Now that those nine days are well up (no, I didn’t write anything to President Obama, either), my self-imposed embargo is finished.
I simply neglected blogging. I apologize if I have disappointed my few but faithful readers. I had a brief but passionate affair with bench science again, and I observe that my desire to blog goes up when I spend more time at the computer, and goes down when I spend more time doing things that entail standing up and moving around my workplace. In some fields, that is known as an inverse relationship. Die-hard bloggers might qualify it as perverse.
An Iranian Masters of Science student came to live in my home for two weeks, in order for my Toulouse group and I to teach her a technique that we didn’t really master in the Paris lab, due to lack of equipment and space. This is chromatin immunoprecipitation. We now have a pretty good protocol going for embryonic tissues, if anyone is interested. I really feel like a molecular biologist now, as if the SAGE paper didn’t clinch it earlier.
When a former colleague from the experimental embryology institute where I once carried out my Ph.D. and early postdoctoral work came to visit yesterday and today, I felt that evolution keenly. I miss grafting bits of avian embryos here and there to detect inductive influences on their fate or on their context. Kristi knows what I am on about. But here was this former mentor of mine (with a few years, two children and umpteen committee responsibilities more than I have) asking me for advice in high-throughput sequencing (no, not screening)! That was strange and gratifying.
Having both the student and then this former colleague come stay in our home in Toulouse made me feel rather like I was running a bed-and-breakfast. We had an interesting experience (in the purportedly Chinese sense) in one last weekend, with friends from Bordeaux. We converged on an organic farm in the Black Perigord region of France, where the owners raise their own aurochs and market the meat directly to consumers around France (they ship bits, frozen, and I can provide details if you so request). They also harvest lots of walnuts which they shell by hand and press for oil, practice classic organic gardening, and provide an excellent base from which to visit Lascaux II.
The true jewel of the trip, after admiring the technical prowess of the reproduced Lascaux paintings in three dimensions, was a visit to Pech Merle, where it is still possible to see the original paintings in a fantastic speleological context. It is easy to imagine the awe and wonder such a place would have inspired in the first people wandering in so long ago. Yes, Virginia, there is magic in seeing originals.
Given the common themes of few human representations, no images of the commonly hunted reindeer, obscure abstract symbols, and abundant wild cattle, mammoths, and horses among the sites of Lascaux, Niaux and Pech Merle, dated to a period covering 10-25,000 years ago, and the locations, do these sites show the iconography of the world’s longest-lived, but now extinct religion? What’s fun is that there is no checking the answers in the back of the book.
Back in the saddle, I am off to Vichy tomorrow, from where I may even blog again in the near future.
Ah, there you are. “Life interrupts blogging”, the sad refrain of the 21^st^ Century.
I am almightily jealous of your trip to Pech Merle and Lascaux… one day, perhaps.
Oh, and extra points for using the word “speleological” in your post. Mmmm tasty.
Poo. Messed up the superscript markup. Again.
I’ve always wanted to visit Lascaux. When I was in Southern France I missed my opportunity. I love how the animal images are so detailed and seemingly reverent of their subject matter, while the humans are mere outlines. I would agree, it seems very much like religious iconography. It is interesting that the commonly hunted reindeer doesn’t appear very much. It shoots down the argument that this was a psychological plea to a great deity in the hopes of providing the worshippers with game.
all these French regions makes my mouth water and I think of cheese and wine. Really evil there Heather :)
On another note, sounds lovely for you to have done some bench science and made it work. I am not an embryoniologist (or however you spell the wretched word) but I can understand the feeling of missing certain things to do…
Good luck with the trips!
Everyone was slightly disappointed in Lascaux, Eric, if that is any comfort. The reconstruction is quite excellent, but as in a real cave, you can spend only a very limited time in there, and there are lots of other folks trying to examine the walls, so you feel hurried. One learns a lot, at least in the French version, about some current hypotheses, but the other caves (Niaux in particular) allies similar interest with the appeal of the tangible.
Richard – thank you; I will take my points where I can get them.
Asa, we had excellent cheese. :-)
Also jealous, even if Lascaux was a bit bumpy and crowded- any photos?! Nice post and glad to hear you’ve been having fun at the bench! Speleological also jumped out at me (I’m going to nonchalantly try to use that word fluidly and in the correct context tomorrow).
Sarbjit – do report back; I’ve never tried to say it aloud, I think. And no photos allowed – not even in the reproduction. They want you to buy postcards etc (which we did). However, on the Pech Merle site linked above, there are photos and a virtual tour.
I never knew the superscript markup to begin with. Doesn’t “The Superscript Markup” sound like the title of a book by Robert Ludlum or the infamous Dan Brown?
I had no idea these caves were open to the public! Thanks Heather. Really enjoyed your post – and recognise the bench nostalgia – though of course mine is more long-term!
Let’s see if this works:
Superscript like this
w00t!
I am not missing the bench at all as a result of your post. I am, however, now craving some kind of non-pasteurized cheesy comestible.
I am sure I could arrange something… I ate cheese last weekend that I think could have got up and walked off the table. A sort of savage cheese, nearly black inside. Seriously rotten milk. But this place is around the corner and they purportedly ship to North America. (Though I see they only offer a “range of specific cheeses selected for their ability to travel well, while being in conformity with customs regulations.”). I can’t imagine how Epoisses fits into that category, but there you go!
Unfortunately, I am reasonably certain that unpasteurised cheeses are verboten in Canada… but I may be wrong.
Mmmm cheese.