Butterfly Bloom

I was at Olbrich Botanical Gardens to see the hatching butterflies. Births and hatchings really are one of the favorite pleasures for reproductive biologists. I think I was a bit early this year though and so only saw two species. I got to see the Julia (Dryas iulia) and one of the swallowtails but I couldn’t get close enough to identify it. The Julia is pictured above (click on photo for a closer look). Maybe I’ll go back in a few days to see more. I really wanted to see the Malachite (Siproeta stelenes).

- Just a peasant

Note: the species name can be either julia or iulia.

It’s a Box and Nothing More

I spent seven years in graduate school and, for six and a half of those years, I lived in my 7th floor office of Animal Sciences. No, I mean seriously lived in it. I slept on the futon in my office and showered at the gym. I cooked in the 5th floor kitchen that once belonged to the Poultry Sciences department. I kept my clothes in the drawers of a file cabinet and on Sundays washed them.

Strange? Perhaps. But for me there was no rent, no electric bill, no water bill, no gas bill, no lease agreements, no disappearing security deposits, no loud neighbors, no brazen cockroaches, and no greedy landlords. I could do experiments at any time of the night and I did. I never had to fight traffic or walk through the freezing snow and ice to get to work. I made ice cream with liquid nitrogen and cooked pizzas, unsuccessfully, in the autoclave. I sat on the roof of this twelve story building contemplating scientific problems as the sun set over the lake or being mesmerized by the city lights that looked like scattered drops of a drunk and dying rainbow. From there I inhaled the very sky into my lungs and it was worth it.

You see, years ago, I loaded and stacked thousands and thousands of boxes for UPS. I stacked these boxes into another box all night long and then, when I was done, went off to sleep in a different box. Is this our life? To live in boxes and to live in boxes stacked on boxes? And finally, when we are dead, to be put into smaller boxes? I’m not interested in what everyone else does and I don't want to keep up with everyone else. I don't need the things that everyone else wants. I've always liked living outside of the box. And I still do.

You’re probably right – it is strange behavior. But what is a house or apartment to me? What is a house without her laughter? Without her smile? Without her insatiable curiosity? Without her seductive whispers? Without her kiss on my face as the morning light seeps in through the window?

It’s just another box to me.

- Just a peasant

The Eighth Day of Life in a Mammal

For some reason I always seem to miss the fireworks every year. That’s okay though, since I spend a lot of time using fluorescent stains for various cell types.

Above is a bovine embryo (cow) at eight days just before it "hatches." Hatching, for mammalian embryos, is when the cells you see will be extruded from the surrounding zona pellucida. Each glowing blue oval is the nucleus of a cell. Near the 10:00 position, in this photo, is a heavy grouping of these cells and this represents the inner cell mass (ICM). The ICM cells will become the embryo and this ICM is unique to mammalian embryos. The other cells will make up the trophoblast or trophectoderm. The trophectoderm will invade the uterine wall and become the placenta. The ICM and the trophectoderm remain connected by a strand of tissue that will become the umbilical cord.

If you look close to the center of this embryo, you can see a brighter nucleus that is not oval shaped. This is a cell that is undergoing division and the chromosomes have condensed. There are a few more of these if you look around. (Click on the image for a larger picture)

I used a Nikon Coolpix L1 by simply holding it up to one of the eyepieces of a fluorescent microscope and snapped the picture. Cheap and peppy!

Who needs fireworks when you have a fluorescent microscope?

- Just a peasant

Misaki Ito – in English – and still just as sweet

My favorite actress of all is Misaki Ito. She is both beautiful and interesting. I originally saw her in the hit Japanese television series Densha Otoko which I mentioned before. But I also saw her in Sapuri and the Hotman II series. They were both great! I particularly liked the Hotman II series because she gets to display a greater range of emotion. I would have to say that she is probably the Japanese version of Sandra Bullock when it comes to the "sweetness" factor. You can check these out on crunchyroll.com and if you like them buy the DVDs.

I hope to see her in a lot more movie roles and I'd really like to see her in some Hollywood movies.

- Just a peasant

Update on Misaki Ito and her new show Putting out Vigor (元気を出して)

Yes, she was also in The Grudge.

Order of the Phoenix

I thought it was great! I love the Harry Potter films. I was ready to walk right back into the next showing. The best part was that I thought it was the last film, but I guess there's more to come.

Excellent!

- Just a peasant

Dignity in Aging

I have a friend who is just like a character in a Milan Kundera novel: a married man in his middle years and always looking for attention from women; younger women. He has good qualities such as being a good father and being very generous. Yet this other aspect of his personality really bothers me and is uncomfortable even to discuss.

He chooses restaurants based on the attractiveness of the female servers. To him, it’s not a “great” meal unless the servers are pretty and friendly. He gets frustrated with me because I refuse to go to clubs with him. I never go to clubs and I don't drink either because I don't really like the taste of alcohol. Besides, after years of playing in clubs, for me it would be just like hanging out at work. I’m not a musician anymore and I can think of a hundred better places I would rather be: museums, movie theaters, Thai boxing, Japan, cooking classes, the zoo, playing X-box, etc.

Nevertheless, he makes inappropriate comments about girls and, whether the girls can hear him or not, it makes me uncomfortable. For some reason it really bothers me that he can’t consider the intellectual aspects of women or their emotional boundaries. Don't misunderstand me, I have monkey neurons too. I am not a stranger to sex and seduction. But I also have the ability to interact with other human beings and their intellectual identities independently of their sexual or ethnic properties. He’s always looking at girls and making crude comments but I know he is not actually scoring with any girls. Does he really want to impress them or just get a favorable response from them? I can’t tell but I do chastise him from time to time. In other places, with female friends, he’ll jokingly invite them to sit on his lap. I know that I could never ask a female acquaintance to sit on my lap. It seems absolutely absurd and inappropriate but perhaps some women like this. Who am I to say really? However, I remember one time he invited a young woman, someone we knew, to sit on his lap but she declined. And then, she made a comment about him to me, very sarcastically and very quietly, so that he could not hear: “Yeah, after $20 and five drinks.”

It seems to me that many middle-aged men still see themselves as they were when they were in their twenties. But those youthful aesthetics don’t last forever. Is my friend just oblivious to this fact? Twelve years in the music industry showed me that we are always being judged by our appearance – rightly or wrongly – whether we like it or not. Everywhere I go, every minute of the day, I’m aware of this. I know that I’m being judged. So what would it be for me - $100 and eight drinks? I'd rather not think about it.

I’m a fairly happy person by nature but his crude comments and views about women always bring me down. His views are inherently disrespectful of other human beings. Most importantly though, his desperate behavior constantly reminds me of youth lost and beauty faded – and of my own candle that has to go out eventually. So even if he doesn’t care about his behavior or all the subtle rejections, could he at least shut his mouth and leave me with my dignity? It’s all I’ve got left.

- Just a peasant

Photo from PhotoFlavor

Star Festival ( たなばた)

Tanabata （たなばた）is the annual Japanese festival held every year on July 7th. It celebrates the reunion of two mythical lovers. Orihime （おりひめ）was the daughter of the god of the sky and also wove clothes for the gods. Hikoboshi （ひこぼし）was the care taker of a cow herd. In the night sky they represent the stars of Vega and Altair, respectively, and they were separated by a river which was the Milky Way.

Both of the lovers normally worked very hard but, when they met, they immediately fell in love and stopped working so hard. Orihime’s father got angry about this and made them stop seeing each other. However, he eventually felt sorry for the two lovers and allowed them to see each other once a year if they worked hard.

So today, in Japan, people have been writing their own secret wishes on pieces of paper. I wonder what some of them are wishing for?

Incidentally, this is how Densha Otoko (電車おとこ), the television show with the magical Misaki Ito (伊東美咲), begins - a simple wish.

But it seems that Love is never that simple.

-Just a peasant

Photo by Sid Leach