I'm an undergraduate biochemist with a love for all things microbial and a tendency to get overexcited about things that I can't actually see. I took the name 'Lab Rat' due to a spectacular imagination failure and because undergraduate lab-work is unpaid work and it seemed like a funny joke at the time. I've been blogging for almost two years now, which is rather a scary thought.
My first scientific love-affair was with histones and epigenetic gene control, which lasted about a month before I realised that the relationship was heading off into complicated territory where I didn't want to go. I next had a slightly longer affair with bacteriophages, which faded out when I started finding out more about bacteria. They fascinate me because a bacterial cell essentially has to do everything that a complete animal organism has to do; sense the environment, respond to threats, gather food, create energy, but all within the little world of a single cell. And while it's probably not possible to know everything that's going on within even a single bacterial species, it is easier to take a holistic view of the proceedings of the whole cell, rather than being wrapped up in a single pathway of a single cell or tissue type (which seems to be an unfortunate yet necessary approach to studying eukaryotic cells).
I use the blog for revision purposes, and as a desperate attempt to try and channel my writing into the direction of science. I write a lot. I also talk a lot. The two are probably connected.
When not enthusiastically rabbiting on about bacteria, or pipetting very small amounts of liquid into tiny containers, I spend my time reading Discworld and Shakespeare, scribbling stories that never see the light of day, and trying to work out what kind of music I really like (currently rather into Metal, recently had a Rock-and-Roll phase). I have a husband who is a Doctor and who remains charmed and baffled by my love of the little bugs that adversely affect all his patients.
Field of Science
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From Valley Forge to the Lab: Parallels between Washington's Maneuvers and Drug Development3 weeks ago in The Curious Wavefunction
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Political pollsters are pretending they know what's happening. They don't.3 weeks ago in Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience
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Course Corrections5 months ago in Angry by Choice
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The Site is Dead, Long Live the Site2 years ago in Catalogue of Organisms
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The Site is Dead, Long Live the Site2 years ago in Variety of Life
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Does mathematics carry human biases?4 years ago in PLEKTIX
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A New Placodont from the Late Triassic of China5 years ago in Chinleana
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Posted: July 22, 2018 at 03:03PM6 years ago in Field Notes
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Bryophyte Herbarium Survey7 years ago in Moss Plants and More
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Harnessing innate immunity to cure HIV8 years ago in Rule of 6ix
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WE MOVED!8 years ago in Games with Words
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Do social crises lead to religious revivals? Nah!8 years ago in Epiphenom
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post doc job opportunity on ribosome biochemistry!9 years ago in Protein Evolution and Other Musings
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Growing the kidney: re-blogged from Science Bitez9 years ago in The View from a Microbiologist
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Blogging Microbes- Communicating Microbiology to Netizens10 years ago in Memoirs of a Defective Brain
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The Lure of the Obscure? Guest Post by Frank Stahl12 years ago in Sex, Genes & Evolution
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Lab Rat Moving House13 years ago in Life of a Lab Rat
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Goodbye FoS, thanks for all the laughs13 years ago in Disease Prone
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Slideshow of NASA's Stardust-NExT Mission Comet Tempel 1 Flyby13 years ago in The Large Picture Blog
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in The Biology Files