as calm as a fruit stand in new york and maybe as strange

SO in the last three months I got married, moved to New York City, started graduate school, and eaten about three thousand avocados. 

After reading relevant literature all day (which included a PubMed search for "human feces"- I'm studying colitis here) I re-discovered secondary structures like this:

which is a piece of this "tertiary structure":

FOR THE NON-SCIENTISTS:

"primary structure" is the RNA sequence (for example: AAAUUGGGGGCGCAU)

"secondary structure" is the way that the RNA can bind to itself to make the types of complex shapes as seen in the first photograph

"tertiary structure" is the way the ribozyme (RNA with the ability to perform tasks like "helping" other reactions just as enzymes usually do) folds in three dimensional space

in other words, I'm back and making work again.

this is it

It's so good to be back in a lab again. The first few weeks in a new lab are always tough but nothing compares to that unbeatable rush of doing something for the first time, for seeing something new: the same feeling I had as a kid when I first pulled a worm out of the ground or when I learned why the sky was blue or the grass was green.

Today I spent far too long doing an extremely simple task: move 5 worms from one plate to another. But as I sat there and chased those guys around the plate with my little apparatus, I had some of time to think about the connections between my art and science. It's a topic I'm afraid of in a lot of ways. It's a topic that makes me question everything that I think about myself as an artist and as a person (what are we if not perception-ists?). There are times I don't know if my science influences my work, runs my work, or is my work. I don't know if I should even try and stop it any more. More importantly, I start questioning why I make and why I don't just observe. But I can't stop. and sometimes that in itself has to be enough. 

Here are some images that bring out this apprehension: they are some of the most beautiful images I've collected and ones that I come back to again and again.

DNA at metaphase (when you can see chromosomes most clearly. it's the way we all pictorially think of chromosomes: as little Xs) without the proteins that hold it together. So, all of those loops are DNA strands. The skeleton is what the DNA usually holds onto to look like an X.

C. elegans

  

cross sections of C. elegans (1mm worms)

Debaser

Today was gorgeous. A perfect public market morning followed by an afternoon filled with insane college students and an impromptu (well, only for me, I'm sure someone planned it) concert on the quad by OK GO (that band that has the treadmill video, pictured below), then an evening of writing, pretending to write, and art-related tangents. Tomorrow I'll be back in the studio, working on all of the things I want to be working on all of the time. I know it's far too early, but I keep daydreaming about my senior show: I want hundreds of perfect prints, and tons of paintings. I want to fill the gallery. I want everything to be beautiful, understated, overwhelming, and inspiring.

It's that time of year. The time of year when I just want to go.go.go and slow.slow.slow. When I am perpetually, simultaneously overwhelmed and extremely content. I love what I do. I feed on stress. I perform better when things are crazy.

But.. I look forward to when things slow down, when I can lay in the grass and just BE (happy, silent, with Tim, content, watching, thinking).

Yesterday I had the chance to present my research to my home community. I realized my favorite thing to do is explain the things we do to the people who say "oh, no, definitely not!" when I ask if they're familiar with biology. I get to show my excitement: then it BREAKS OUT and all the viral particles run wild, right!? (HIV-1 acute infection of CD4+T cells). I think most scientists become numb to the awe-inspiring nature of our work. Yet, I'm so humbled by and fascinated with the things we study, and more importantly, the things we don't know.

you and me baby, we ain't nothin' but mammals

I love detailed line work in prints, drawings, life, or anything! If it looks like it took one thousand hours to make, I will probably like it. As such, I'm really attracted to hair, muscle striations, and fabric patterns, among other things. 

In short: I look at things like this a lot.

little bunny foo foo (so say we all)

Alexa Meade paints people on people.

I went home for Easter and just got back yesterday. I have a week to throw together a poster (and data) for a conference next Wednesday out west and I'm behind in my printing from all of the traveling. Basically, I'm spending 24 hours a day in the studio and in the lab from now till forever. and I'm really, really excited. 

This was my Easter:

I'm also thinking very seriously about opening an Etsy shop. This way, I can have a year to get going, to get some of the kinks worked out, and then an entire summer (or year) to do it full-time before I start my PhD work. I'm not sure if the whole full-time Phd and full-time Etsy baby is a good idea, but this week has reinforced my conviction that I can do both and I can "have it all" (as Liz Lemon would say). If I want to. I'll probably have to start eating ham though.

she blinded me with science

Like every other scientist ever, I read xkcd sometimes.

Like every other scientist ever, I like and extraordinarily identify with this.

(Unlike every other scientist ever, I make a lot of art somewhat relating or alluding to this disconnect.)

Science Montage

Alt text: The rats are perturbed: it must sense nanobots! Code grey! We have a helvetica scenario!

weird science

The Coolest Video

The above video is simply flabbergasting. It's tracking the development of an embryo of C. elegans (pictured above). The green stain shows the nuclei of each cell (nuclei pictured in purple below), the red is a specific stain for the digestive system, and the yellow is when they're "co-expressed" simply meaning the two are very close to each other.

Summer in the city

Yessssss! I just accepted a summer fellowship in NYC. 

I am going to go broke and I am going to love it.

http://www.icantaffordtoloveny.com/

we confided in science (we can fight our desires)

these are the current models that we believe cells use to transcribe genes (make the information in DNA into a message where things in the cell can then turn them into proteins, which are just entities in the cell that play a role or have some sort of function like being an informant or stopping another protein from being made) when their control elements (the information that tells the machinery that makes these messages whether or not to copy this particular set of info) are far away.

I think these are beautiful.
 

       

geeky geekery

Alright, so after that last post, I've been completely immersed in science, so here's a lovely list of great things that  somehow combine art and science.

Lately, I've been reading "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman (physicist, philosopher, innovator, kindred soul) and everything just looks like physics to me.. So first, this nuke hugger t-shirt is environmentally friendly AND under Obama's plans, the creation of nuclear plants could create a ton of jobs. Physics rules.

Want more physics in your life?: try Boomshine. is a chain reaction game, and the colors are fantastic. It also has eaten up a significant amount of my free time lately, so be cautious..

Physics and art?: this illustration by  electricboogaloo is adorable, and makes the scientist in me smile. Plus... who doesn't love elephants? (and juniper, of course!)

Confession: To save some money this year, I spent countless hours giving my sewing machine some sweet, sweet lovin' and  the three of us (Al Green, the sewing machine, and I) hunkered down for a few days to make some fabulous home-made gifts. Although I didn't make this geeky gift set, I wish I had! It's perfect for any geek-chic nerds in your life.

Last etsy find, I promise!: I've finally allowed myself some time to remember how much I love and missed reading. (in addition to Feynman I'm reading "The Holy Barbarians" - Lawrence Lipton... a book by a Venice beach beatnik about Venice beach beatniks AND whose son is James Lipton. How cool!) This adorable poster by dazeychic says it all! The colors are so pleasing and upbeat... and the solid coloring juxtaposed with the subtle details in the books makes the viewing experience complete.

More books, please!: For Christmas, I received a fabulous find from my beautiful mother. It's called Microcosmos, and is filled with these fantastic SEM images (Scanning Electron Microscope) that creates "3D" images of things. They're then artificially colored, and they're just really exciting. This is the officially the newest, and most beloved, addition to my coffee table. (Sorry coasters!)

Coffee table talk: Ted Talks. Some of the world's best thinkers, speakers, and doers can be found sharing their secrets, and successes, research, and/or general thoughts. Isaac Mizrah, James Watson, Richard Dawkins, and others can be found here. Topics range from optimism to climate change, string theory (physics) to Rick Werren, and from bread to glamour. 

Okay, well that's about as geek-focused as I can be in one sitting.. but I'd love to hear what YOU think! Leave any suggestions you may have of other nerdy things to check out (for all those squares out there).. I know I'd love to read them!   Until next Friday...