CSHL Course, Improved Xenbase

From our friends at xenbase
Amy and Jerry CSH Course, 2014 edition!
(look for the fun to begin and the CSH XEN1 Photo Competition too!!)

Frog acclimation

Our handling recommendations for incoming frog shipments are as follows:  1. Open the box and inspect 2. Re-close the box and allow the frogs’ temp. to rise to aquatic destination facility ambient air temp. (about 2-3 hours or more in extreme cases).  Acclimation may also be done by placing frogs in 0.5 to 1 inch of cold water.  Snouts above water.  This water must be the same temperature as the foam packing medium in the box or 2-3 degrees colder.   Note:  Acclimation is also common practice for frog tadpoles and fish.   All aquatic species, including the fully aquatic Xenopus Laevis (and tropicalis!) must be acclimated to destination tank temperature before being deposited into destination tanks.   If, when receiving frogs, there are visible concerns, please contact responsible institutional personnel and the supplier:  Xenopus 1, Dexter Mi. 734-408-1609 24 hours a day.  Prolonged exposure (over 24 hours) below 45 F is not recommended for optimal frog health.  Note:  Incoming frog temperature can reasonably verified by checking the foam medium temperature.  Please contact rob@xenopus1.com for any questions or input.

Tropicalis Lab Notes

Get em while they're hot!
or for me its "read em and weep."

Big Science!

There's not much that could eclipse the USA science noble trove. Except maybe my much anticipated Tropicalis Lab Notes. However, this NYT article and the the ideas it reports on are game changing concepts and show the flip side of cognitive development.

Update: Dascal Lab

The Dascal Lab post Images were taken by Berlin Shai, a PhD student from the lab of Professor Dascal. Google search, Berlin Shai.Berlin, they are truly fascinating!

Take One: Nobel Prize for Obama

I sorta get the premature arguments...but, Nobel committees have to DO THINGS too. What he's put out there has been right, what he's acted on has been right, his language has been right and his intellect as sharp as his stage unequalled. There's been a ripple effect through consciousness-in many areas-a soothing of the edginess for many in the world. And the surprise of his election, given many think we're racists, simple, war-mongering, provincial, elitist, etc. really threw a curve at the perceptions of the USA. I mean what a guy for the moment! For example: In terms of the posturing by politicians worldwide referring to the evil empire-You can’t stir people up or win votes anymore asking to vote against the USA as opposed to for some good policy. The ripple effect, in this sense, has been multi-faceted and could go on and on and on.

In this sense, who cares about premature?

Adding this up gets you a Nobel as much deserved, accidental or even premature, as anyone’s in history.

More news we like

Truth is, previous post took our (frog) breath away. But back at it here with this news. We like that the still humble (though cannibal) frog gets some ink in an Ars Tecnica article...the "technical arts", the greatest frog on earth™...things are really coming together on the frog blog! And we're trying hard to stay off the day's rants, you know, health care, the recession "being over" etc. Here on the blog only journalism untainted, crystal clear the envy of cnn, fox, and the rest!

Speaking of Interesting, Welcome Dr. Nathan Dascal

We have the great pleasure of presenting our distinguished guest contributor Dr. Nathan Dascal, Tel Aviv University. He explains these fascinating photos in detail:

Fig. 1: Oocytes expressing a CFP-labeled G protein activated K+ channels, GIRK. The channel is composed of Cerulean Fluorescent Protein (YFP)-fused GIRK1 subunit, coexpressed with a wild-type GIRK2 subunit. The image was taken using the ×5 objective, focused on the midline (equator) of the oocytes.

Fig. 2: Oocytes expressing a Yellow Fluorescent Protein (YFP)-fused G protein α subunit, Gαi3. The image was taken using the ×5 objective, focused on the midline (equator) of the oocytes.

Fig. 3. Zoom on one of the oocytes shown in Fig. 2, using the ×20 objective and an optical zoom of ×2. The focus was approximately at the equator of the oocyte, the thus the optical slice is a transverse plane through about the middle of the oocyte. Only the plasma membrane and a thin submembrane region are labeled with the expressed protein (which normally accumulates in the plasma membrane anyway), the rest of the oocyte being non-transparent.

Fig. 4. Zoom on one of the oocytes shown in Fig. 2, using the ×20 objective and an optical zoom of ×2. In this case, the focus was on the bottom surface of the oocytes, so that the optical slice shows a transverse plane through this part of the cell, as if viewing the oocyte's membrane and the adjacent submembrane region (about 5 μm thick) from below or above. The optically dense circles are the pigment granules, each about 1 μm in diameter.

Methods: Oocytes were devitellinized and injected with the RNAs encoding the different proteins 3-5 before the imaging experiment. All images were taken with the Zeiss 510 Meta confocal microscope, working in its spectral mode. Standard virtual coloring was used in all images. The spectra were collected with 405 nm (CFP excitation; emission was collected between 450 and 610 nm) and 514 nm (YFP excitation; emission was collected between 524 and 610 nm) laser lines.

We Like Science

And we raise frogs. Interesting enough. I guess we sorta like interesting things. This article points to the difficulty in changing behavioral patterns. It also gets to why some are "addicted to stress". A whole host of deep water questions can be raised here, as the frog blog gets its legs.

Elevate Science, yes....

Monday postings. This was culled from bookmarked stuff. And it requires some thought (which is why it was bookmarked in the first place). So now it is out on the Frog Blog. And I'm still thinking about it.

News of the day-Frogs, Science, Relationships: a cantar!

The work of Darcy B. Kelley, Ph.D. with singing frogs outlined here. In reading this article about Nora Ephron's "Julia & Julia" I couldn't stop thinking of food and harmony in male/female relationships. And what about this in Discovery, showing that stressed birds sing better? More on Dr. Kelley's work here.

Logo expirement, and news we like

Trans-NIH Grants Issued for Xenopus Genomics.

Frog Facility (near) Wildlife

Fawn!

July 20, 1969

It is common knowledge that frogs paved the way for this. OK, a few chimps too. Apart for the hip hip hooray for the contributions to science frogs have made let's refer to what seems to be a dramatic Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.

Researcher in focus: Dr. Joseph Pomerening

Dr. Joseph Pomerening, cell biologist at Indiana University has been named a 2009 Pew Scholar. Article here. The Indiana University news brief cites Dr. Pomerening's work as focusing on "how specific enzyme systems that control cell growth and division are regulated. Pomerening's research takes advantage of single-cell approaches along with cell sorting and live cell imaging of mammalian cells, as well as biochemical studies using Xenopus laevis egg extracts and embryos. He is specifically investigating the role of cyclin-dependent kinases, proteins that modify other proteins to alter their expression and that allow for dynamic changes that ultimately direct the cell to complete the complex and elegant process of division". Pictured from left to right are members of his lab: Joseph Ipe, Dr. Yan Ma (postdoc), Dr. Joe Pomerening (PI), Xi Yuan, Qing Kang. We thank Dr. Pomerening for the picture and salute him and his great team!

News We Like

An April 2009 Scientific American article dramatizes the new focus on Science education.

Xenopus1 Frog Facility Wildlfe

This is a spring highlight. Sandhill Cranes.

New Xenopusone Lab Shoes?

Get these flippers

Brain imaging

Previous post showed how science made art with Photography. There's also a field called Nuerofinance that explores the rationality of investing decisions.

Anesthetic binding to gramicidin A

P Tang, R G Eckenhoff, and Y Xu in Biophys J. April; 78 (4) 2000 Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicene, Univ. of Pittsburgh, ABSTRACTHigh-resolution (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance and direct photoaffinity labeling as the process. Dr. Eckenhoff's recent work here. Some of the coolest stuff in science! As you judge from the sometimes rambling tone of our humble frog blog, we love where things intersect. Here we have a juncture of art and science. And it is for sure deep science. The whole idea of "putting people to sleep" and how that works, shown in photo of a tadpole.
A Greatest frog on earth™story.

Intermediate pItuitary melanotrope cells

BMC Cell Biology, 2009 The Greatest Frog on Earth™

xenopusone.com

Our new social network program invites all commentary. We love highlighting labs and "people in the know" on our blog. If you follow twitter/xenopus1 will get you publications updates, facility news and more to come.

Twitter, Facebook

On twitter.com/xenopus1, on facebook.com/xenopus1. We look forward to these to bridging our facility with the people and institutions that are our clients.

Xenopus revisted

Kelly Evans' (Xenopus 1 Biochemist) handy guidlines for Xenopus Frog maintenance.

Outside the Tank

When will we become a real frogblog? Meanwhile, this snippet Paul Cohen editorial item in the New York Times may be the definitive counter-balance to our nation's present course:

"Churn is the American way. Companies are born, rise, fall and die. Others come along to replace them. The country’s remarkable capacity for innovation, for reinvention, is tied to its acceptance of failure. Or always has been. Without failure, the culture of risk fades. Without risk, creativity withers. Save the zombies and you sabotage the vital.

If America loses sight of these truths, it will cease to be itself."

Twitter

As one skips over the creek here let's note the Big Rocks and Fast Stream. I'm now taking a midstream pause on a sunny Michigan Day.....

Big Ideas

The topic of the day comes in the afterglow of Obama's first press conference, or speech. Timely enough given his attempt last night to de-mystify some very complex economic concepts. The sense is that we're in some very uncharted territory that many are trying to get their arms around. So here we are with the big ideas post. First one here. Second one here. let's close with a frog pic to keep it real.

Research

This appears to be a game changer. Will the true triumph of Obama be the opening of the American Mind? (Allan Bloom's 1987 book outlines its closing). There was debate years back on Harvard's endowment-at that time 20 billion-and the shear weight of it being able to have great influence for the better. In fact, the discussion was on the moral responsibility Harvard may have in the endowment's final use. Time to connect trends:
Green, do good in the world. Obama's triumph as one of the intellect. Bad karma on going into wall street jobs. This means....
SCIENCE gets the brains and a new moral high ground!

Skin Cancer Drugs

Developmental similarities from a 350 million year old ancestor, the xenopus frog, may lead to new drugs for the effective treatment of skin cancer. Cell movement in frog development is similar to humans. Researchers caution that drug treatments may be ten years away. See article.

Xenopus frogs, tadpoles, tropicalis, albino frog FACILITYBLOG

Welcome. We'll not pretend to be the definitive FROGBLOG, but would like to have a fun forum. I invite all comments-this will keep things interesting. If things get wacky or go off topic, please don't be alarmed. Your faithful editor has been involved, in varied degrees, with xenopus frogs for almost 30 years and witnessed most of "what can happen will happen" highlights of frog husbandry. Quite to the point: My father, Robert D. Weymouth started Xenopus 1 in 1977 or so. So, let the posts begin!