Forum > Discuss Anything
Introductions
Jessica Safron:
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:
Rijst, what are you getting your PhD in, if you don't mind me asking?
Rijst:
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.. ::)
Adam Dravian:
Man, and here I sit, writing a dumb-ass comic...
But seriously, that's awesome and the picture is much appreciated.
Rijst:
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.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version