Author Topic: Introductions  (Read 46514 times)

666threesixes666

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Introductions
« on: April 20, 2014, 01:40:14 AM »
hi im paul, im a linux zombie.   8)

Adam Dravian

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2014, 01:57:19 AM »
Welcome to the forums, Paul.

Congratulations, as one of the first posters here, I now deem you a totally awesome dude.

Rijst

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 09:02:53 AM »
I'm Richard, a Dutch PhD student living in Glasgow (Scotland). I'm not a linux zombie..
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Adam Dravian

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2014, 09:19:22 AM »
Hey, glad to have you here, Richard. I've got mostly Dutch ancestry myself so I can only assume you're a pretty rad dude.

Anyway, as far as introductions go, I'll simply link to the "about" page for Jessica and myself, in case anyone missed it: https://satanninja.com/about/the-creators

666threesixes666

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2014, 05:38:22 PM »
thanks the conformation email was landing in the spam and i noted only problem with the setup i seen.

Jessica Safron

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2014, 11:19:44 PM »
But Adam, that's boring! This is where we can reveal secret special information about ourselves, like the fact that I can bend my arms backward at the elbows and have Morton's toes.

Jessica Safron

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2014, 11:17:08 AM »
Rijst, what are you getting your PhD in, if you don't mind me asking?

Rijst

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2014, 03:44:54 AM »
Molecular microbiology.

I'm investigating a small metabolic pathway (series of chemical reactions) in Streptomyces coelicolor, which is a model organism for the genus Streptomyces. They're a group of mainly soil bacteria that are best known (well, in certain circles anyway) for their production of antibiotics, immuno suppressants, anti tumor compounds, etc. There's quite a lot of research into them going on, mostly for this reason.

The organism is really cool but also a bit of a bitch to work with, for various reasons I won't bother you with unless you really want to. Anyway, I included a picture to show how pretty they are. They also smell like damp forest (in reality it's the other way around of course, this being a soil bacterium).



The blue droplets (and very intense blue colour in the background) are a pigment they excrete. They consist of a class of compounds that can be antibiotics, but this one is rather weak. You'd have to take so much of it you'll be mistaken for a smurf. The colour is useful though, because you can keep track of its production very easily when trying out different growth conditions or when you mess with its genome or something.

I hope that wasn't too technical.. ::)
Quote from: "The Boy" (Bad-Ass Ninjas)
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Adam Dravian

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2014, 01:24:54 AM »
Man, and here I sit, writing a dumb-ass comic...

But seriously, that's awesome and the picture is much appreciated.

Rijst

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2014, 04:23:45 AM »
Dumb-ass comic? It's the best I've come across so far.

Look at it this way, this comic will be read by loads of people while I toil and struggle to write a thesis that, at most, 5 people will read.
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I read on the internet that ninjas are hungry, you want some food?

Adam Dravian

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2014, 05:32:03 PM »
Aw, man, that's an awesome complement. Thanks! I can honestly say you're my favorite European that's not a celebrity.

How did you discover our comic, anyway?

Rijst

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2014, 03:15:56 AM »
Cheers, I'm not many people's favourite European that's not a celebrity.

Maddox tweeted about you guys a while ago. I like his writing and he doesn't do spam so I figured it's worth a look. Turns out he was right.
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Adam Dravian

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #12 on: July 21, 2014, 01:17:10 AM »
Ah, good ol' Maddox. Jessica did some minor art stuff for him a couple years ago and he asked her to show him the comic when it was ready. That was very cool of him to tweet it like he did.

Jessica Safron

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2014, 04:26:06 PM »
Molecular microbiology.

I'm investigating a small metabolic pathway (series of chemical reactions) in Streptomyces coelicolor, which is a model organism for the genus Streptomyces. They're a group of mainly soil bacteria that are best known (well, in certain circles anyway) for their production of antibiotics, immuno suppressants, anti tumor compounds, etc. There's quite a lot of research into them going on, mostly for this reason.

The organism is really cool but also a bit of a bitch to work with, for various reasons I won't bother you with unless you really want to. Anyway, I included a picture to show how pretty they are. They also smell like damp forest (in reality it's the other way around of course, this being a soil bacterium).

The blue droplets (and very intense blue colour in the background) are a pigment they excrete. They consist of a class of compounds that can be antibiotics, but this one is rather weak. You'd have to take so much of it you'll be mistaken for a smurf. The colour is useful though, because you can keep track of its production very easily when trying out different growth conditions or when you mess with its genome or something.

I hope that wasn't too technical.. ::)

That's so cool! Hah, I'm so going to think of that picture next time I'm in a damp forest. I'm curious to know what you've discovered about it, and what brought your studies to those specific little guys in the dirt.

Heh, I'm a bit of a Wikipedia addict. There's barely anything on Wikipedia about your pet there (but you could change that!), though I did end up reading a little about its genus. Right before you posted your response to me, I had been trying to learn more about different types of single-celled organisms, so that was kind of a coincidence. Before that, I had been reading about arachnids and was directed to gregarines, which are parasitic to harvestmen (daddy longlegs), and that's what initially sparked my curiosity.

Many (maybe even most) of the articles I like to read are biology related. That's not to say I understand all of it. The other day, an analogy popped into my head: my enjoyment of those articles could be sort of like one of those cats that enjoy television, hah. Hopefully I'm learning a bit more than a cat would. I love reading that stuff and getting my imagination going about prehistoric life, learning how different groups are related, and becoming more aware of the organisms and processes that exist in and around us at all times. Mind-blowing stuff that makes me feel giant and tiny at the same time.

Man, and here I sit, writing a dumb-ass comic...

But seriously, that's awesome and the picture is much appreciated.

Dumb-ass comic? It's the best I've come across so far.

Look at it this way, this comic will be read by loads of people while I toil and struggle to write a thesis that, at most, 5 people will read.

Thank you for the huge complement! I do find myself wondering if I should have gone into a more important field that involved more learning. Being sort of a shallow cartoonist and a security guard doesn't feel too impactful, but I at least have the freedom to exercise my imagination, and having sweet fans makes cartooning feel way more worthwhile. I also get the feeling that picking one field of science as a career might make me feel stuck. Right now, I'm free to learn in whatever arbitrary direction my fickle curiosity takes me, though such unstructured learning makes for a really weird, random collection of knowledge full of holes in even the most basic concepts. I admire people who study our world for a living, and make it a healthier, easier, and cooler place to live in the process.

Cheers, I'm not many people's favourite European that's not a celebrity.

Maddox tweeted about you guys a while ago. I like his writing and he doesn't do spam so I figured it's worth a look. Turns out he was right.

Oh man! That's awesome! Maddox is super great. Have you listened to his podcast? http://thebiggestproblemintheuniverse.com/ I don't think I'd ever really listened to a podcast before. I just started his this week and listened to every episode in two or three days as I was drawing the comic. Now I'm sad that I have to wait to hear more. Heh, even though it updates once a week with soo much more time's worth of content than our comic does. Unless you spend hours staring at each of our pages, which I guess I'd be cool with.

Rijst

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Re: Introductions
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2014, 09:01:49 AM »
I haven't discovered much really, I'm a bit disappointed at the insight:effort ratio. I spent three years researching two genes and the best I can honestly come up with at the moment is "I don't know what their function is but it is likely that they have one", which won't make it to wikipedia I'm afraid haha!

Model organisms such as this one are used because a lot is known about them, which makes interpreting findings easier because you know more about their context. The question is then, can these findings be generalised to related organisms? They often can, more or less, but there are always exceptions. I picked this project because I liked the description and I had worked with this bug during my master's degree. The job I'm applying for at the moment is with a different bacterium though, hopefully easier to work with (no more waiting 3 days before they've grown to a useful density).

I've never heard of Gregarines, their name implies they're friendly but most parasites aren't. Theories on evolution of the earliest life are positively exciting. Some parts of a cell are so 'ancient' that they are virtually the same among all branches of life. Did you know there's about 50% similarity between your genes and a tree's? Bacteria are much more diverse because they evolve so much faster (with a new generation a few times a day). The soil is a sort of battle ground where different bacteria, fungi and other micro organisms are involved in an arms race and constantly try to eat, poison or simply outcompete each other. Quite amazing to realise all of this is going on all around you when you walk around or even on and inside your body (skin, gut and mouth are full of them).

I hope I haven't put anyone off a meal or something, it's really not as gross as it sounds and human bodies are pretty good at keeping them out or dealing with them if that fails.

Importance is all relative really, I don't feel my work has any direct impact on anything at the moment and it may never have. Art and culture impact people's lives just as much and there's no telling what will happen or who will be influenced into doing something amazing by your work.

I haven't heard his podcasts yet, but I think I should. However I keep telling myself that I'll have plenty of time for that when I finish writing, which should be happening soon I hope. Are they good? (I guess they are if you just spent 3 days listening to all of them)
Quote from: "The Boy" (Bad-Ass Ninjas)
I read on the internet that ninjas are hungry, you want some food?