The more you learn, the less you know...

This past week I started in my new lab which will be my home for at least the next 14 months. The lab is just 5 doors down the hall from where I did my PhD studies. In the manner of 2 weeks I've gone from a senior expert on one bacterial system to a junior lab tech with no experience on another bacterial system. But my new lab doesn't treat me as a junior, they keep mentioning, "you're a post-doc". Someday maybe I'll figure out what exactly does that mean! Yeah, I know that I have been taught how to think like a PhD, but the implementing stage is in the infancy stages. I guess it's kinda like a newly minted fresh MD in his/her first surgery... although they have all the credentials, you kinda don't want to be their very first patient. The good news is that within this new lab I'll learn new research skills that I'm lacking. My expertise so far is anything with gene expression and nucleotides. But for glycoproteins, sure, I know what they are, just working with them not so much. It'll be nice to pad my CV with more skills for future job prospects, plus I'm always up to learning new techniques.

I haven't chatted much about hockey although ball hockey has been on-going over the summer. Right now we're winding up for an array of marathon games before the quarter-finals begins. It trinkles down to a game every other day for the next 10 days or so, busy busy.

Today is Sunday and since Transformers are back in theaters, an old but relevant pic. To put new DNA into a bacteria, we often do a procedure called "transformation", where we shove a new circular pieces of DNA into bacteria, thereby transforming the bacterial cell to express new genes it didn't have before. This happens in nature, so we scientist are making use of an uptake system that was already there. With a name like "transformation", this is bound to be linked. Often I even make those classic transformer morphing sound effects. Definitely DNA in disguise.