I know I have been M.I.A. guys, sorry! I have been busy in the laboratory; cleaning it out and conducting an elaborate experiment. Both have been time-consuming and laborious, and I’d rather not post an article at all, than to post one that is insufficient and lack-luster.

The thing about it is, research in academia is far different that in industry(university vs. company); budgets can be much smaller, labs more congested, and resources and supplies far fewer. In the case of the lab I am in, my mentor inherited it from the department after another professor left. With that, he inherited lots of old supplies and equipment, which created a lot of clutter. For safety reasons, and flow of work, that clutter had to be cleared. Unfortunately, a lot of that work falls down to the graduate students.

It can be very overwhelming, when you don’t have all the supplies and equipment you need to do the work you want to do. I had been hunting an inverted microscope with a camera for some time, and begging for the purchase of other needed equipment. At one point, I had a moment of weakness, and broke-down crying. Thankfully my lab-partner was there to console me and counsel me back to sanity (the walk to get pizza also helped).  Eventually, I was able to use a microscope in another lab. It is so important to build amicable and good working relationships with your fellow researcher. If it were not for these kind-hearted people, I would be lost.

In better news, weeks spent ordering supplies, reading a multitude of scientific journal articles, setting up experiments, and recording data have paid off. My work has thus far been successful, and I am very happy because it is very possible to do all that work, and have your experiment fail! Below is an image of the cells I’ve been working on and was able to capture on camera:

 

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to bridge the gap between  the science community and the general public; due to many misconceptions that people hold about who scientists are. Just recently, two prime examples of science misconceptions have surfaced in mainstream and social media : women in science, and religion in science.

Women and Science

Sir Tim Hunt a British Scientist, made disparaging comments about women working alongside men in the lab. At the World Conference of Science Journalists, on June 9, 2015, this Nobel Prize winning biochemist said “three things happen when they are in the lab; you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and you criticize them, they cry”. He later apologized for his statement, essentially by stating that he was speaking from his personal experiences with women in his labs. He still however maintained that genders should be separated in order to not undermine the science; in effort to minimize distractions.

Social media lit up, with women scientist on twitter using the hash-tag  “distractinglysexy” to convey their disdain for the remarks made, by Sir Tim Hunt. You can read more about it here. This goes to show that women still experience much gender bias in science. Even when the playing field is supposed to be leveled, they are often still viewed as objects of love or as being too emotional to be practical enough to conduct  good science.

Religion and Science

Another fallacy of science is that a person cannot be both a scientist and believe in God. That science and religion are mutually exclusive. However it would surprise many to know that Pope Francis is indeed a Chemist. Before the papacy he earned his Masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires.

In school, we are taught that many early scientist were shunned and persecuted by the Catholic church for their findings. This is a partial truth, in actuality the Church as supported educational institutions including the study of science. In addition, many scientist also are devout Christians or followers of other God centered faiths. Most famously we have Gregor Mendel, Johannes Kepler – mathematician and astronomer, Nicholas Copernicus – astronomer, and Isaac Newton.

For example, Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian priest and botanist. He lived in the 19th century, from 1822 to 1884, and  is credited with being the founder of genetics. He discovered the principles of genetics with his hybridization studies on the garden pea (Pisum Sativum). From him we got Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance and Mendelian Genetics. His conducted his work in the garden (glasshouse) of his monastery.

Summary

One thing science teaches us is to not be biased. Bias is the number one foe of good science, because it takes away from its credibility and allows for the overlooking of error. Various types of people become scientists, and the stereotypical male nerd type is not necessarily the standard, at least not anymore.

Last week we discussed the controversy and fear surrounding the safety of energy drinks like Red Bull. It’s interesting to see how people will rush to believe that certain things are inherently dangerous while believing that other things simply could not be. People are often shocked to learn that WATER can be toxic to your health.

Yes! Simple H2O can kill you. You might be saying to yourself…”well yes, if you get it into your lungs…”, but ingesting water can be toxic to your health also. If you drink too much water in a given period of time you can become very ill and even die from water intoxication. Continue reading →