James and the Giant Corn Genetics: Studying the Source Code of Nature

The department gathered in Monterey (home of the apparently famous pebble beach golf course) to discuss science and meet/embarrass the new grad students.

Highlights (in no particular order):

The people who study magnetic bactera are really enthusiastic about the science they’re doing. The logic regarding how the bacteria are gaining an advantage by producing magnetic crystals seems a little hazy to me, although I’m not a microbiologist. But whatever the reason, the fact that they are is really cool.

Huge studies looking at the linkages between alleles of genes and the effects of drugs in humans. These are pure associate mapping studies, since you can’t do any controlled mating. Thousands or tens of thousands of subjects from drug studies. Convincing results that you can tie genetic data to drugs have no effect, enhanced effects or negative effects. The problem is that you can’t do anything cool about it. You can make more people take prevenative drugs. But you can’t introgress beneficial alleles into the rest of the population. Or make a transgenic line to test for complementation. This is why I work on plants.

The fields surrounding Gilroy, California produce some rediculus fraction of the total garlic crop in the US. The town features such cullinary delights as garlic flavored gum and garlic flavored ice cream as well as hosting an annual garlic festival, at which they crown the Gilroy Garlic Queen. We were told we’d be able to smell garlic just driving through on the highway and believe it or not we could.

Bonfires on the beach of the pacific ocean both nights. I haven’t seen the coast in daylight as of yet. But a good time was had by all. I was inducted into the secret society of grad students and given the sacred position of “fire bringer.” Translation: one of the graduating students handed me a box of matches and said: “ok, now it’s your responsibility to always remember to bring these.”

On Saturday visited SF with three of the other new students. It’s remarkably simple to get there on the subway. Saw the tail end of one of the famous farmers markets, and walked along the city near the north coast. Briefly visited pier 39 and saw more than a hundred sea lions there. A little farther along the coast a restored sailing ship was tied up to a dock. Constant stream of oil tankers and container ships into and out of the bay.

Walking back we cut through the city. Some streets are steep enough the adjacent sidewalks have been replaced by stairs. Chinatown seemed nice. As did Union square. Overall it’s a very different impression from my one evening in New York City.

Today my main accomplishment was making it to Target through back-to-school sunday traffic to purchase a microwave and enough food to last me another few days. The rest of the day was intended for quite reading, a plan that was foiled by the minor music festival held outside this evening that made it too loud within the apartment to hold a conversation on the phone without shouting.