Spray Dried Milk Sugar
See these? I made them. With this fancy piece of equipment. We’re aiming to create hollow spheres that have a small aerodynamic diameter, but with the flow properties of larger particles. Eventually we’ll be spray drying drug, but for now I’m practicing with lactose. My job is fun.
The next thing to do is to characterize these particles further. I just got a 20 year old particle sizer working last week (running Windows 3.1!), and we’ve got some other tricks up our sleeves. Keep reading to find out more about how spray drying works (I’ll try to keep it as non-sciency as possible). (more…)
Science, For a Living
This year’s getting off to a good start. I will be starting a new job next Tuesday, and I couldn’t be more excited. Without giving away too much detail, I will just say that it is a biochemist position with a large research organization in the RTP. My new position will mean some cell culture, possibly some trans-genetics, plenty of bioassays, and good old-fashioned bench chemistry, with some new-fangled chemistry as well. It’s closer to home than the job I’m leaving, but it means I now have to get on I-40, which I’ve heard can be just awful. Either way, I’m more than ready to start, I just have to figure out what to wear.
The picture above is of transfected NIH 3T3 cells expressing GFP, which was taken during my undergrad career. We put GFP in everything.
Curious about biochemistry? Feel free to ask in the comments.
The New Year!
First post of 2012! I hope you all had a great holiday. So much has happened recently, it seems like Christmas was forever ago. I’ll catch you up in installments.
If you’ve ever used Photobooth, you may have a picture of yourself similar to the one seen above. That’s because we got an iPad for Christmas. This thing is awesome. Here’s some of my Photoboothed face.
I’ve been Skyping people nonstop, reading books and all sorts of crazy things. More updates to follow in the next couple of days. Happy new year!
Oh No! Scout’s foot
Trip to the vet after work for Scout. Came home and her foot was red. Apparently, she had spent the day chewing the fur off of her foot. They recommended an antibiotic, and a cone to keep her from messing with it. Scout, who is barely able to tolerate wearing a collar, was *not* a fan. As it turns out, her legs are so freakishly long that she can still reach her foot. We leave it on because, aside from being extremely entertaining, it’s still enough of a distraction that she just pouts constantly and pretty much leaves the foot alone. Pictures, keep reading to see ‘em.
Coke Rocket
I drew this a while ago on my Wacom tablet. Recently I realized that I never put it on here. Here you go. Coke Bottle Rocket Ship. I modeled the engines after the Russian RD-0146, converted to be powered by mentos. Let me know if you want this on a t-shirt or coffee mug or something.
