i just work here

good from far, but far from good.

That is how I will describe Pittsburgh... like a chick that looks super hot from across the room, but has a snaggle-tooth and go-funny eye when approached... just keep walking like you were on your way to the chips.

See how nice?  Well, WRONG.  Because A) there are no shops of any interest and B) you're not safe here, even during the day.  Incidentally, I've never heard so many people talking about being safe in my life.  Not as in, you're perfectly safe, this is a safe place... more like, 'just so you know, I'm a safe person'... which usually means you're not.  Every time we got into a cab, the driver professed to us that he was the safeEST.  um... wha?  Why do you even SAY that?  Whenever we'd go for a walk, it would become apparent that it was a BAD idea to continue walking and not go straight back to the hotel.  So we really learned about speed-walking while remaining assertive-looking. 

Also, the service staff is... interesting?  I know I come from a place where the first thing you say when you approach a customer is, "sorry!"  Like, "sorry!  can i take your order?"  or "sorry! do you have your keys so I can park your car for you?" or "sorry! are you done with that drink?" Also, we're really big on please and thank you.  A server can come to a table to bring over waters, and EVERY person at the table will say thank you as she sets their water down.  So I know that I have expectations about "sorry" "please" and "thank you" but aside from that... the politeness from the service industry in Pittsburgh was lacking.  I won't go into details, but y'all need to start being nice.  Those 3 phrases alone could make your city safer.  Seriously... people being happy as a result and not trying to steal your jewelry. 

One of the conference-associate events (of which there were FAR too many) was a baseball game.  Pittsburgh Pirates vs. the Milwaukee Brewers.  There was a 2 hour rain delay, and were were FREEZING AND WET...

This is Brenna (left) and I expressing our feelings about the whole thing.

But then we saw these squeegie-weenies come out and the cheering was deafening...

I'm telling you, these maintenance men were NOT messing around.  I have to imagine there was a fair amount of practicing these tarp/squeegie routines.  After they scraped off the water (pretty much totally ineffective in our scientific opinions), they then performed this very, very elaborate in sync walking with the edge of the tarp manouver, back and forth, back and forth again, then some breaking away from the line to fold their part... Then they RE-red-dirted the pitching mound and general bases area.  Who gives a shit if the dirt is old?  Just play!  Anyway, it was interesting to watch.  Other things we enjoyed were deciding if we liked the message that each player sent with their chosen music as they approached the field to hit.  Also, the crummy food... that was a guilty pleasure for certain.

The next night we went on a river-boat cruise... also conference associated.  Apparently, I don't like boats so much.  We basically stood there comforting each other while we tried not to barf.

Essentially, it was like most of the conference, trapped in an area with COMPLETE nerds dressed for the most part in laughable ways while we sat uncomfortable outside of the aformentioned dorks.  The conference centre was SEVERELY freezing. 

That night, after we held down our shitty dinner that was served on the USS Barf, there was a dance.  That's right... a dance for the scientists.  I shouldn't have to explain what happened that night at the dance, you should all be able to assume what scientists do on a dance floor... but here is evidence, nonetheless.  Now, I was trying to be covert, and I stuck my camera on a pile of sweaters, obviously strewn there so that their owners could go bust an AWESOME move, but suddenly a sweater owner came back.  You'll then notice the camera moves, yet doesn't turn off immediately... I really, REALLLY wanted to capture more of what was going on, but I finally gave up.

My sister watched it about 45 times. She loved how the lights are all on. In fact, Emily loved it so much and there was SO much to see, that she declared she could do a thesis on this video. If only you'd seen it in real life, Em. This really WAS NOTHING.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my pictures of Shittsburgh.  Sorry, Pittsburgh!  Perhaps it was the crappy conference that clouded my opinion of your fine, fine city.  See... "sorry"... it does a lot.

And just to leave you with... Lou sleeping (that's ALL SHE DOES).

look, your uterus has a fish alien stuck to it! come and learn.

i realize what i do can be said to be boring.  reproductive biology is rarely interesting to most people outside of trying to get pregnant or wondering what development is like.

but then i got thinking, some of you may not have seen what very early embryos look like or what they're called at different stages, etc.  it might also be of interest to you to know at what stage your embryos are being played with, implanted, etc. during infertility treatments.  here's some info.  please ask questions... i'd be happy to answer them.

OVERVIEW of development in the human.
so i'm going to break this down as though you aren't familiar with any of it... please excuse any redundant information or boring parts.

this picture is following one little embryo on it's journey, not 85,000 like the diagram suggests...  it's travelling toward the uterus all that time, but we'll get into that in a minute.

eggs and sperm:

during sex, sperm goes all up in you waaaaay up into your fallopian tubes (see the diagram).  that's right, those little suckers go SO far in you it's ridiculous.  moving along... actual fertilzation or conception occurs closer to the ovary itself, and not in the uterus.  this is called "day 0".  the fertilized embryo starts to cleave and divide several times on it's way down the fallopian tube travelling to the unterus.  this is a 5 day trek in humans, 4 days in mice.  during this time, the embryo is called a "preimplantation embryo" because it's free floating on a journey, and has yet to implant... it's totally NOT attached to you yet.  here are some close-ups of  what that looks like under a microscope.  these are my embryos, not MINE, but my research embryos... so some of them are a little jacked or fuzzy, you get the point.  these are MICE embryos, but humans look essentially the same at this point.

A: this is an 'oocyte' (egg).  lots of ladies get these taken out after being 'super-ovulated' which is just what it sounds like except you get no cape and you just feel sick.

B: fertilized 2-cell embryo.  the big balls are 2 big-ass cells and the dots inside them are the nuclei (DNA all balled up), and the little balls on the right outside of the cells are called polar bodies and their importance are up for debate, but they really aren't embryonic cells like the two big ones there.  the shell around the 2 cells is just that... a sort of shell called a zona pellucida.  it's made up of different sugars and proteins.  yes, it'll hatch later out of this shell.

C: 4-cell embryo.  the size will not change all through this series of cleavages (remember the zona pellucida "shell").  but anyway, 4 cells now.

D: 8-cell embryo.  yup, same as before.  but now some of the cells of the embryo are on the inside, not touching the zona pellucida, and some are on the outside.  some people figure THIS is when cells start to not be the same and are programmed to be different.  that's a heated debate.  a lot of infertility  clinics will but the embryo back into you at this stage.  this represents 3 days of culture for your technologist. 

E:  this embryo is called a "morula" and the cells are all scrunched together now even though it looks like one lumpy cell.  it can be anywhere from 16 to 32+ cells.  our little embryo is close to the uterus door now.

F:  this is an early "blastocyst" consisting of anywhere from 32 to 100+ cells.  that ovally thing at the top of the embryo is like an empty cavity filled with crap the cells are pumping out.  at this point, the cells are different for sure and some will be come the embryo proper, some will become the yolk sac (i know, sounds ike chickens, yes) and finally, some will become a placenta.  after it starts to get too big for it's zona, that's when it hatches.  cool, people hatch... tell that at a party.  some embryos aren't put back into the mom's uterus until this point... but i think most clinics are steering away from culturing this long now.  they were doing it essentially because if they could let it go to this stage in culture, they could see if the embryo would form a cavity or not (a lot don't) and avoid putting 8-cell embryos that they didn't know if they would make a cavity or not back into the mom and fail.  but, culture really isn't fabulous for embryos, and the less the better... best to get them back into mom as soon as possible.

alright.  after the blastocyst gets into the uterus (naturally) or is squirted back up in there (infertility clinics) it sticks to the uterine lining and starts to INVADE.  like, seriously invade.   here are some pictures:

the placental lineage, called the EPC in the pictures starts to dig into your uterus (an implantation bleed can happen now). 

G:  day 6.5 "postimplantation" embryo.  again, these are all mice.  i think embryos at this stage look like a little snowmen with santa hats.  the top part, EPC is going to be placenta like i mentioned, the middle part, EEE, is going to be the yolk sac and the bottom part, EMB is going to make the actual embryo.

H:  this is the same break down, but here it's a day later, day 7.5.  not going to lie, this always reminds me of a stubby penis.

I:  day 8.5.  the embryo actually looks like an embryo now.  it's got a head and a tail (humans do too) and it's little backbone is getting all ready to start.  the placenta is like a disc now, which you might be more familiar with.  the yolk sac is a clear sac around the embryo, but you can't see it here.

J:  same deal, but now day 9.5  it's got little eye cavities and a muzzle and little arm and leg buds and lots and lots of 'somites' which are little segments in it's back that will eventually make a spinal column. it's hard to tell, but it's tail region is all curled up into it's chest. 

okay, so that's your embryonic anatomy lesson for the day.  if you want to see what human embryos look like, you can check out the Carnegie Staging Chart.

at this point, by day 9.5 in the mouse, it's the same as stage 13 in humans which is 31 to 35 days.  you just found out your pregnant, and look at the little alien fish you've got dug into your lining!  gross/great!!!!

okay class, any questions?  ask about infertility clinic embryo culture/treatment or further development or problems with development, etc.  :)  thanks for reading if you got this far!

someone make it stop

could it be more righter?

i need to get out of the lab, STAT.  grad school IS like a giant science fair, but it rarely involves baking soda or red vinegar and paper mache volcanos.

it just involves guts and RNA kits and culture dishes and pipettes and FIGURES AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS AND TORTURE TORTURE TORTURE HEALTH CONCERNS. 

okay.  i feel better.  tomorrow we have a 'lab lunch' to say goodbye to the summer students, and while i value/like these summer students, I'D RATHER DIE than commune for lunchtime awkward conversation.  gahd.  and you know what, if one are you of reading this... well, i'm sorry but this is my blog and i should be able to tell the truth, i'm NOT into lunch.