The beginning of Spring

After visiting Paris mid-February I had a few weeks off from traveling or visitors to focus on laboratory work and my research, as I had to give a laboratory meeting in early March and turn in my half-year progress report. Unfortunately, the sun and nice weather in Cambridge from mid-February through March made working 12 hours a day in a basement laboratory fairly difficult! Nevertheless, my report was submitted on time and the presentation went well, so things still look good for finishing my master's by the end of August.

A view of "Grasshopper Lodge," where I live in Cambridge with a lot of other graduate students.

I'll put up one image from things I do on a daily basis, which is looking at individual neurons in the fruit fly central nervous system during development. You'll see a green alien looking like figure below, but the big circle at the top is the neuron cell body, the green bit coming off the bottom is the axon, and the dendrites of the neuron are the green bits in the middle of the lower purple lines. The purple lines are actually other neurons in the nervous system what we use as landmarks to keep track of how well these motor neurons are developing. This image is from the nerve cord (what would be the spinal cord in humans) that I have dissected out of a fly larva no bigger than the period (or full-stop for the Brits) at the end of this sentence.

Motor neuron in fruit fly.

After a few weeks of uninterrupted work in the lab, I took a weekend trip to visit Katherine in Madrid, now feeling like Madrid is a bit of my second home in Europe. We had a relaxing time there, going to a nearby suburb of Madrid to enjoy Tapas and the scenery. In this small town we found several American-style food restaurants, including multiple 50's style diners throughout the town... more than I have ever seen in the States, funny enough. On another day in Spain Katherine tried her hand at busking (playing music on the street for money) with her violin, and was very successful! I got to stand by and watch as her body guard, since it was her first time playing on the street in Europe, but everything went really well!

Katherine busking in Madrid.

Fitting with the theme of Spring, Madrid was hot, very hot. But Spanish people are used to unbelievably hot summer, so to them 80 degree weather and no clouds is a cold day. Katherine and I got some dirty looks walking around in our T-shirts and shorts from the older Spanish people walking around in full coats despite the heat.

Spring time in Madrid on the river.

Only a week after I visited Katherine she had a few days work off due to a holiday in Spain, so she decided to take advantage of low-priced tickets and have a visit up at Cambridge for a 5 day weekend. We enjoyed walks to Grantchester, where we had tea in the famous orchard tea house. During the rest of the time Katherine relaxed and took a much needed break from speaking Spanish all the time while I worked in the lab and helped out at Cambridge Science Week where we showed off our lab to local children. 

Tea in Grantchester!

Toward the end of March I headed off for a 10 day trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland, with the first 6 days being part of the Marshall Scholars annual trip. I'll be putting up a couple posts on that trip soon, so stay tuned!