Science is Cool LIF - Day 1

I thought a scalebar was in order too, I took a "wild" guess, haha.

 

Every picture of Saccharomyces that I've found shows it to be more rounded and a lot less variable in shape than Brettanomyces. I'm not as sure about this, but I don't think Saccharomyces shows those giant vacuoles that Brett has (the donut hole in the cell in the center of the photo).

 

Normally I wouldn't go there, but this is a science LIF, so...

Determining what is an isn't a species can be really difficult. One big reason for this is that there's no universal definition of what a species is.

Sure, different breeds of dogs are all the same species. But what about dogs and wolves? It depends who you ask, and how they decide what counts as a species.

My main point here is that one person's strain of yeast is another person's species. There are some, recently diverged, that we could probably all agree are the same species. But there's a whole lot of gray area.

End rant (BTW, I study this in birds, where it's generally a lot easier to tell than it is in yeast).

 

I regularly look at Saccharomyces (and other yeasts under a microscope) and although S.c tend to be rounder than the image of what Cam posted, however yeast under stress or undergoing filamentous growth often have elongated shapes.

Take a look at the yeast in this paper:

http://www.molbiolcell.org/content/13/9/2990.full.pdf

There are some filamentous Saccharomyces that look similar to those posted by Cam. Also, the microscopy shows the size of the S.c. vacuoles, which can range from large to small

 

Well I was way off, I thought it was electron microcroscopy of taxonomic class bacilli of bacteria and guessed E. Coli or Haemophilus since I couldn't see any organelles.. with inclusion bodies (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...40&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&gbv=2&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1)....I am out of the running but will keep playing, GREAT LIF

 

I took a wild shot in the dark for today's picture. Way outside of my knowledge base...

Once again - badass LIF!

 

I don't think I was specific enough with the last one. I knew it was a mass spectrum, but since Wikipedia says " Not all mass spectra of a given substance are the same" I assumed it would be impossible to tell exactly what substance it was

 

Not true... You have to check the splitting on the parent ion peak to confirm what it is. I thought it was something else at first, as did a few Ph.D chemists, but the answer hit me once I checked the molecular weight of the answer. Thanks for the chemistry/analytical based problem on this one Cam.

 

Yes! More chemistry! I was starting to get concerned that they were all going to be biology based, which was going to make me regret dropping Biology for Chemistry my first semester... Haha!

This was the EXACT same answer I gave essentially...

 

Hmmm that's a little beyond my chemistry knowledge, I last did chemistry in high school . I guess I should have made friends with people in the chemistry dept at the uni!

 

I was unable to make out any of the axis labels or numbers, even after opening in photoshop. I thought that was part of the game. I guess it does not matter now but I do not know how you checked any numbers.

In retrospect, I there is really only one guess that would make sense . Maybe I had enough to get credit.

 

This would have been taught in college level Organic or Instrumental Chemistry unfortunately. Unfortunate because I had to take both...

The numbers on the axis came up nice and clear for me even on my phone. Sorry that was the case on yours as that would have made it IMPOSSIBLE.

 

Clicking the picture brings it up in full size.

 

^ That would definitely be the problem most likely...

 

Fuck me to tears, so it does! I dont understand why it was still messed up for me even in photoshop at 200%.
Pretty amazing I understood it was a mass spectum at all, eh.

 

how many people are still perfect? it was 11 after the brett micrograph.

i gotta say, i'm loving the last 2 days with the move in the chemistry direction... seeing as it's my area. although it sounds like there are a number of other chem nerds in this LIF... what with the stick-and-ball ethanol avatars and mentions of instrumental courses. i may or may not have spent 20 minutes to a half hour reading about mass spec after yesterday's pic.

 

Says the ideal gas law user name...

 

The courses gave me a definite advantage... Haha!

 

I am definitely enjoying the chemistry aspect of the past few days! I always say that if I could go back to school I would get my degree in chemistry. Shoot, I took pre-med chemistry classes as electives because I enjoyed them...maybe that should have been a sign...