Avatar, heat, work and molecular therapy

I am kind of fond of long random titles for blog posts.

Just got back from seeing Avatar in 3D with a good mate who is visiting from Tasmania (Seth). James cameron did a good job in re-creating a fantasy world, as did Weta Digital. I quite liked the storyline and character development – despite the bad reviews. Was a visually stunning movie, though I felt a little dizzy/headachy by the end. This was likely due to the heat though and my dehydration. 36 degrees is not that hot (when not humid) – but the warm wind makes it pretty uncomfortable.

More warm weather to come – yay. Christmas in Brissy though so the weather will be nice then. A whirlwind 4 day trip, but c’est la vie.

Work has been busy. Yay. As per the monash guidelines we have from the 23rd to 4th jan off. I was in today though to do a maxi – got a cool new construct in that I want to use asap. Writing up my paper (actually several') – hopefully a decent impact factor first author though. Got news today the Molecular Therapy paper with Michael got accepted (I’m an author anyway, even if not first). Papers are always good. Finally on top of things and starting to feel comfortable. Eventually I will get motivation back and maybe even be inspired to go out photographing. meh, maybe.

Enjoy the break peeps – happy festivus (As daz would say), merry christmas (remember it’s about jesus and not gifts/food) and happy new Year!

oh the pretty lights

So recently I went to a conference on lights. Pretty lights. Fluorescence if you will. Lights in Life Sciences 2009. Damn impressive. What people are visualising with ocnfocal microscopes, widefield microscopes, 3d structured illumination, PALM, dSTORM, STED microscopy etc. Being able to visualise single proteins within a cell via a tagged fluorophore. It’s impressive. Kudos to the people coming up with the new technology – and to those developing the new fluorophores (a  lot of these techniques require photo-switchable fluorophores such as dendra, eos, PS-CFP2, kindling etc). I can easily see why the big journals are asking for this sort of technology rather than basic microscopy and “colocalisation”. I am glad to have a project that has allowed me to develop skills in advanced confocal microscopy.

I think I want to learn every available technique and then consult out.

I also covered my poster at the conference and a second poster for the ever evolving http://Researchgate.net

hmm. back to work I guess.

p.s. clannzu sounds damn good with rain in the background.