science thursday

I got the plague last weekend after all. Now we're all better! We have a new sofa, clean carpets, and lots of pictures for you!

I realized, again, this week while I was dithering about trying an important experiment, that the point of most important experiments is that you genuinely don't know the outcome. You think and hope that it will go one way, but you don't know! It's why you have to do the experiment! But for many experiments in molecular biology, the techniques are routine. If you want to clone a gene, and you know anything about the gene, the tools and methods are all standardized and you should be able to just make it happen. The hard part is moving beyond the routine data-collection and DNA manipulation to try something new that will expand the field.

It reminds me of when I was little and had long hair. I was very good at brushing the front bits that I could see and that had no knots in them. The back, though, was a territory I did not like to venture into!

It's hard to do the big experiments, too, because they are often expensive or involve some precious reagent. So if your protocol doesn't yield the answer you hope for, and you want to try again by varying the protocol a little bit, well, you might be out of luck. My instinct becomes waiting to see if the protocol will work perfectly, and then try the big experiment - which means it just takes forever for me to get around to doing it! In other words, the front bits of my hair are always very thoroughly detangled.

We'll see tomorrow how the experiment goes - until then here are some photos:

Oscar takes after his da in many ways, but up until now he hasn't been too keen on hats. The problem, it seems, is that he can't put them on his head himself. But this hat he figured out the trick to, and it made him very happy to put it on and take it off again!

Oscar is almost able to appreciate pictures of himself. While Eric was cleaning the carpets this weekend I entertained the boy by taking videos of him and playing them back. He watched them with fierce concentration, but only mimicked himself when he was doing something wicked like blowing raspberries.

Our new sofa, in its closed conformation. We laid on the bed last night and watched Columbo. It was extremely comfortable, once we got the plastic off the mattress. I was tempted to leave it on for all time (permanently free of cat hair!) but comfort won out almost instantly.

Look at him handling that banana all by himself! He's almost a pro! He's still working on learning how to manage the peel. He often licks it, and makes a terrible face. (Can you imagine being a professional banana-eater? -- Never speak of this.)