daisy

For in-situ hybridisation, FISH, southern, Western, Northern....what? And anyway, there are horrible calculations you can use but I never do, I just optimise....try a molecular biology protocol and discussion forum.

I wouldn't....I used to stain and de-stain after running, because EtBr doesn't seem to "go" well with an RNA denaturing gel. If you're only running mRNA and not total you may only see a smear....are you going on to do a Northern?

Well...it's really only relevant to mRNA so it is not really an intron/exon issue. The ORF relates to the start sequence of protein coding in mRNA...so introns and exons don't come into it at this stage.

Errr...no...unless they are botanists.

Well what exactly do you mean by "cool" ....doing a PhD is pretty "cool".....but then so is raising a family....you need to decide what you want. I am a mum, wife, and research fellow ....and I enjoy all of it but maybe I don't do each thing to the best of my ability because my attention is split 3 ways. I am perhaps reasonably well qualified to say that being a so-called super-woman is a non-starter. Something is going to suffer...I like to think it's my career instead of my family but perhaps they'd disagree. Anyway, that aside there are lots of great careers in Biology, particularly research but you could go down the nature conservation route too or the forensic archaeology route. Research would really involve a PhD unless you were content to be a research technician (less stress definitely), and can be very exciting if you are in a dynamic field.

Hmm....Inamorata and Skye have answered pretty much everything but maybe it's worth looking at other transfection methods...although I really don't know if liposome based methods work in bacteria...I only transfect eukaryote cells. What about nucleofection (look up Amaxa) and anyway, as you say, getting rid of the host DNA would be a bit problematic. What's your objective in doing this anyway? Or is that a huge secret? If you have a totally exciting (and reasonable) rationale behind this idea that's fine...but if it's just curiosity you'll never get funding!

A small point in reply to Lucid Dreamer...I would rather use hydrogen peroxide to clean a wound nowadays (even if it stung like hell) considering the numbers of antibiotic resistant bacteria that are kicking around now! Just something to consider when GP's are STILL prescribing antibiotics like they are going out of fashion.

A-levels are the exams that students sit in England, just to inform people. Here in Scotland kids sit Highers/Advanced Highers and entrance requirements to Universities are based on both Higher/A-level results. In Scotland students tend to take 5 highers and because of this our system is more broadly based, i.e. youngsters have a wider range of subjects. In addition, highers are taken over one year not 2 like A-levels. Our equivalent of the A-level would be the advanced higher which students take in their final year. Just wanted to point out that the UK operates on more than one level than England's A-levels.

Yeeeessss......I know it's a chatroom...the point I'm making is that what I ended up in (purely randomly it seems) was NOT a chat room connected to this forum.

OK...I'm stupid....I tried what you said and ended up in some scary chat room thing that had nothing whatsoever to do with science forum...so I'm just going to post on here now....

There is no mating season for humans simply because we have "evolved" beyond that...we are not subject to seasons/daylength etc in the way we once were. I use the term "evolved" loosely because we've advanced technologically and can create artificial environments. However, it's a true fact that during the winter/power cuts there's a lot going on....babies being born 9 months later. If there's no TV people find other avenues of entertainment......so YT2059 you are totally correct...TV is to blame.!!!

Hmm....something else for us to worry about then? Never mind CJD, Hepatitis blah blah blah.

Never tried to preserve an insect but I suspect you mean "entomolgy". Any tissue I have worked with required fixing....either in paraformaldehyde/Zamboni's/acetone etc. etc. 70% alcohol is a step I would use in the re-hydration/dehydration process...not in the fixing itself. But you would really need the advice of a histologist.

You need to do a pub-med search on the NCBI site.

Ok.....I know this is boring but I've been out of it a bit lately...so can I ask...is chat dead and gone...that's why I have wandered off a bit....it certainly doesn't work for me.....And I've had other issues to deal with.

Whatever you're eventual employment is in life you will be bored on a fairly regular basis. That's life......get used to it. I'm a research fellow and I regularly have to carry out tedious and boring lab experiments, but I balance that against the excitement of having successful experiments. There are millions of people worldwide who have to suffer dull repetitive jobs all their lives....that's something I tell myself when I'm inclined to whinge about doing something boring.

Nice to meet you Typhi....your work sounds very interesting. I believe I just read recently that in the US you have had 3 transplant patients being infected with rabies form an organ donor. Any thoughts on that?

It could very well be tiredness...your eye muscles are "twitching" possibly due to erratic nerve stimulus or whatever...have a visit to an optician just to check but I'll bet that's what it is. Sleep deprivation will do that stuff to you

Does it not have something to do with tannins (as is tanning hides) present in the natron salts/oils etc. used in the process. I think that's probably the case with the peat bog preserved bodies that we have here in Europe. Anyway, traditional Egyptian mummies would have had dark skin when they were alive (as Egyptians do today) anyway wouldn't they, as would Incas?

I've never worked with mtDNA just genomic DNA and RNA but you'd need the mtDNA to be really pure for any successful study. There are various differential centrifugation procedures utilising sucrose gradients and caesium chloride gradients to accomplish this...a google search will guide you as to the best. I don't know about pricing in the US so I don't know if the company you highlighted are fairly priced or even offering a quality service (quality is everything in the molecular biology game). What do you mean when you say the Uni deemed your project idea inappropriate...do you mean on entirely cost-based analysis or did they have other concerns about the study design as a whole?

Didn't see anything scary or wacky....but I did bump into someone I know from home up the CN tower! It's our 6th or so trip over so we've already done most of the touristy things twice or more. We were in Ontario at three different locations, Stratford, Burlington and Whitby. Anyway we had a good time and the kids enjoyed partying with their cousins

Well it's funny....we say "eh" all the time in Scotland so I reckon they got it from us!!

Hello peeps, Just got back from holiday in Canada! How are you all? We had a good time (discounting a few family squabbles) but the weather was a bit weird. Anyway, just wanted to say hi (eh???).

Until we understand how each and very gene interacts with each other (and we are a very long way from that scenario) there's not much we could do to interfere. And even if we could.....would we want to? Survival of the fittest seems right and proper to me....it's served the planet OK up till now. I think that if the human race can survive it will....if not then too bad, let the insects have a go.

I'm not remotely au fait with the US system on this but I would say useful lab techniques would involve, molecular biology (i.e. PCR in it's various forms...and there are many forms!!..., electrophoresis -SDS-PGE, agarose gel- Northern, Western and Southern blotting), cell/tissue culture, immunohistochemistry etc.etc.. The ability (and this is VERY basic!) to do simple lab stuff like making up molar solutions, observing standard safety rules etc. also cannot be over-emphasised. I know post-docs who are disastrous from a safety point of view. The only way you learn is to get in there and do it. Good luck.