I have been here two full weeks now, but a lot has happened and I don't want to skip everything. I hope to bring everyone up to speed . . . soon . . . ish.
I decided to go to Minneapolis to do research on lupus. Why lupus? I'm not permitted to tell over the blog . . . I guess someone feels Jesus doesn't want the world to know. Google's a good way to find out the basics of lupus.
Before I moved to Minneapolis, I visited some friends in the Bay Area. Some were from Caltech, and some were from a video game conference (www.gdconf.com). While loitering around the conference, I went to the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. My friends Redmond Urbino and Andrew Marzinske went with me. The museum was great, although we were in a bit of a rush. They have this whole section on biotechnology, including a "Be a genetic scientist in 15 minutes" lab. They have everything set up so you can insert GFP (a jellyfish protein that glows) into bacteria and create glowing bacteria in 15 minutes (or less :-). Of course, the bacteria have to grow into a big enough colony to see, so they have an example plate that has grown for awhile. But wait! Not to deprive you of the satisfaction of seeing your own glowing bacteria, they have an incubator for you to put your petri dish in, and they give you this special ID with a barcode. After 24 hours, the staff/volunteers take out your dish, photograph it, and post it on the web, and you can access your picture via the web using your ID number. Isn't that cool? I've included a pic of me and Andrew in the lab. I think Andrew is purposely trying to look nerdy, while I'm sporting my mad-scientist hair.
Lots more happened in the Bay Area, but I didn't take many pics. :-( Anyway, I arrived in Minneapolis on March 24. The plane was a little late. Just late enough, in fact, to make my arrival a little adventurous. Next time: God saves the foolhardy.
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