(no subject)
Yesterday I showed up at work and was just doing the ruitine everdy day things. No prob. Then the MD/PhD who is working there now brought two little pink things in a mesh net up to my lab manager. First thougth: mouse fetuses. Ok. Close. Newborns!! I was looking at them squirming agaisnt each other, pressing their little pink wrinkly bodies against each other for warmth on the lab bench. They were cute in a very large-jellybean like way!. Their eyes were still closed, very endrearing. I knew when they were brougth that this was going to be their last day, as well as first. By the time I realized that Monika had already begun to sacrifice them, one was already gone. I knew this. I had seen some of this last year. But still, the sight of that bloody rolled up piece of paper towel made my stomach drop a little. I drew in breath. Ok, I thought to myslef, you can totally handle this. This is NOT new, lil. (but they were cute soft jellybeans just a second ago!)
Anyways, I got to see the the whole process of preparing the eyes. The decapitation was jsut a snip behind the ears, minimal blood. The head didn't bleed that much in the media(PBS) in the dish. I'm guessing its because they're still so young. I have to say this: the head did move a little after wards. So its not just chickens. During the process, the brain was exposed, and I remembered how in Psychology they said that the mouse brain is so much more smooth than ours. It's the nooks and cranies that indicate more intelligence because it means the cortex has a larger area, and thus needs to be more convoluted and crinkled to fit in the skull. Like stuffing a sheet of paper vs. a roll of gift wrap in to a Downy ball. Who knew the retina took up such a large percetange of the back of the eye?? The optic nerve is like the little white twisted rope thing you see in egg whites when you crack and egg open. The chalazae. It
was then fixed in somethign or other. I honestly can't remmber what was used to fix the eyes. I'll get back to that later. Anyways, after all that. they were put in the 30% sucrose solution. You know how we've been learnign about osmosis since the fifth grade? Well, here is again. Salty PBS out, sugariness wooshes in so that the eye does over expand when frozen for sectioning. Apparently, we got very good retina and cornea samples. They were pretty sweet. I wish I still had my camera t to take some pictures! I'm hoping for more stuff like this in the future. It was jsut awesome that I got a chance to see somethign new. Hopefully they will entrust me with more of this kind of work in the future.
But you know what I thougth when I looked at those perfectly extracted eye components? That it wasnt the end of the story. They themselves may be great. But its up to the sectioning machine to actually get it on slides. And the sectioning machine has hourly PMS cycles. Then actually getting the tissue to take up the tagged miRNAs. Then making sure it can photograph. Then making sure its consistent. Every little step has that whole BOOMohfuckweblewthis potential.
Still, good day overall. Afterwards I discovered Palmer Commons. Very quiet. Free huge yellow sheets to draw organic mechanisms on !!!! Sometimes I wonder at the things that make me happy. Also: went to the GIEU office and got info. The application for this summer was due November 6th. Oops. guess that will be for next year. I wonder where I will be next summer? Most likely:Ghana. Half the sites in the program are in Ghana, so not too muc hwiggle room. No Paris. Oh well. Ciao to that.
For about the fifth time this day I have said to myself: what am I doing??? ARRGggg!!
Anyways, I got to see the the whole process of preparing the eyes. The decapitation was jsut a snip behind the ears, minimal blood. The head didn't bleed that much in the media(PBS) in the dish. I'm guessing its because they're still so young. I have to say this: the head did move a little after wards. So its not just chickens. During the process, the brain was exposed, and I remembered how in Psychology they said that the mouse brain is so much more smooth than ours. It's the nooks and cranies that indicate more intelligence because it means the cortex has a larger area, and thus needs to be more convoluted and crinkled to fit in the skull. Like stuffing a sheet of paper vs. a roll of gift wrap in to a Downy ball. Who knew the retina took up such a large percetange of the back of the eye?? The optic nerve is like the little white twisted rope thing you see in egg whites when you crack and egg open. The chalazae. It
was then fixed in somethign or other. I honestly can't remmber what was used to fix the eyes. I'll get back to that later. Anyways, after all that. they were put in the 30% sucrose solution. You know how we've been learnign about osmosis since the fifth grade? Well, here is again. Salty PBS out, sugariness wooshes in so that the eye does over expand when frozen for sectioning. Apparently, we got very good retina and cornea samples. They were pretty sweet. I wish I still had my camera t to take some pictures! I'm hoping for more stuff like this in the future. It was jsut awesome that I got a chance to see somethign new. Hopefully they will entrust me with more of this kind of work in the future.
But you know what I thougth when I looked at those perfectly extracted eye components? That it wasnt the end of the story. They themselves may be great. But its up to the sectioning machine to actually get it on slides. And the sectioning machine has hourly PMS cycles. Then actually getting the tissue to take up the tagged miRNAs. Then making sure it can photograph. Then making sure its consistent. Every little step has that whole BOOMohfuckweblewthis potential.
Still, good day overall. Afterwards I discovered Palmer Commons. Very quiet. Free huge yellow sheets to draw organic mechanisms on !!!! Sometimes I wonder at the things that make me happy. Also: went to the GIEU office and got info. The application for this summer was due November 6th. Oops. guess that will be for next year. I wonder where I will be next summer? Most likely:Ghana. Half the sites in the program are in Ghana, so not too muc hwiggle room. No Paris. Oh well. Ciao to that.
For about the fifth time this day I have said to myself: what am I doing??? ARRGggg!!