Welcome Stranger

Some of you may be thinking ‘Pielstickium, why did you choose a name like that?’ I must admit that it is a valid question. In my Freshman year of college my dorms gave out various surpurlatives. Some of them were quite normal, like ‘most likely to succede’ or ‘prettiest smile,’ but unanimously my hall gave me the ‘most likely to have an element named after them.’ As Microbiologists rarely have the opportunity to discover elements that can be named after themselves, Pielstickium has now been reborn as the ‘Human Element,’ showing my general views on life, the universe, and typically anything that pops up in my mind. Feel free to browse about the different posts (although there are not many right now) and make comments as you want. Because even though science is my life, I know that the most important element in life is the Human one.

Fungus (part II)

(In other words what happens when it is finals week and I am studying for exams)
What is a Fungus?
A Eukaryotic Multicellular organism-geeze that narrows it down then
Primary Storage unit is Glycogen- If I knew what Glycogen this would be infinitely more interesting.
Heterotrophic organism devoid of chloryphyll- In other words a Fungus is an organism that makes it’s living by leeching from others. Like a vampire, taking the life blood away from other things… like my cheese and bread for instance. Curse you Rhizopus nigricans.
Has cell walls- What if it didn’t have cell walls? Would they be as good on pizza or in pasta sauces? I don’t think so…oh and their cell walls are made out of the same substance that makes up an insect’s exoskeleton…so if you want to work your way to eating bugs just munch on some fungus and you’ll get used to it…eventually.
Non motile- Imagine a world where fungus were motile. Forget about speaking German, we’d be speaking chemical pathways… because if they can move it’s only a matter of time before they can speak… and if you know your science fiction as soon as they learn to speak they will try to dominate the human race!
Reproduces by spores- To be honest when I first read these notes I thought that it read ‘sores’ and I thought that my professor was a little crazy. Imagine reproducing by sores… “sorry honey, it may be painful but think about how cute little Johnny is going to be when the sores are gone”
Hypha-(plural:Hyphae)
Fungi are like living threads… these threads are called hyphae and are called mycelium if they are enough of them. They elongate by atypical—I mean apical growth…in other words they grow from their tips. If we grew atypically we would all have short torsos and long limbs, and you would be able to Identify Grandpa by the length of his fingers… weird hua?
These living threads will often live on your trees and flowers and things. Yeah you heard me right… a relative of the green thing growing m=on my cheese is also growing on an orange tree in my family’s backyard…but before you get the fungicide remember that the plants need the mycorrizal fungus to grow as big as they do. Without the fungus that fertilizer that you tossed on it yesterday was useless.

Micro/Macroscape

Have you ever tried to go through a corn maze? Going from place to place, making turn upon turn wondering where the correct turns are so that you don’t end up lost in the maze forever? (Unless you are trying to get lost in the maze, then of course you hope that each successive turn you make makes you guys more lost in the space) You definitely don’t focus on the little things… I can follow that grasshopper all day long and I doubt that I’d be able to follow it out of a paper bag (how you got into the bag with a grasshopper is another question entirely.) If you are in a professional maze then you can climb on top of a platform and see your surroundings, and see where the maze is going. If you are not in a professional maze then you can stand on the shoulders of the tallest consenting adult. the same can be said when you are writing a narrative. If I were to tell you what was important about today I would leave out information that might be used in a later story I tell you. Honestly I didn’t think twice about the tall red headed guy in my freshmen orientation, but I sure remembered that detail after he started working in my lab. the same thing can be said when you are talking about the narrative of John in the Gospels. John was the latest tale of Christ, all of the other synoptic gospels had already been written, as well as most of the Pauline letters. he had the chance to see what was important in the story, to see how the intricate pieces came together to make a wonderful narrative, He didn’t focus on the grasshoppers that Mark did, as much as I love reading his gospel he does tend to spending time on details that are not necessary for the story to be told. John has the scope, the vision, the interconnectedness of the story. he knows where there are details omitted that needed to be there to understand some of Christ’s teachings. He saw the end of the maze (well closer to it than the others did) and he made certain that his reader could understand the way they needed to go to make the most sense out of the information. now if only I could write something so distinct and apt as that narrative. Oh well, practice makes perfect and I should look at the macroscope not the microscope for a change.

Stars

After watching my two favorite movies this weekend (being sick does have it’s advantages) I realized that we are always interested in the stars. Gattaca, a movie about a guy who wants to be an astronaut and Wall-E, a story about a robot going into space, are sme of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. Something about those ‘great big balls of gas, burning millions of miles away’ inspires songs, stories, everything…

Why do we send astronauts out into the stars? Humans seem to have objectified stars to mean what we do not understand, but what we think is beautiful…  We do not understand a lot about the stars, yes we know their composition, yes we can guesstimate their ages, yes we can guess about how they were formed, but the interesting is that we rarely know exactly what they are. Unlike a micobe, it’s rather difficult to closely study a star, well if you don’t want to burn to a crisp almost instantaneously. It’s beautiful, but confusing as anything. Perhaps that is why we associate stars with Love.

What did they call Romeo and Juliet? ‘Star’crossed lovers. What do we call someone who is in awe of someone? ‘Star’struck. What do we call the person who we focus out life on? A northern ‘star.’

It is interesting to note that the stars, which can be used to describe love, are what brought the Wise men out of their tents to try and find the Christ child. For “when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy,” at least that is what Matthew said about the situation. Why did our Heavenly Father choose a star to herald the coming of his Son? Perhaps He knew that humans are always looking up, sometimes to dream of the eternities, sometimes to wish that they could be somewhere else, sometimes just to enjoy the beauty that the stars bring. Perhaps He wanted to commemorate his Son’s birth with something a little more lasting than a song. Whatever the reason, I bet it’s written in the stars.

Looking through multi-colored lenses

I think I’ve discovered what makes a person appear to be intelligent (or what intelligent people often talk about) It’s not the knowledge that they study, the numbers they have memorized, or the papers they have written…those that are considered ‘intelligent’ are considered so because of their perspective.

I’m not talking about the kind of perspective that an artist learns in their line of work. The intelligent person looks at things witha different perspective, sometimes a different colored lense every morning. There is something to be said to look at something with the eye of an artist, seeing the beauty and compositions around you. It is something else entirely to see something with they eye of the scientist, ever eager to see the logical connections between things. It is something else entirely to see things in the numberical eyes of a mathematician, to see the beauty of the numbers that organize daily existance.

They read books and in some cases remember the names of the main characters, but more often than not they are labeled smart because of an incredable ability to see connections between seemingly unrelated things. The kind of person who cannot sit through a children’s film without seeing the in depth connotations that lie just beneath the surface. The kind of person who sees the principles of Marcism in the context of the Smurfs.

Perspective is why I love the book of John in the Bible. The other Synaptic gospels are so intent on the story that they forget to mention the improtant things. They relate direct prophesies, but they do not mention the deep teachings. John focuses on the extraordinary in the ordinary actions of Christ, he acts upon the actions that others have seen, that others just push aside as ‘odd’ or ‘quirky’ and forget the deep meaning beneath.

Perhaps perspective is what makes the difference between someone who is OK and someone who is simply amazing. The different lenses make the world an amazing place to reside.

A picture is Worth 1000 words…

Recently my New Testiment class went to the Museum of Art on Campus to see one of their more fameous paintings, the painting of CHRIST HEALING THE SICK AT BETHESDA. I’ve been to the Louvre, I’ve seen the paintings, this one reminded me of how ordinary Christ must have seemed to others. Also I liked how the the story seems to be told through of the eyes of the an in the center of the painting.

I know that he is our Savior and our Redeemer, but it is interesting that he does not appear to be anything more than a man in this painting, but I have always been slightly awed by the many depictions of Christ that I’ve seen in my life. He is wearing white, but this painting seems to be focused on how people reacted to his miracles. I’ve always wondered how I would react to his miracles if I had been there… would I have been too busy to stop? Would I have watched for a moment then left thinking ‘that’s nice’? Or would I have been one of his devout followers, like Mary, who would have followed him to the ends of the earth?  I know that this is a moot point, because it is a question that will never have an answer. But I suppose I can follow Christ now, through the study of the scriptures, through the listening to conference, through everything I do and say. Perhaps I would be like the man in the center of the painting, telling the story of Christ’s ministry to the world…

Prejudice and Prop 8

I have tried to abstain from the nonsense of the yes/no debate of Prop 8. But I have recently been introduced to several different ads against (and for I might add) the proposition that shocked and appalled me.
For those of you who have not figured this out yet, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am not ashamed of my religion, nor was I forced to donate money to the cause of proposition 8. Honestly I never really heard anything about it in my Sunday Church Meetings. I am also not a California resident. I claim to be apathetic, especially in the realm of politics, but sometimes my opinion needs to be heard and understood.

Some of the ads that jarred me most were the misinformed ads demonizing Mormons, and their leaders. They took their words and used them to support their own purposes. I was in TV production in Highschool and I can tell you now that if I wanted to promote tolerance and respect I could make a video using only sound bites from Adolf Hitler and make a pretty convincing video. If there is anything that I detest more than yellow journalism, it is poorly done yellow journalism. With this thought I turn to my next issue.

“I hate those ‘haters.’” With these words more irony is contained than in any sentence spoken in history (With the exception of some statements by Moliere). How can you hate those that hate and not grow to hate yourselves? Is there something wrong with a person that believes in reincarnation? Is there a reason why a person cannot see marriage as it has been seen for hundreds of years without being seen as ‘medieval’?

Terms have changed, ask any person studying linguistics and they will tell you this, but is there a reason why a different form of union cannot have a different form of name? If a man and a man want to be together they can have one term associated with their union, the same for a woman and a woman, but they do not need to use the term ‘marriage.’ To quote Shakespeare ‘a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.’ The sweetest part of this change in terminology (not rights) would be to alleviate the fight for marriage. Just use a different term, with the same rights.

I do not want to hear your claims that marriage should be based on love. If that is the case, I have one more question for you, do you agree with polygamy? One could argue that polygamy is based off of love; therefore we should legalize that practice as well. I am fully against reinstating polygamy, does this categorize me as a hater?

One more thing that irked me (On either side) was the astounding lapse of logic used in presenting their arguments. Why is it that one can purport to be ‘tolerant’ and ‘forward thinking’ when all they can say is ‘Why Society is Dumb?’ or Protect Families?. Both sides had gaping hoels in their arguments. Please be articulate when you are arguing your point, or just don’t argue it at all.

*After this rant I would like to add that issues like this are why I am not a political science major. I don’t know how one can cope with society as well as that…oi. I respect Political science majors, you guys are amazing.

NaNoWriMo

I am writing for NaNoWriMo… a little story with horriffic grammar about heroes and villains and the origins of the purple platypus. Admittedly by little I mean 50000 words, but I am going to have  a fun time. And no social life. root me on and await the random posts that will soon come to let me know if you are even remotely inested in what I am writing… I doubt that I’ll let people read the miscreants masquerading as words, but who knows I might actually like it.

The Additional Sermon

I was reading in Matthew and Mark for a comparative essay for a test last weekend and I was analyzing the different parts that matthew added that Mark was missing entirely. The Sermon on the Mount is pretty amazing. In my humble opinion (aided and abetted by some articles that I was reading for class, I skim over the Psalms when I read through the Bible) the Sermon on the Mount is the epitome of Christ’s teaching. The most oft repeated words that you’ll hear in church talks or a preacher’s sermons are the words about the ‘beattitudes.’ Where else do we have the gospel of Christ stated so succinctly? Where else do we have what Christ wants his followers to do stated so clearly? And with promises afterwards to boot?

“Blessed are the Meek,” “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” “Blessed are those who hunger and Thirst after righteousness.” So many promises of blessedness if they would be meek, or thirst after righteousness. It was interesting to read in Thomas A Wayment’s essay about Jesus’ Use of Psalms in the New Testament how Isaiah 61 could be seen as a prelude for The Sermon on the Mount. Isaiah has always been one of my favorite tests to read and to see how it was quoted by the Savior in the sermon on the mount was pretty much amazing. if you have a chance to read the rest of the atricle it is pretty interesting. I dont know where you’d find it… I’ll add a link when I find it.

Lab Fever

Don’t worry… I haven’t caught anything contagious. I work in a lab in my free time (as little as it is) and I have recently been researching, and researching and researching and researching and reserching and researching… You get the beautiful picture. I have gone a looong time without anything to do lab work wise.I know that growing up pure cultures is not the most fascinating thing in the universe, but at least I could see that i was accomplishing something useful. I know that the research can be boring, but I am almost to the point of creating a second research project an starting it up just for the heck of it. Starting a project that has nothing to do with the bacteria that I am working with…or researching. Maybe I’ll discover a use for some of the odd isolates that we just got in… tac plasmid ecoli or maybe the glowing pathogen… I don’t know. All I know for certain at this point is that if I don’t do some actual research work I will go insane and then I’ll never get to work with the things that I want to.

I have been thinking about studying the intracellular pathways of Lysteria Monocytogenes… maybe that will be a break from the tedium of non-stop reading while your other labmates are creating phage stocks and running disinfectant tests. Reminds me of the time I went to a dance and was left behind as all of my other friends got asked to dance. No fun and you feel more than a little left out. Only instead of being asked to dance last now I am being last to be asked to do PCR.

The Great Where Was It Argument

Every major has their quirks, but one quirk that I have noticed about History majors is the ever-present “where was it” argument that perpetuates around every ‘questionable’ location for a historical event. You see it on the History channel every other year or so, they will claim that an event occurred in one local, then in their next documentary on the same subject will have the event in a completely different place. Religious sites are notorious for their ‘mysterious’ locales. “Christ was tried by Pilot in this chapel.” “No he couldn’t have been because it was constructed 50 years after his death.” “Well, the church was built on the original foundations tat that church was built on.” “Where is your documented evidence for that argument?” “I found a piece of papyrus …” and so on. My religion professor (who consequently also teaches history) was going on and on the other day about Mount Tabor, one of the theoretical places for the Mount of transfiguration (Where the day of Pentecost occurred). I am more interested in the technicalities of the story, you know what did it mean, did the people involved understand what it mean?

Still it woud be nice to know where these locations are… even if it is just for the satisfaction of my own feline curiosity. Was the the immensely tall Mount Hermon? Was it the centrally located, but highly populated Mount Tabor? Or was it the Mount Sinai, the historical place for the two prophets that appeared on that day? Historians are still arguing what a scientist like myself calls a ‘moot point.’ Who cares where it happened as long as you know that it happened. I do not need to know the city and state where Griffith performed his experiement to know that the facts gained from it are correct. Nor do I need to know the actual place where the Declaration of Independence was written to know what impact it had on History. I admit it would be nice to know where these things happened, but I am of the opinion that there are more important things to discuss in the light of all of history…(although I must admit I am a fan of the Mount Hermon location for this event).