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It's a Micro World after all is a blog dedicated to discussing pretty much whatever I feel like. When I delve into scientific matters it will primarily be discussing microbiology (agricultural, bioenergy, and environmental focus). Otherwise, I'll probably ramble on about sports and life.
My posts are presented as opinion and commentary and do not represent the views of LabSpaces Productions, LLC, my employer, or my educational institution.
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I know my prior introduction was hardly on the verbose side, so I'm going to take this opportunity to introduce myself a bit more in-depth. Instead of running off a few dense paragraphs of text, I figured I'd break it down into a FAQ of sorts. I guess I've always wanted a FAQ about myself, and this is my chance, so by golly I'm going to take it! And yes, it won't be half as exciting/interesting as Psycasm's introduction.
1. Is your name really Thomas Joseph?
For the intents and purposes of this blog, yes. Would I answer to it if it was shouted out in public? Probably not.
2. Why did you come to LabSpaces?
As some of you may or may not know, I have a blog of the same name over at Blogger. I'd like to think that as a stand-alone, amateur blogger I did fairly well for myself. Obviously blogging at LabSpaces gives me a much larger platform from which I can blather from. I think it's going to be a challenge. LabSpaces is going to give me more traffic, which should increase the peer-reviewing of my thoughts/words. I'm taking it as an opportunity to grow and I'm very excited about it.
3. What will your blog primarily be about?
Well, I'm a microbiologist by trade, and molecular biology is my primary tool. I started in medical microbiology (transcriptional regulation) which is the area in which I earned my Ph.D. but I eventually found myself doing microbiology of the agricultural, environmental, and soil bent. Nowadays I do a lot of microbial ecology, genomics, and even some bio-energy work as well. Given the wide areas I've dabbled in, I'll probably discuss all of those topics at some point. Also, since I do a lot of ecological work, I'll talk about biodiversity and ecology issues. Of course, you can also expect a lot of stories relying purely on anecdotal evidence, sports talk, music, and whatever else strikes my fancy. It is my blog after all.
4. What is your science training?
As I mentioned, I am trained as a microbiologist and molecular biologist. I originally started out as a Medical Technologist (still pay my dues to the Board of Registry for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists) and have two degrees in that field. A lot of what goes on in the clinical lab is automated, and at the time microbiology was one of the few disciplines which was not. The clinical microbiologist was a detective. Given few clues (site of isolation, specimen received, potential symptoms) the microbiologist then set about determining what the patient suffered from using their training and various tools of the trade (selective agars, Gram staining/microscopes, candle jars, antibiotics, etc). It was super exciting, and totally hands on. I fell in love with it and decided to continue on with my Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. I hope to blog more on my experiences as a Medical Technologist.
5. When did you start blogging?
I first started blogging in the early 2000's but didn't start science blogging until the end of 2006. That is when I started this blog. I've been steadily putting my two cents into the blogosphere ever since then (picked up the pace in earnest in 2008). Of course, I don't imagine much of it has been even been noticed, but then that's part of why I moved here.
6. What do you do on your free time?
When I'm not doing work, I'm off doing any number of things. I am an amateur astronomer and I can often be found at the local observatory star gazing, or volunteering on any available projects. I also am a part of the local astronomy club and have given a couple of lectures on exobiology to the group. I have an extreme interest in extremophiles, and as such extremophiles and exobiology really go hand in hand. I'm also an avid racquetball player and play as often as I can. I also own quite the collection of videogames and have systems ranging from ColecoVision, the doomed 3DO, PS, PS2, and Wii. A PS360 is on my wishlist, I just need to make up my mind on which one. I love to read, mostly books in the fantasy, sci-fi area. I also have any number of scientific books which I delve into on occasion (see my upcoming Reading List page). I also have a couple of dogs, and they do a pretty good job of keeping me busy as well.
7. Why should I bother to read your blog?
Because. Well, I hope to fill this blog with some topics which will interest people other than myself. I admit that I probably won't blog on things that I don't personally find interesting or view as important (or are told to blog on specifically). I mean, if there are people who regularly blog on things that they don't want to cover I'd say they're crazy. I'd like to think I'm my own sort of non-crazy so you won't find me doing such things. So, if you find what I blog on interesting, then I think you should bother to read my blog. If you don't, I imagine you won't come back.
I suppose that wraps up my formal introduction. There are probably details I've left out and wanted to add, but in the scheme of things I doubt it really matters all that much. There will be plenty of time for people to get to know me, and vice versa. I hope you enjoy your visits here, just as I will enjoy posting.
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Welcome TJ! What was your PhD project? I got my PhD in a lab that worked very intensly in trying to define the events that regulate transcription elongation. So I guess you can say I'm a huge transcription nerd too!
It's interesting you say that you're an amteur astronomer. When I was growing up, my neighbor had all of these cool toys and one of them was a massive telescope. Well, I think it was a 12" celestron or something, but it was like 5 ft long. Anyway, I spent all night one night trying to find Saturn. It took me freaking hours to do it, and then when I did, it was like a bright white pinhead with a thin ring around it AND it flew across the view finder in a matter of seconds. I lost my passion for amateur astronomy after that :P
Oh, oh! Do lots of exobiology! That's flippin' awesome.
Also, welcome to labspaces. As a recent addition myself, I can only say good things so far.
Also also, how many people here consider themselves amatuer astronomers? It seems like every other person is...
But TideLiar told me that you spend hours looking at Uranus?
Welcome, TJ!
I am also not an amateur astronomer. Should I have waited for someone else to comment "yes" first?
Thanks for the welcome everybody. I appreciate it. :)
Brian, my PhD thesis was based on looking at transcriptional regulation in response to the availability of a particularly important nutrient. It was back when microarrays were in their heyday so we did a lot of microarray work and some qPCR. I followed that paper up with a reporter assay looking at the direct control of that response which served as my second pub and ticket out of graduate school.
Rift, I definitely intend on doing a number of exobiology/extremophile blog entries.
In regards to amateur astronomy, yeah I dabble in it quite often so I do consider myself one. I don't have a scope yet, because I'm saving up to buy something other than your typical light bucket (reflector). I have a pair of binoculars (15 x 70 Clestron Skymaster Series) which are often recommended for people entering the field. Plus with binoc's everything is right side up (which if you've used a refractor before, you'll appreciate). It sort of comes natural I suppose. I spend most of my time at work looking down using microscopes to look at small things, so in the evening I look up using a telescope to look at big things which look small because they're so far away. :)
Hey! I'm an amateur astronomer too! I became interested in it when I was in graduate school. Since starting my faculty job and having kids, the hobby has fallen by the wayside - but I keep planning to pick it up again soon (yeah right). I don't have a huge telescope, but I picked up a fairly decent 6 inch reflector on a polar mount, which provided for tons of good viewing, particularly if you invest in some nice low power eyepieces.
What I really want is one of those nice TeleVue refractors. I figure something which is more compact would get more use than the bulky reflector. But of course they're REALLY expensive!
But TideLiar told me that you spend hours looking at Uranus?
SHHHH!
But TideLiar told me that you spend hours looking at Uranus?
SHHHH!
I'm not that flexible. And if I were I can think of better things to do with it.
Odyssey said:
I'm not that flexible. And if I were I can think of better things to do with it.
Most astronomers use a mirrored device to look at Uranus. No flexibility required. Stop trying to hide your vice with feigned ignorance :P
Brian Krueger, PhD said:
Odyssey said:
I'm not that flexible. And if I were I can think of better things to do with it.
Most astronomers use a mirrored device to look at Uranus. No flexibility required. Stop trying to hide your vice with feigned ignorance :P
I have vices, but that's not one of them.
Thomas Joseph said:
I'm not sure this is how I predicted the comments thread of my first post here would go.
Welcome aboard, TJ! And yeah, there's no telling where we'll drag a comment thread. We're all about alternate pathways some days.
Namnezia, yes! I have my eyes on a Vixen 115mm. http://www.vixenoptics.com/refractors/ed115s.htm
And once again, thanks for all the welcomes peep and peepettes. It's nice to be here!
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