who runs bartertown?
Apr. 13th, 2009 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janegodzillaSo it turns out that microbiology is actually kind of awesome, although I reserve the right to change my mind should I completely bork the first test. I hope that won't be the case, but I find it nerve-wracking when I don't know how a particular professor constructs his or her exams. I'm always worried that I'm going to end up with someone who throws in random trivia and has only a passing acquaintance with spelling and grammar (DR. DUBBS, I AM LOOKING AT YOU) and I've got my fingers crossed that I'll avoid such nonsense this time around.
Anyway. I suspect I'm enjoying it partly because we're focusing mostly on pathogens, which I find crazy-interesting (there's a reason my mother's pathophysiology textbook occupies MY bookshelf instead of hers), but also because the labs are -- wonder of wonders! -- actually pretty fun. Nothing has been dangerous enough for us to hit the goggles-and-gloves stage of things, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not secretly pretending I'm on "House, MD" every time I have to make a smear plate from our samples. And we get to use Bunsen burners! BUNSEN BURNERS! So we can flame our loops and our needles and our test tubes! Oh, be still my doofy heart.
Because Nate is a wonderful, wonderful boyfriend, he's put up with my babbling about gram-negative versus gram-positive bacteria with considerable aplomb. He even enables me on occasion:
Me: Hey, awesome! My textbook is talking about extremophiles!
Nate: I take it they're extreme?
Me: HELLS TO THE YEAH! They're all about the radioactivity. And eating chemical waste.
Nate: Like D. radiodurans!
Me: Yeah, except my book is talking about K. radiotolerans, which is similar to D. radiodurans but maybe not quite as awesome because of that whole "keeping extra copies of your genomes and using them to repair your own DNA" thing D. radiodurans has got going on.
Nate: Hm. I think they should battle.
Me: Eeee! Extremophile battle! Two microbes enter...one microbe leaves.
Tina Turner: THUNDERDOME!!!!
(...sorry. We watched it last night and it was pretty much amazing.)
I like that I'm honestly enjoying the subject material this time around. Cellular biology got interesting when we hit the genetics module, but GOD it was a chore getting there. Micro, on the other hand, has been straight-up fascinating from the get-go. I really hope the rest of the class continues this way.
Anyway. I suspect I'm enjoying it partly because we're focusing mostly on pathogens, which I find crazy-interesting (there's a reason my mother's pathophysiology textbook occupies MY bookshelf instead of hers), but also because the labs are -- wonder of wonders! -- actually pretty fun. Nothing has been dangerous enough for us to hit the goggles-and-gloves stage of things, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not secretly pretending I'm on "House, MD" every time I have to make a smear plate from our samples. And we get to use Bunsen burners! BUNSEN BURNERS! So we can flame our loops and our needles and our test tubes! Oh, be still my doofy heart.
Because Nate is a wonderful, wonderful boyfriend, he's put up with my babbling about gram-negative versus gram-positive bacteria with considerable aplomb. He even enables me on occasion:
Me: Hey, awesome! My textbook is talking about extremophiles!
Nate: I take it they're extreme?
Me: HELLS TO THE YEAH! They're all about the radioactivity. And eating chemical waste.
Nate: Like D. radiodurans!
Me: Yeah, except my book is talking about K. radiotolerans, which is similar to D. radiodurans but maybe not quite as awesome because of that whole "keeping extra copies of your genomes and using them to repair your own DNA" thing D. radiodurans has got going on.
Nate: Hm. I think they should battle.
Me: Eeee! Extremophile battle! Two microbes enter...one microbe leaves.
Tina Turner: THUNDERDOME!!!!
(...sorry. We watched it last night and it was pretty much amazing.)
I like that I'm honestly enjoying the subject material this time around. Cellular biology got interesting when we hit the genetics module, but GOD it was a chore getting there. Micro, on the other hand, has been straight-up fascinating from the get-go. I really hope the rest of the class continues this way.