Monthly Archives: June 2008

In which I ponder an itinerant existence

Hell hath no fury like the temperament of a bureaucrat designing immigration forms. I cannot think of anything other than a vengeful spirit, possibly brought on by a thwarted love affair, that could have led anyone to compose the sentence … Continue reading

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In which chimps and maths come under literary scrutiny

Our first Fiction Lab – a monthly book club at the Royal Institution dedicated to great science novels – was a rousing success. A diverse collection of scientists and non-scientists gathered to pick apart Philip Balls’ The Sun and Moon … Continue reading

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In which I am star-struck by the invisible world

If you view biology as spanning a scale from the very large (blue whales) to the very small (organic compounds), I have almost always lurked around the miniscule end of the spectrum. My first stint of undergraduate research involved trying … Continue reading

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In which the Italians also pass muster

Following on from the ingenuity of our French post-doc, the ante has recently been upped by the lab’s Italian contingent. Continental shelf A cheap solution for all your live microscopy needs Feast your eyes on this little beauty. Necessità was … Continue reading

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In which an anniversary passes unremarked

This past Friday, though I didn’t realize it until well after midnight, marked my completion of a full year back in the lab. Time, as it always seems to do these days, has sped by more quickly than I would … Continue reading

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In which I admire an act of ingenuity

Biomedical research is a costly business. You don’t really get a visceral understanding of just how costly until you become the principal investigator on a hefty source of funding and start monitoring your own balance sheet. You can easily drop … Continue reading

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