Me like 237

It all started with me wanting to remember a completely useless detail (after a long day of trying to remember useful details). In chapter 1 of the book in front of me I found that the diameter of the most common type of DNA is 2,37 nm. This seemed like a useless enough detail. It soon developed into my favorite number, and I see it everywhere:










It's a nice example of how you can take whatever number you like, memorize it, and it will seem to pop up more often than other numbers of the same length. Without it being magical. My pattern seeking human mind now keeps noticing whenever 237 crops up. I thought I was alone, but apparently I'm not:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9bt6V6v-JY

FlyBook

Every Fly Lab should be equipped with at least 40 of these.

Superhealede E.coli

20 masterstudenter satt på laben og lurte på hva som gikk galt. De hadde fulgt protokollen til punkt og prikke, men likevel dukket det ikke opp en eneste koloni på agarplatene. Transformeringen var ikke vellykket, noe må ha vært galt med deres kompetente E.coli - celler, men hva? Uken etter fant de svaret i den meget prestisjetunge studentavisen Universitas. Hva de trenger er en egen vitenskapelig ansatt healer. Her har vi svart på hvitt at mennesker, sopp, bakterier, planter og dyr blir mentalt påvirket av healing. Er det rett og slett mulig at bakteriene var psykisk syke? Samme uke prøvde de med kommersielle superkompetente E.coli. Studentene hadde ikke fått opplyst hva som var gjort med bakteriene for å gjøre dem så supre, men transformasjonen gikk som smurt. Jeg har mine mistanker.

Poll results

Now that all nine of you have voted over drosophilas destiny, here are the results in a long-awaited pie chart. As you can see, the majority votes YES, and I will let Jens know. Norway for vertebrates!

Rocking Drosophila

There's even a rock song dedicated to Drosophila:

Nada Surf - Fruit Fly

Left som food wrapped up
in a plastic bag
on the kitchen table
way too long
I sat down to eat
next to the bag
I was too tired
to throw it out
I saw a swarm of fruit flies
I took the bag downstairs
when I came back
they were still there
flying jerky patterns
like snowflakes in the air.

I'm sorry you've got nowhere to go.

Left straight right straight
I can't find a reason
I know I'll keep going but
I can't find a reason
nothing looks right
nothing smells right
and I can't land
geometric patterns
smearing out of control
only have enough gas left
for the beer can to the bowl.

What can you do but go on?

Oh no, you make your own mistakes
I cannot bring them back to you
oh no you make your own mistakes
I cannot measure up to you.


It might be supposed to have a deeper meaning concerning the insignificant lives of some species of primate, but pay no attention. These people clearly have a thing for fruit flies.

Part Nine

Your own colony of drosophilas?

Now, this is tempting.. Ebay has a variety of drosophila cultures ready to be shipped to your home. You can choose from wingless or flightless, and the best part is, they're 100% Natural and HUGE!

They have underdeveloped wings and instead of flying they jump about 1/2 of an inch. Who would feed these to their reptiles? They would be great to watch jumping about on the kitchen table.

Though, I'm a bit concerned about the whole "essentially gut-loaded with the absolute best quality stuff possible" and "(Not Lab Flies), 100% Natural". How did they manage to reduce the wing size without using scientific methods?

Useless Poll

I've now published a poll here on the blog, so now's your opportunity to say what you really think about those braindead, freaky flies.

Part Eight

Part Seven

This goes out to The League of Drophosila. A reaction to The One We Never Made.

The One We Never Made

This one was found inside the lining of my jacket one afternoon. No name, no clues, just an anonymous mash-up of the previous 6 cartoons. It's cool that someone bothered to make this, but it's been ages, and we still don't know who it is. Come on, every mystery should be solved!

Part Six

Part Five

Part Four

Part Three

Part Two

Part One

Velkommen til The Adventures of Drosophila - the Blog

Etter diverse uenigheter med Facebooks ordning av bilder har jeg bestemt meg for å dedikere en blogg til den lille bananfluen Drosophila. Her vil vi legge ut seriene på en oversiktlig måte, og det vil også være muligheter for et lite molekylærbiologisk innlegg i ny og ne.