utenzi

Yeah, I know. It doesn't flow off the tongue as smoothly as the classic "How Now, Brown Cow" But that lack of smooth-ness can be forgiven should some research being conducted at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute pan out. You see, they're trying to develop a mouse model for having brown fat in adult humans. I know, I know--the phrase "brown fat" does sound kinda gross but it's got a lot of advantages over the more common white fat, the type found in adult humans. Here's some wiki on it: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) or brown fat is one of two types of fat or adipose tissue (the other being white adipose tissue) found in mammals. It is especially abundant in newborns and in hibernating mammals.[1] Its primary function is to generate body heat, in animals or newborns that do not shiver. In contrast to white adipocytes (fat cells), which contain a single lipid droplet, brown adipocytes contain numerous smaller droplets and a much higher number of mitochondria,...

Isn't that a cute little kitty in that picture below? As you can probably tell, that's the neck of a t-shirt. But before you think I'm getting soft on my anti-cat stance... Examine the shirt more closely. Here's the shirt, and as you can see--it illustrates birds getting revenge on those mean ole kitty cats, to quote Tweetie-bird. Or at least the birds are trying--so far the cat is only tempted by that fish dangling in the air. In any case, that's the shirt I'm wearing right now. I think it's important to let everyone else know where you draw the line. And I draw my line at cats. Speaking of lines, another is Windows. That crappy OS is trying to reboot my laptop and it's really starting to annoy me. I can't wait to replace Windows with Linux on my laptop---but unfortunately as long as I need it the laptop at work I have to stick with damn Windows. At least on my desktop at home I can use Ubuntu. BTW, does anyone reading this watch the TNT show Levera...

People involved in research often spend time with rodents. My first research job involved lots and lots of mice, some rats and some rabbits. As a result, I can see the truth and humor in this T-shirt from Threadless . Needless to say, the rodents never survived the experience though the ones we used for antibody production often lasted for quite a few months. Pretty easy duty, actually. We'd inject a rabbit or rat with some antigen, wait for the antibody titer to grow, bleed the rodent a few times, maybe every other week, and then, in the end, we'd say goodbye to our rat or bunny. Not much different than being an animal on a farm or some such where the animal is being raised for eventual slaughter. We don't eat the flesh but we do use the blood products in various ways. You can see why this T-shirt is funny. After all the use we put to rodents, it's not surprising that they'd want a little payback on us scientists. One of those "You will rue the day" type...