So first of all, a happy new year to everyone.  I just returned from a nice 9 day trip through Frankfurt (thankfully only a few hours there, it is one of the more boring towns in Germany.  After it was totally bombed out, the reconstruction made it a little too sterile.), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nuremberg, Munich, and, of course, Marburg.  Getting to see the wide variety was nice, as we went from Frankfurt, the most Americanized city in Germany, to Rothenburg, the most perfectly preserved medieval village (misleading, as in it's day it was more powerful than Frankfurt or Munich) in Europe.  Surprisingly, the streets were mostly free of tourists and we got to enjoy the city at its emptiest. 

After Rothenburg we went to Nuremberg - also heavily destroyed in the war, but the reconstruction was done with an eye to retaining its former glory.  The city still shines, and it is easy to see why the Holy Roman Emporer chose it as one of his residences.  After that, a quick jump to Munich and a day in the Alps (the Koenigssee) rounded out the Bavarian aspect before heading back up to Marburg for two days.  I took a lot of pictures (close to 800 total), and you can see some of them in the Gallery.  After my family left I've been getting back into the swing of things in lab and trying to get another PCR to work, but as usual, it is somewhat slow going. 

Good news!  I just found out that I have been accepted into the Master's of Public Health Program in International Health and Global Studies at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.  Still no word on acceptances from other schools, but I know that they have received my applications.  It's nice to know that I have an option upon returning to the United States.

After three long months, my experiments at the MPI have finally begun in earnest - all of my protocols are functioning as they should and I finally managed to troubleshoot my PCR reaction.  None of the protocols I've done here are difficult - I did them dozens of times at Pomona without any problems, so when I failed to extract DNA on my first attempt here at the MPI I was understandably frustrated.  After two months of failure I almost gave up, but kept at it, trying anywhere from one to three new procedures for DNA extraction per day.  When I finally got my DNA extraction method down cold, it was time to amplify the sequences I wanted using PCR - after 8 failures (that may not seem like a lot, but each reaction takes a half hour to prepare, three hours to run, and one hour to check for product using gel electrophoresis, so one mistake and your day is gone.  To add to the problem, the PCR machines are in high demand, so you only have access once or twice per week) the reaction worked.  When the black bars (I've gotten used to looking at the gels in inverse) confirming the presence of my PCR product showed up, I knew that my project was now feasible.

It's hard to describe how such a little thing can have a huge effect on your mood and how you see yourself in the lab.  Before producing results I felt like I was just taking up space, and listening to my colleagues discuss their new results was moderately painful.  But now I have proof that my new methods work - and I'm excited to go to work again.  I knew that getting used to a new lab would take time, but I had no idea how much time.  I've had to teach myself protocols all over again, but it has a great learning experience.  Earlier I simply used to follow the steps with a general idea of what each step accomplished, but now I understand my proctocols well enough to troubleshoot them and even to design new ones!  In fact, I made a slight modification to a DNA extraction kit that allows for the co-extraction of mRNA (it may not seem like a big deal, but mRNA extraction kits cost about 3 times as much as DNA extraction kits).  Perserverance does pay off in the end - as does faith in yourself and a willingness to admit when you are wrong and adjust accordingly. 

Today I had the honor to attend a doctoral defense given by a labmate, the freshly minted Dr. Mohamed Baani.  The talk went well, but the end was the most interesting part - as soon as he found out that he passed, we gave him a hat we had made, which we had also covered with things related to his life.  This "ceremony" is the only major recognition that German students recieve - he already had a copy of his diploma in hand!  My advisor explained that the tradition is hundreds of years old in Germany, and he finds it better than the formal ceremonies with cap and gown (I must admit that it was faster and more personal).  One downside to the system is that after recieving your bachelor's or master's degree in Germany you just pick your diploma up from the registrar, with absolutely zero pomp or circumstance.  I feel like I would be a bit dissapointed if I worked between three to five years on a project and all that I got was a scrap of paper, but the Germans find this to be normal, and view our ceremonies as odd and a bit over the top (they are certainly long enough)!

This story has been covered elsewhere, including the German version of Newsweek, Der Spiegel, and lots of blogs, so I'm not the first to catch it, but it's still funny.  Three times a year the Max-Planck Society publishes a magazine that summarizes research from all the different MPI's so that the general public gets a good impression of what we do, and so that we can learn what all the other institutes are doing.  The theme of the third German-language issue (and upcoming fourth English-language edition) of this year's magazine was China, so they decided to put "an old Chinese poem" on the cover, taking the image (with that name) from an online database.  Not wanting to offend anyone, they gave it to a senior German sinologist for proofreading, and he gave it the ok.  However, about a week after the magazine appeared, the MPG released a statement which included the wording "... it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker"

So what then, does the cover in question say?  A rough translation, provided by language log, follows:

"With high salaries, we have cordially invited for an extended series of matinées

KK and Jiamei as directors, who will personally lead jade-like girls in the spring of youth,

Beauties from the north who have a distinguished air of elegance and allure,

Young housewives having figures that will turn you on;

Their enchanting and coquettish performance will begin within the next few days."

It's pretty arguable that this meaning was easily accessible to a non-non native speaker, as the image is not an "ancient Chinese poem" but rather a brothel ad from Macau which dates to... you guessed it, present day or turn of the century at the oldest.  You'd think that with all of the international researchers at the Max-Planck Institutes (there are 4 Chinese or Taiwanese researchers in my department alone) they could get this right.  A new cover was released, but I managed to get a copy of the old one. 

And it's probable that this whole incident was just cosmic revenge for this other translation wonder. 

So good news first:  the test results came back from my mole biopsy and no evidence of cancer was found.  The stitches are also out and I'm almost completely recovered (minor procedure that it was), but according to the (very friendly) doctor, I should "... make sure you pick up cases of beer with your legs, not your back, or your wound could open up again."  Which is just good advice for everyone, I feel. 

Over the weekend I took a trip with Erica, her roommate Christina, and Christina's boyfriend Hendrick to Nürnberg.  Since they have German driver's licenses, and are comfortable driving on the autobahn (and they really do drive fast - 180 kmph was not uncommon to see), we got to take a car, which was much nicer than the train, and cheaper too.  However, my recent run-in with inefficiency in the German system (see visa application, Wetzlar, german train system delays) continued - the car was delivered an hour later than promised.  The drive was mostly uneventful, but when trying to park, a Mercedes jumped out in front of everyone (there was a long line) and attempted to get a parking space.  German order prevailed, and three or four people ran out of their cars yelling at him ("Capitalist Pig" was one of the more colorful expressions) and generally blocked his way forward until he backed out and drove away. 

The city itself was very nice, albeit very crowded, but the crowding was most likely due to their Weihnachtsmarkt, which is also nice.  We were lucky enough that there was some snow on the ground when we got there, which added to its faux-medival charm.  As with most German cities, it was fairly heavily destroyed during the war, but it has been almost completely rebuilt - it just looks far too clean and tidy to be historically accurate.  The cathedrals (yes Virginia, there are two) are also some of the best I've seen in Germany, and the Rathaus was the ideal setting for the Weihnachtsmarkt, where gingerbread (invented there) and mulled wine abound.  Their Gluehwein cup is also the best that I've seen so far.  The mass of people did distract from the enjoyment a bit, but it was cool to see so many different people from all over the world (I heard 8 different languages in 10 minutes and then stopped counting).  Like most cities in Bavaria (but don't tell the citizens they live in Bavaria... they prefer to think of themselves as Franconian.  Think Norcal/Socal) the people are open and just seem to have more fun than the dour northerners and Frankfurters, and we saw lots of families and kids sledding down the hill that leads up to the castle, with the attendant snowball fights.

So that's most of the news regarding travel, check the gallery for pictures of Nuernberg and the Weihnachtsmarkt in Mainz at night.  I got word from my boss this week that I have permission to attend the METHECO conference in the town of Henen.  A google search reveals that the town is only known for having a "naked gym" afternoon on Sundays, where, you guessed it, people get to work out naked.  It is near Arnhem tho, so I will hopefully get the see the famous bridge at least.  Band of Brothers, the best WWII movie/mini-series ever, also filmed a lot of scenes near Henten, and the 101st Airborne was active in the area, so it will be nice to get some modern history for a change. 

So I had a lot of free time at work today, due to a nice 4 hour incubation step (isn't science fun?) and decided to see what the world around me was doing with the news and such.  I came across some things that will give you a huge boost to your self-esteem and also make you wonder how these people have managed to live that long.  First, this lady is apparently surprised that bargain-hunting for what is in the first place a dangerous and unnecessary medical procedure might in fact not be a good idea. 

And we all know that kids are annoying, but throwing your six-year old nephew into a river because you think he is a witch goes a tad far.  Apparently the famous drinking abilities (or problems, you decide) of our English-speaking relatives who actually managed to get a whole continent to themselves have spread to parliament.  And finally, do not be surprised when valuable recordings get stolen due to neglect - especially in Jamaica, where crime is not exactly what one would call a rare occurence. 

So far I've had an interesting week, to say the least.  Lab did not go so well on the experimental side of things - my cultures didn't grow, and without bacteria, it is difficult to extract DNA.  But this setback has let me help out other people and get involved in more project, so it was not a total loss.  And even as the experiments went poorly, I received confirmation that I will be attending the conference "somewhere in the Netherlands" the last weekend in Jan/first weekend February!  So yay, I'll get to see what the METHECO project is all about and hear some senior scientists of the project discuss goals and progress.  I will of course blog from the event/post pictures, but they may get boring to those of you who do not know/care what METHECO is (so most, if not all of the readers).

The main bad news, however is medical.  Erica noticed that a mole looked slightly larger, so I went to a dermatologist.  He agree that it was indeed funny, and decided to excise the "dysplastic nevus" - odd mole in non-medical English.  This excision was just to be on the safe side - he is of the opinion that it is NOT skin cancer, but he sent it for lab test to be sure.  However, he is not concerned, so I am not too concerned.  So there is some good news there.  I will of course post the results here when I get them.  Bad news tho is that the excision was large enough to require stitches, so I have 5 stitches in my back now, but they are healing nicely (so far, it has been about 36 hours since I saw the doctor).

One pretty sweet cultural difference:  German doctors are about as efficient as you would imagine, I called and got an appointment for within 30 minutes and did not have to wait for more than 15.  He saw the mole, said it needed to be excised, and 45 min later I was out of the office.  I did get to have a nice chat with him - his dad was a microbiologist/epidemiologist during "the war" (very surprising that he mentioned that) and worked to help prevent the spread of tuberculosis in Prague and the spread of tetanus in France.  That is of course right up my alley with the public health and all, so the visit was not a total waste.

More exciting news:  tomorrow I get to hear about filoviruses from some of the people who actually work with them in a BSL4 lab!  As these researchers are rare (about 8 labs in the world are equipped to do so, and one is in Marburg) I am naturally quite excited.  No more pictures this week, and we got about 8 inches (no joke) of snow today, so it would seem that winter has arrived in full force.  And Erica has a website too now, so if you are interested you can check that out as well.  Until next time.