Lab Retreat Fun

At the end of May my lab went on a two-day lab retreat, which I organized pretty much single-handedly. I put a lot of effort into organizing it, so I was very happy to see that it went well and everybody enjoyed it.

The primary purpose of the lab retreat was to have in-depth discussions on selected few interesting topics in our area of research. The secondary purpose was to have a lot of fun. And a lot of fun we had :)

I was very happy (and proud) to see that all my labmates tried to make the lab retreat as entertaining as possible, and that they came up with many ingenious games even for the scientific part of the retreat. For example, one group created a game with similar mechanics to Magic: The Gathering based on theories of aging:

And to make it even more interesting, they traced the remaining life each player had on a lifespan graph:

I, on the other hand, organized an event called "Bio-Olympics". It included three activities: plate toss, rope pulling and building of a worm.

Plate toss. If you look carefully, you will see several agar plates up in the air:

Rope pulling:

My boss as a worm, and the rest of the lab behind her:

Lab on the rock:

In the evening we spent 2 hours playing science taboo:

And when we were done with it, we first played Mafia/Werewolf and then Jenga:

On the second day my awesome friend Nicole, who is an equally awesome personal coach, led a team building session for us. It was a highly valuable experience for us and we all loved it and truly appreciated Nicole's help. Thank you so much, Nicole!

Breaking News - Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow & Jude Law at My Work Today!

Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow will be visiting my work today, as it will serve as a set for their newest movie Contagion. On that occasion our building got renamed to "Mendel Hall" :)

I feel motivated to stay longer at work, even though I'm sick... :) I just wished I had a camera with me...

Update: I have not seen anybody famous, but my coworkers have spotted Matt Damon and Jude Law. Apparently they were only involved in a short scene taking place inside one of the labs, and they came by inconspicuous cars. But in the movie there should be some other scenes as well featuring Genentech Hall and Bakar Gym, so if you watch it, you might recognize the following:

Genentech Hall - for the purpose of the movie renamed to "Mendel Hall":

One of the corridors in the Genentech Hall:

Extras waiting for their five seconds of fame:

Genentech Hall at night (I'm sure some of the scenes will take place outside, after sundown):

My gym - Bakar Center - was nicely lit tonight, which makes me think that it will also be used as a set for the movie:

Yet another potential target for the movie set:

At the very least you have to admit that my workplace is very photogenic :)

We (a group of around 6-7 people under the command of a French postdoc from my lab) tried to get to the closed set were the movie was shot by using one of the last year's Nobel Prize Laureates as a bait. Our attempts failed, as our Nobel Prize Winner shied away from completing the mission :)

Update part 2: I just learned that "Contagion" was also shot two blocks away from my house... I saw piles of trash here and there, and I was wondering what were they doing in my hood, but I just did not put things together...  

Can We Slow Down Aging?

For those of you living in the US, my lab will be featured in today's Nova Science Now episode "Can We Slow Down Aging?" on Channel 9 (KQED PBS TV) at 8 PM PST (repeated on Sunday Jan 30 at 7 PM).

iBiology and introduction to the genetics of aging by my boss

UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) together with HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and ASCB (American Society for Cell Biology) came up with a new great resource for people interested in biology. They created two websites called iBioSeminars and iBioMagazine that provide free-of-charge talks from leading biologists (seriously, the list of people who share their knowledge there is very impressive!). These lectures are being filmed at UCSF in a studio with "chroma key", which is really cool. You can watch the lectures online or you can download them to your computer/iPod!

Importantly, those lectures are aimed at general audience and, hence, have considerable introduction. As an example, HERE are lectures on aging by my current boss. She is a wonderful speaker with a great ability of presenting the most difficult of concepts in a very easy way, so I would definitely recommend watching her lectures to anybody who wonders why we live as long/short as we do, and how is this process regulated.

For impatient, 5 minute intro to aging:



First lecture: general introduction to the genetics of aging.


Second lecture: introduction to the reproductive pathway of aging (this is what I work on!).


On a separate note, Cynthia on CBS:


Cynthia's lecture "What does the future hold" in Cambridge:

My coworkers

I am lucky to work in a stimulating environment with a great group of people. Here is our "official" photo taken yesterday for the lab's webpage:

jumping increases bone density

In the meantime, the current state-of-the-science message about exercise and bone building may be that, silly as it sounds, the best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate. “Jumping is great, if your bones are strong enough to begin with,” Dr. Barry says. “You probably don’t need to do a lot either.” (If you have any history of fractures or a family history of osteoporosis, check with a physician before jumping.) In studies in Japan, having mice jump up and land 40 times during a week increased their bone density significantly after 24 weeks, a gain they maintained by hopping up and down only about 20 or 30 times each week after that.

too cool not to share it

I posted it already on facebook, but not all of you use it, so here it comes again:
ScienceNOW news about oral sex in fruit bats and the original research article describing the study - do not forget to jump down to supplementary information and watch the attached S1 video.

Sponsored by Chinese tax payers :)

Newsweek on aging

Newsweek has this nice short piece on aging research. One of the people interview there is my boss :) It feels good to know that other people care about research that we are doing.

Botox for eyelashes

The very same company that introduced Botox into plastic surgery clinics, now hopes to make even more money with Latisse, an eyelash-extending drug/cosmetic.

Ig Nobel 2008

As always, pick your favorite from this year's winners. I can not decide if I am more intrigued by the study that showed that Coca-cola negatively affects sperm motility and hence can be used as contraceptive, or by the study that showed that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat.

Watermelon is a new Viagra

Apparently, eating watermelon exerts the same relaxing effect on our blood vessels as Viagra. The blood vessel relaxation fascilitates flow of the blood to the periferial tissues of our bodies, which can potentiate sensual experiences during a sexual act. From now on, I'm going to include watermelon in the menu of all my romantic dinners and breakfasts :)

thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments

I guess this is not the last attempt of Catholic Church to discourage even further number of people to itself (read more on BBC News page):

The Vatican has brought up to date the traditional seven deadly sins by adding seven modern mortal sins it claims are becoming prevalent in what it calls an era of "unstoppable globalisation".

Those newly risking eternal punishment include drug pushers, the obscenely wealthy, and scientists who manipulate human genes. So "thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments" or "thou shalt not pollute the earth" might one day be added to the Ten Commandments.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell".

Live long and well

How would you feel about extending your lifespan expectancy by 14 years? According to the EPIC study it is relatively easy. It's enough that you won't smoke, you will exercise regularly, you will drink only moderate amounts of alcohol and you will eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

If you would like to know how this study was done, read this article: Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study

High-heels and sex life

BBC reports this hilarious research study that proves that wearing high-heels can boost your sex life as a result of improving your pelvic floor muscles. How great that I love high-heels.

Manja and Bartek in San Francisco

Last weekend Bartek and Manja came to San Francisco to visit the city and to join my 30th B-day party. It was so nice to have them over at my place for those few days. Also thanks to them, I got another chance to visit Exploratorium, one of my favorite museums in the world. I've been there twice before and I still did not manage to fully explore what it has to offer. If you are ever in SF, it's a must!

And now few pics from Manja's and Bartek's visit:

Lovers' photo-corner at Union Square:


At the gate to Chinatown:


Playing with a balancing stick at the Exploratorium:


On the floor of Exploratorim I found a sentence that well describes part of my attitude towards life:


And now in practice - follow your curiosity, explore your limits:


And last but not least, SF classic - Manja, Bartek and immortal Golden Gate Bridge:

intelligence burried in hips

Recent paper from "Evolution and Human Behaviour" demonstrates that women with curvy figures are brighter than their slim counterparts and produce more intelligent offspring (These results are based on the study including 16,000 women and girls, which measured their performance on cognitive tests). Here is link to BBC article about this issue.

Viva la pasta!

necessity is the mother of invention

The world works like this: some lazy guy does not feel like pushing the rock up the hill, so he invents a wheel (domesticates a horse or whatever); other guy is married to Xanthippe that makes him wash dishes, so he invents a dishwasher; yet another guy can not stand hearing his mother/wife complaining about him never making his bed in the morning, so he becomes a scientists and using tax payers money he demonstrates that leaving your bed unmade is actually beneficial for your health: link

science and creationism

Homer Jacobson, an author of 1955 paper called “Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life”, recently retracted his paper as he realized that is used by creationists as a scientific proof that life could not have started on earth without divine intervention.

A full story in NYT:
"The idea that all scientific knowledge is provisional, able to be challenged and overturned, is one thing that separates matters of science from matters of faith."

We live in a strange world, where people can take whatever you published and interpret it as it suits them, even when it goes against your own belives.

E=mc2

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. Albert Einstein

dancing brain

Do you see the silhouette turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? link

Shoud I be worried if I can see it rotating in only one direction (moreover the opposite than majority of people)? explanation