Ubergeek

Chromatography AKTA FLPC

Brianne Bilyeu, 1,529 Comments

Major geek post, today.  Turn back while you still can!

I have to go into the lab today AND go work at the bookstore.  I love both of my jobs, but it’s Saturday…ewwww.  Internet fun…fresh air bad (well, in Minnesota in January, anyway).

At my job I sometimes do FPLC, which is a way cool chemistry tool for separating and purifying proteins.  But it can get pretty confusing very quickly.  There are all sorts of inputs and outputs, and sometimes I get mixed up with the tubes going all over the place:

“I fought the AKTA, and the AKTA won!”
FPLC image – http://psf.cobre.ku.edu
Stickman was added by biodork.

And sometimes the instrument acts up and and I get so fed up with it that I feel like:

FPLC image –  http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/
T-Shirt image – http://www.hipstertees.co.uk/

There is also a way to make sure the columns (part of the set-up) are working well.  This method is called measuring “theoretical  plates“.  I imagine theoretical plates look something like this:

Plates image – http://images.crateandbarrel.com
Text added by biodork.


or maybe more like this:

Thought bubble image – www.polyvore.com
 Plates image – http: www.washingtonspaces.com

 

Chromatography AKTA FLPC
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Green Porno

Brianne Bilyeu, , 877 Comments

I first heard of Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno project from Pharyngula, and I thought it was weird and nerdy and neat.  So how excited was I when I found Green Porno: A Book and Short Films by Isabella Rossellini in my bookstore for 75% off???  Yeah for me!  But, I mean…why was this treasure on the 75% off table in the first place?  Who doesn’t want a book that focuses on the animals that surround us every day and their incredibly scandalous mating habits?  Hell, isn’t that why people buy US, Star and People magazine?

Borrowed from http://fremenalex.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/green-porno-2.png

Anyway, the book not only contains full page pictures of the cardboard cut-outs and foam-rubber sculptures that are uniquely Green Porno, and educational and entertaining phrases such as “If I were a male anglerfish I would look sooooo different than the  female.  I would have a big nose to smell and find her in the abyss.  On top of my head, I have a kind of tooth…which I use to penetrate her belly and fuse myself into her body becoming her own personal sperm bank.”…aside from all of that the (75% off) book contains a DVD with all three seasons of Green Porno!

Season one: Insects!
Seaon two: Sea creatures!
Season three: Sea Creatures and the perils of over-fishing!

I am the luckiest biology nerd ever!

Green Porno