Smuel's good morning extravaganza

I've heard of marrying for money, but marrying for printing supplies takes it to a whole new level. A lower level.

Good morning.

 

You're just jealous because you can't make an unlimited supply of customised paper air-planes.

Good afternoon.

 

But he can afford to buy paper, rather than you being able to print the money.
Good morning.

 

Writing a good thesis in less than a month? Challenge accepted.

Spoiler

Just kill me now.

Also, good morning.

 

Good evening.

What was (were) the subject(s) of your thesis about?

 

Basically bacteria often produce antibiotics to kill off the competition, and what assembles these antibiotics for bacteria are enzymes. The antibiotic I was looking at has been proven to be effective against several multiple drug resistant bacteria, but faces problems for use in the human body as it is too readily metabolised. The antibiotic is essentially in two halves, with a condensation enzyme joining them together, so what I was doing is seeing whether or not this enzyme would accept different molecules rather than one of the natural substrates so analogues of the antibiotic could be produced that might have greater potency or deal with the metabolism issue. The overall end goal is you create mutant bacteria that can no longer produce one half of the antibiotic and feed it instead with a substitute molecule you have synthesised that is accepted by the enzyme to produce an improved variation of the original antibiotic (mutasynthesis), which can be done on an industrial scale.

Unfortunately, making the compounds was easier said than done - so I didn't get very far with the project. Still, despite my belly-aching here some months back, my supervisor told me later that it's not always important to finish a project as long as the results you do have are well characterised. I guess time will tell how true this is when I get my marks back.

Good morning.

 

How do you produce the mutant bacteria? Do you have to irradiate a tiny spider and get it to bite them?

Good morning.

 

To be honest, I couldn't say for sure. For preventing a bacteria for producing a metabolite I think it involves inserting junk DNA into specific areas of the bacteria's genome that encode the enzymes which produce the molecule in question (transposon mutagenesis), but as to the nitty-gritty of how you make that happen it's beyond me. As to inserting DNA from one bacteria into another, I have no idea at all other than the vague idea that you use enzymes to chop the DNA up and get it to marry up with the plasmid of the other bacteria. Usually the idea of research groups is that you have complementary skill sets so that no one individual has to be an expert at everything.

I guess in the future I might be more knowledgeable - after whining like a child some months back I did actually manage to secure a fully funded PhD placement. The reason why I wasn't aware of it at the time was because the scheme was attached to the biology department as opposed to the chemistry department, and the requirements were lower than I expected as I only need to have a 2.1 in order to be accepted which at this point is guaranteed. However before I do the PhD I have to do another master's degree in biology as part of the scheme, which I guess seems excessive but as they're paying me to do it I really don't mind - plus I like biology. Hopefully by the end of that I should be more well rounded in regards to biology and chemistry for doing my PhD research.

Good morning part II.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPyqY4el6Q[/youtube]

 

Re:

Yeah, I guess that sitting on your ass studying all day could lead to that.

Good morning.

 

So the pleasant occurrences I have witnessed this morning: 1) A guy walking down the street drinking at 9.30 on a Saturday. 2) A man telling his infant daughter to "Shut the fuck up!" in the middle of the centre. 3) My neighbour completely snubbing me in the street because I asked her politely not to come round at half ten at night a few days back when she was trying to beg beer off me. This is a neighbour whose bins I charitably always take out, who's asked me for numerous favours in the past and I have always accommodated her - and yet when I make quite a reasonable request that's enough for her to write me off. All she ever does is take advantage of our generosity for going on four years now - so I sorely hope she tries to give me a piece of her mind; I will tear her to pieces with what I've got to say and I will make her feel like shit.

In conclusion, what a lovely place I live in! Good afternoon.

 

Number 3) is an interesting one. You were in the very fires of finishing your thesis, right? It wasn't merely a reasonable request, it was absolutely necessary.

It must have been hard, as an englishman, to confront her.

I wouldn't count on her giving you a piece of her mind. Odds are she'll bitch and moan behind your back to anyone who'll listen, but never to your face.

But, obviously, anyone who begs beer at 1030 pm already feels like shit, so I wouldn't sully my mind by sparing her another thought if I were you.

 

Oh I would, but for the lack of my trombone skills - plus the fact I didn't even have any beer at the time in the first place.

I would try and defy the stereotype, but I cannot. My mum always indoctrinated me with the mantra "do unto others as they would have done to you" and for some reason it's always stuck as a moral underpinning for me.

As for her being only a neighbour, the distinction is perhaps closer than that - I am a "lucky" individual who shares a semi-detached house as a pair of flats, I have the upper floor and she has the lower. Any moaning she does (and has done) I can hear very easily through my floorboards, and she has the noisome habit of being nocturnal. In all honesty, I've never met a person so despicable in all my life - whenever she has visitors she'll typically break into a argument within the first hour they visit and it's very vocal and apparent. During these pleasant arguments she's had with other people I've surmised that she's a racist ("Not even a black person would do that!") and that her vocabulary is mostly limited to swear words. Furthermore, she has dubious connections due to the fact I've found weed on her doorstep before and we've overheard her shouting on the phone "You shouldn't have brought that man around earlier, he's a BAD man" - indicative of a criminal element. She also told us a sinister man might be looking for her once and we should tell him we didn't know where she lived, despite the fact this might have repercussions on the both of us and could in fact endanger us.

Overall, she is one of the most horrible people I've ever met and a source of great distress to me despite me trying to appease her at every turn (plus the fact, she's done more than I have recounted here). Despite living in a "nice area" of my otherwise unpleasant city, I had to be landed with her as a downstairs neighbour. Of course, me saying that she shouldn't stop round that late at night despite - as you rightly point out - I was writing up my thesis is too much for her. I cannot wait to move when I have enough money, I would likely enjoy and remain in my flat even in spite of my lackadaisical landlord if it were but for her.

Regardless, good evening.

 

Being ethical is different from being courteous, but I see your point. In any case, you were quite right to do it, and she's obviously going to be rotting there long after you've moved to Venice with a biotech firm and a new family.

So you need to do another two years? Sounds like a good gig. Well done.

 

It'll be a year long biology masters, doing various projects to get me up to spec in regards to biology, then a 3 year PhD after that - all of which, for a change, I'll be getting paid to do. It's also nice because as it's a scholarship I don't have to pay income tax on what they give me, which inflates what I'm earning in realistic terms relative to a job where you earn the same amount. Hopefully it won't take long for me to save up enough to put a deposit down on a flat somewhere else (the main student town for my uni is a lot nicer than the city I live in now and, oddly, there more to do there too), and then I'll be well shot of her.

Good morning.

 

Oh yes, and also Good morning.

 

Re:

Geez ytzk, how about you give his current relationship a chance?

Good morning.