Sometimes I think that the “professor” part of my academic title is simply an abbreviation for “professional dissector”. Friday was one such day, in which I spent three hours in the morning dissecting superior cervical and dorsal root ganglia from E12.5 mouse embryos, for a neuronal apoptosis experiment. The afternoon was filled with four hours assisting students with dissection and identification of deep neck structures in their anatomy lab cadavers. The first type of dissection is done with the aid of a Zeiss stereo microscope, and accomplished whilst sitting. The second type of dissecting involves a lot of standing and bending over tanks, as well as moving from group to group, drawing nerve and artery diagrams on the chalkboard, and explaining the anatomy.
Sharp lab instruments
On the left are the instruments that I use for my microdissections of ganglia and other nervous system tissues. On the right are a few instruments that I use in head and neck dissections in gross anatomy lab, as well as my notes and drawings for the deep neck structures and subclavian artery.
After spending most of the work day wielding sharp instruments, I came home and prepared vegetables for roasting and for mushroom gravy (a Hobbitish dinner), using a different set of sharp instruments:
Kitchen sharp instruments, plus vegetables
Not one cut in either lab session all day, and yet I managed to gouge a chunk of flesh out of my thumb, with the ceramic vegetable peeler shown above. There’s a lesson in that experience, somewhere.
When you spend the day dissecting with sharp instruments, just make a fried egg sandwich for dinner.
Sympathy from a fellow dissection artist! You were just tired. My labmates recognize my skill but they think I’m a little sick for deriving aesthetic enjoyment from a dissection well done.
My most recent day like that was 54 E9.5 optic vesicles. Not as tricky, but tedious nonetheless…
Actually, given your skills, I should speak to you about human embryology. Our English colleagues have a good website (we don’t) – have a look here: http://www.hdbr.org/ it would be too wonderful to finally set up a proper research collection once more in the U.S. to meet these needs as well. The French and English sites are not enough.
Note to self – do not annoy Kristi. She has pointy things and knows how to use them.
@ Heather: Yes, I think I’d used up my fine motor coordination allotment for the day! And definitely, I appreciate the aesthetics of a dissection well done, whether microscopically or macroscopically. The “hit and run” approach of most medical students in gross anatomy lab is a bit disturbing; the dental students tend to be more careful and artistic (of course, hand skills are critical in that vocation).
The HDBR site is excellent, and there is a link to a very nice online exhibit as well – I really need to revisit my attempts at writing an essay on Joyce’s Ulysses and the embryology references therein. About 10 years ago, there was an effort to build a web-based atlas of human embryology, using the Carnegie collection (IIRC), but I think it was primarily anatomical, not gene expression.
@ Richard: My work and home environments fairly bristle with pointy things. ;-)
Ceramic sounds delicate, but a ceramic potato peeler? Surprisingly sharp.