocell.
Also check out this piece at Nature…
apalazzo | June 4, 2008With the sequencing of the human genome, the public at large has been told that biologists now have a full picture of how life works. This is far from the truth. In this series of posts I'll try to outline what we don't know - in other words gaps in our knowledge.
Today we'll look at how proteins acquire sugar modifications, aka glycosylation.
Look at any eukaryotic cell and you'll notice that one of the main differences between it and its prokaryotic cousins is its elaborate systems of membranes and its complicated secretion machinery. Unlike prokaryotes, which inject secreted proteins…
apalazzo | June 2, 2008
I must say that the animators omitted many details, such as the RNA polymerase's c-terminal repeats, splicing, the assembly of an RNP, the workings of the nuclear pore complex, and the assembly of a translation initiation complex ... but WOW! We need more of these videos!
apalazzo | June 1, 2008I heard about the report on the the latest Science Mag Podcast.
Some general notes:
-NIH budget will see a 0% increase
-NSF budget will see a 15% increase
-There is a significant increase in funding to the Department of Energy (up 21%)
-Support of research (basic and applied) would fall 0.3%. According to AAAS:
In real terms, the federal research portfolio would fall for the fifth year in a row, down 9.1 percent from 2004.
But now things may be changing due to new legislation introduced in the Senate.
From the podcast, here's what Science Magazine's Deputy Editor Barbara Jasny had to say:…
apalazzo | May 29, 2008OK this is an attempt to revive the blog. This entry is inspired by a talk given about a month ago by my mentor, Tom Rapoport. I hope that it will be the first of a series of posts where I ramble on about what we don't know. In each post I'll discuss a topic that remains mysterious. I'll try to point out what we don't fully comprehend and add my two cents. Today's topic will be organelle shape.
Look inside any eukaryotic cell and you'll lots of little membranous organelles whizzing around. These membranous structures play crucial roles in various cellular activities. Very often their shape…
apalazzo | May 28, 2008No I'm not dead. I have been performing some tricky bucket biochemistry, traveling to Montreal every second weekend, taking care of the upcoming season of NERD talks, dealing with job applications, supervising a rotation student and will soon be supervising an undergrad. How do young PIs have time to blog????
apalazzo | May 20, 2008I've been receiving requests from the newest networking program. I've given up fighting and just joined in.
So what's special about this new networking site? Well, in contrast to LinkedIn there are special features that are more applicable to academics in general. For example you can add papers and awards to your profile. And unlike Facebook's SciBook, SciLink is a true science networking tool. It also comes with a cool scientific genealogy application. (Evil Gomez - someone has finally implemented your idea!) There are some patches that the developers need to iron out, but overall it looks…
apalazzo | May 19, 2008I heard Sachs being interviewed in the latest Nature Podcast.
Oliver Morton: I think one of the striking things, Jeff that you say very early on in [your new book, 'Commonwealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet'] is that the great crisis point is that we have a unified global economy and a divided global society and well as the big question is how can we use the first of those things to fix the second?
Jeffrey Sachs: I think the key is better understanding of the unique situation we find ourselves in. The world is now so crowded. The extent of resource use is so remarkable and unprecedented…
apalazzo | May 19, 2008This weekend I was back up in Montreal for my brother's wedding. It was actually held in St Antoine sur-le-Richelieu, a little picturesque town east of the city. This hamlet was also the site of a famous battle between the Brits and the local heroes, Les Patriotes.
Inspired by the American Revolution, a band of local rebels founded a new political movement who fought for greater freedom for the mostly French lower classes that were effectively ruled by a British elite, also known as Le Chateau Clique. In 1834 the party (first call Le Parti Canadien, then renamed Le Parti Patriote) won 77 out…
apalazzo | May 12, 2008Or is it the age of Malthus?
To think that our natural resources can last forever is one of our society's greatest myths. As the world population rises and the standard of living in the developing world increases, the capability to cloth, feed and provide energy through non-renewable resources will inevitably diminish. A couple of weeks ago the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) issued a very frightening report entitled The Age of Scarcity.
What does the report say? Lets look at oil. Here are the major points:
- World oil production peeked about 2 1/2 years ago. The rate of new oil…