Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.
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Saber-Toothed Mystery
Remember when I posted that I wanted that Threadless shirt? I received a package a few weeks later with the shirt enclosed. I thought my brother Mark had gotten it for me, until I noticed the note: “May the Flying Spaghetti Monster touch you with his noodly appendage.” That eliminated Mark and narrowed the pool of…
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Why Yes, I (Attempt to) Cook
I have been wanting to try making this for a while, and finally made myself do it tonight (also, my vegetables were going bad). Dinner is super late, but I think it was worth it. I made a few mistakes, with some of the vegetables being a bit too crunchy; however, it’s a recipe I…
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Serve Chilled
Tuesday was a long but productive day during which Appy and I ran two experiments in parallel, nested so that we worked on one while waiting for a step in the other. I decided that at the end of the day we needed to do something fun to reward ourselves.
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Prodigious Pool Party
Re:Live had a pool party Sunday afternoon: pizza, sodas, and a whole crowd of people. It was truly the ultimate party house: “pool” was insufficient to describe what was essentially a small water park in the backyard. Fountains, a slide, and rocks to jump from made for a wonderfully enjoyable afternoon. I took some pictures to…
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Burrito Envy
I have been craving a burrito for weeks. My friend Caitlyn goes to Chipotle for a burrito nearly every day for lunch (between 10 and 11 AM Eastern, or around when I’m leaving for the lab), leaving me with burrito foodlust and a packed turkey sandwich for my own noonday meal. This was heightened when…
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These Cells Are Ready to Be Split
Fibroblasts as seen through a 10x magnification. These are live cells, unlike my pretty color pictures. The density of the culture means we can safely split it into a number of parts, where they will continue growing to yield a greater total number of cells.
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Mounting Coverslips
One of the many steps that precedes the pretty fluorescence pictures I get. Cells are on little glass coverslips in the plate, and get mounted onto the slide with a special liquid and sealed into place with clear nail polish. All in dim light, since some of the stains are light-sensitive.
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Wishing
Threadless printed a delightful shirt years ago, that I was too foolish to snap up immediately, instead hoping it would still be available during their next sale. I’ve been waiting for years since then for them to reprint it, and the finally did—only now, I’m too poor to afford the full price $20 + shipping.…