Day 24: The Haze

The airport shutdown due to icy runways, the whole city turned into one big ice-skating rink, people were falling left and right, many people were at the emergency room (ER), it took me 100 carefully chosen and executed baby steps to cross a crossing which normally takes 20 strides. Rain at -below freezing temperatures- warm air trapping the cold air underneath and the pollution leading to a dense fog over the valley- inversion for over a week now- not the best conditions.

Just so that you get a better idea of how thick the haze is, on a normal day you can see the mountains and the valley beyond. To get a simpler idea without much imagination, try looking at the left side of the picture where you can see a building kind of faded out, that is a 1 minute walk from the left most building in this photo.

Day 23: Science is Cool - Transfection

This picture is not with the iPhone but with a camera attached to a microscope at a 40x zooming power.

What are you looking at? 

Recombinant Baculovirus infected Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) insect cells. The smaller circles are newly infected cells while some in the background (faded circles) are cells which have already made the virus, lysed open and have released the virus into solution as well as some cell debris. The newly made virus can now infect other uninfected cells.

These are very pretty insect cells to which I added some foreign DNA. Normally the cells are small and round and bright. The cells take up the DNA and then make the baculovirus of my choice which I can then use to make the protein of my choice. Once the DNA is in the cells and the cells are making the virus, these cells become big, round and grainy in the middle.

In simple words, you want to make Chicken Tikka Masala (baculovirus expressing the protein of your interest). So you buy chicken and the spices (gene/dna of choice), then come to me (host: insect cells) and use my experience and  kitchen utensils (host cell machinery)  to make Chicken Tikka Masala (protein of your choice)! Does that make sense?

For the more scientific ones out there: you can see polyhedra formation- these are one of the best infected cells I have seen in five years of working with Baculovirus and Sf9s (@44 h post transfection). I am expressing an RNAi pathway protein.

Day 22: Coming up

Day 21: Uniting India in Two Minutes

The lifeline of all Indians in and away from India- Maggi Noodles, Masala Chili Sauce and Two minutes!

Day 20: Smart Companion

When you are not so smart a smart phone helps- watch, phone, camera, e-mail, music, news, weather details, chat messengers, torch ( flashlight), reminders, notes and social media- really and my E.coli wall paper- pretty much sums up my life!

Day 19: Food for Thought

I will any day make this for breakfast if you come to eat- provided you eat meat and eggs. Crepes, hash browns, breakfast sausages- saturday mornings are nice.

Day 18: Nostalgic Fizz

There is phosphoric acid in this but we still wanted it!

Day 17: Shadows

Our shadows are with us always

Behind the scenes on a different platter, here is the first few lines from a Rabindrasangeet that is my new favorite.

Day 16: Affection

Keeping up with the crap on TV!

Day 15: Inspiration

Someone who inspired me to get started on my own 365 has his own 365 project. I come back home eager to know what the Turtles were up to on that particular day. If you want to follow them too, check out www.avidatta.com