But alas, the phenomenon persists. Very oddly, in these small, square-shaped wells, I don\u2019t get concentric circles, but long lines of cells, rather like a string of old ladies queuing for a bus shelter in the provinces:<\/p>\n We\u2019ll leave aside the rather ironic fact that several people in our lab are spending lots of time and money trying to force cells to grow in lines using cutting-edge micropattern contact printing \u2013 this outcome is not desirable in my own experiments. As anyone who studies the cytoskeleton knows, outside forces can have big effects on internal actin and microtubule configurations, so the last thing I need is something that forces my cells to change shape in the wild-type situation. Will the scourge never end?<\/p>\n On the other hand, closer to home, I can happily report that Richard has solved my pressing microwave popcorn mystery<\/a>. The solution? Elevating the bag onto an upturned pyrex casserole dish – which apparently aligns the bulk of the popcorn kernels more closely to where the microwaves are bouncing back – completely and reproducibly sorts out the problem and yields a full bag of salty goodness. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The plot thickens. For those of you who have been dangling in urgent uncertainty, I can report that the vibration problem in our incubator has not gone away. I thought I\u2019d get around it by using smaller, non-round vessels, such … Continue reading ![\"Epicenter\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3476\/5812546949_a8c5cf09ce.jpg\")
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