Good Times in Biology-Land

In the last week I feel like I have taken some pretty big steps toward becoming something of a biologist.

Finally!!!! It's only taken six months, you know....

Actually, the steps themselves haven't been too big, but my mindset/attitude toward how biological research is done has undergone some pretty neat developments. Here is a list of "firsts" in the past 5 days:

1) First time getting frozen cells out of a liquid nitrogen case.
2) First time transporting them across town in dry ice.
3) First time thawing them out, culturing them, and refreezing some.
4) First time having fresh cow/pig larygnes delivered to me.
6) First time dissecting cow vocal folds.
7) First time cutting sections of cow vocal folds in a cryostat (well, actually I just watched).
8) First time staining cell nuclei.

I think there are a few more, but that's what comes to mind right away.

Did a pretty big experiment today (10 hours) and got some data. Haven't analyzed it yet, but at least now I know that certain parts of the experiment work and certain parts could be improved. I think what I need to do next is figure out how to do 1) flourescence microscopy and 2) Western blotting. I might also need to learn how to make gels of different stiffnesses. Then there will be a LOAD of very interesting and very easy experiments to run. This is getting exciting!