Deutschland v Turkei

My friend finally sent me pictures from the Germany-Turkey game! (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)

It was a really exciting game, made even more stressful to everyone watching by the number of times the picture from the game cut out (apparently there were high winds near Bonn, or some such poor excuse). The first time this happened, there was quite a lot of noise; the second time, I think the police were kind of worried by all the noise we were making. Riots before the game even finished? It was a definite possibility.

I went with some people from work to watch the game, and we ended up watching it in a Turkish restaurant - what are the odds? The guys in the restaurant were funny - when Turkey got a goal, they would cheer really loud, but when Germany got a goal, they would cheer for that, too. During half time one guy held up a little kid with a German flag and got us all to cheer, and then held up a little kid with a Turkish flag and got us to cheer.
Rehan in his football hat.

For those of you not in the know, Germany and Turkey were tied, 1-1 and then 2-2, until about the 91st minute, when Germany got a last minute goal - very exciting! There was a last minute penalty kick for Turkey too, which was a real nail biter, but they missed so Germany ended up winning 3-2. Jülich rioted.
The riot/celebration, right after Germany won.

Fireworks, right in the middle of the huge crowd - very safe. Luckily I was on the fringes.

There were fireworks. There were flags abounding. There were people climbing up/swinging from the traffic lights. There was lots of shouting. All in all, a good time.

I was also pretty happy about the results of the game; they matched what I had put in our betting pool exactly! 4 points for me. This was curiously the score I was most certain about before the game, and the only one the whole duration of the cup that I got exactly right. I ended up getting 9th place in the pool out of 30 people - not bad for knowing nothing about the football going in, eh?

Cool Biology Stuff

So, check out what I've been doing lately - it's pretty cool:
(NB: Don't steal my pictures! Ask first please :) ) What you're seeing are two different types of protein (one connected to a molecule that fluoresces green, and one connected to a molecule which fluoresces red) printed in two different microscale patterns (the same size as cells) on the same glass substrate.

This is pretty cool, because it might eventually allow us to grow and differentiate neuronal cells in specific, predetermined patterns (given, of course, the right patterns and the right proteins).
This time I didn't do such a good job with the double stamping, and the second stamp is shifted from the first. Supposedly the machine I'm using has micrometer precision, but I've yet to see it.

This stamping works because neurons don't usually like to grow on the glass, and instead much prefer attatching to certain motifs in the protein pattern. This lets you grow cells in discernable patterns:
Here are some neurons growing on a basic grid pattern we did as a test. The axons, which transmit the electrochemical signals, are fluorescing green; the dendrites, which receive these signals, are fluorescing red; and the cell bodies are blue. You can't see the pattern itself here because we didn't stain it with any marker, but you can figure out where it is, no?

Reducing/defining the complexity of the network (it's only a tad bit more complicated in brains!! :P) lets you see which neuron is sending signals to which other neurons. This less complex system is useful if you are trying to understand how signals are propagated in neurons.
We're hoping that by creating slightly more sophisticated protein patterns we can better control the direction the neurons differentiate in - so they don't just grow randomly like you see here. Ideally all the axons would branch off from the cells in one direction, and all the dendrites in the other, but we're a ways away from that yet.

Complicated? Sure, a little bit :P. But it's all been really interesting so far - I only wish it was slightly faster paced.

Places I'm Really Intending to Write About

Man, so behind. Now I've been to Aachen (settling point for Charlemagne), Paris!, and Frankfurt, and not written about any of it. Also, I was going to post on the Germany/Turkey game of the Euro Cup and its aftermath, the Euro Cup finals, my bike ride to work, work itself and my results so far, and various other assorted things. Work, travel, and Skype have taken over my life to the exclusion of almost everything else, unfortunately.

This week I might get to catch up a bit. Any real experiments this week seem to be postponed until Thursday morning, which is to some extent a frustrating repetition of my lab experience from last year. Optimistically, this allows me to do some data crunching (at least I have more data than last year) and planning/preparation and internet surfing before Thursday, which is all good. But still, I wish we could get cells more than once per week so I would have at least the option of a more flexible work schedule.

To sum up, I'm hoping on posting a couple more times today, and once tomorrow. We'll see whether this actually occurs.

Cologne, Köln, Köln, Cologne

Yes, I’m finally posting about this! Two weekends ago Rehan, Will, and I visited Cologne for the day. We essentially had to drag Will there, in part I think because he didn’t want to spend any money, and in part because it “looked like rain”, but I think once he was there, he enjoyed it. It’s difficult to say.

Here’s us in the train station in Cologne, having conquered the German train system. I think it would have been easy had I been able to decipher the German on the (automatic) ticket dispenser, but once the words pass a certain critical mass (Gepäckaufbewahrungsschein, etc) I have difficulty deciphering them. Most words on the ticket dispenser were thus.
Luckily, a nice German woman helped us out in getting to Düren, and from Düren to Cologne.

Once you leave the train station in Cologne, you look up and see this:


Oh yeah, and this:
That’s the Cologne Cathedral. I can't describe how fantastic it was to walk out and have this imposing over half of the horizon. The bells were going as we arrived, as well. We went inside later, but in the morning we wandered around to see what (other) sights Cologne had to offer.

A rather cool looking church:


One of the old city gates:


The Rhein river. Rehan took this picture, and swore up and down that dark pictures could be easily fixed using Microsoft Picture and such. I rather suspect he’s been watching too much CSI, because in my experience once you lose information in the form of completely black pixels, it’s pretty hard to get it back. I fixed this picture a bit, anyways, so it is viewable.


Some crazy English people. Cold windy mornings on the river are the best!!


We eventually crossed the bridge you can see in the photo before, to see if there was anything interesting on the other side.


From the bridge.


After 15 more minutes of walking and lots of grumbling from the cheap seats (3 hours on your feet is kind of a lot) we stumbled on this park, which was a perfect break.


Nice gardens, eh?


Also, they had one of the most excellent playgrounds I have seen in a while, which included all the normal New Zealand playground accoutrements and also a flying fox:
I’m jealous. Laurie, you should be too.

We were pretty tired at this point.


We eventually dragged ourselves back into the center of Cologne and got lunch at a cheap Turkish döner shop. Thank goodness for cheap Turkish food. We walked around a bit more in search of ice cream (there’s excellent gelato in Germany) and eventually returned to the Cologne Cathedral. In front there were all manner of people performing – people dressed as angels, as jack sparrow, people doing art on the concrete with chalk, etc. This guy was my favorite.


Not a statue!


Inside the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)


We all paid the one Euro it took to be able to climb the South Tower of the cathedral. Essentially you’re paying for a half an hour workout – the tower is over 150 m high (157m) and climbing it entailed about 15 minutes of constant climbing up a steep, narrow winding stone staircase. There were interesting views going up and from the top, but this is my favorite picture.


From the top, looking out over the Rhein River.


Will looking out from the top – he looks like he wants to escape.


Later we had dinner at the Löwenbräu (the Lion's Roar), an (expensive) pub on the Rhein river. We also watched part of the first game of the Euro soccer cup, which was pretty interesting.
Will decided he needed to get the litre of beer that was on the menu. Rehan got a Malzbier – nonalcoholic, mind you. Rehan doesn’t drink, but he’s very much like the pirate who’s missing his leg about the whole thing – any time someone asks him why, you get a different story.

After we ate, we raced back to try and catch an early train (in part so I could come to the Forshungszentrum and talk to the graduate, mind you). I took this picture quickly on the way back to the train. I assure you, this place really does exist.


And a bonus picture from the pub we visited a few days before that. This is all 4 people that live in the suite I’m in – that’s Torston, from Frankfurt, on the left, then Will, me, and Rehan.

Day One and Two

Here are some pictures from our first couple of days here. I am not allowed to take pictures at work (without special permission via form, German-style) so there will probably only be picture spikes at the beginning of each week, after the weekend.

This one’s for Jamelle and Andrea (taken in the Düsseldorf airport). They do exist!!!! I never knew.


On Friday, our day was marked by such significant events as getting gelatos and visiting the Zitadelle, which you can see on this map. The Zitadelle is on the top right and the Hexenturm is the wall that (used to) surround the rest of Jülich. Jülich was actually the most heavily bombed city in WWII, and 99% of what was standing was destroyed. They thought about leaving the city as it was, as a monument to the war, but eventually built it up again (quite unattractively, at least 3 residents have already told me). So only one small section of the Hexenturm wall remains. I don’t actually have any good pictures of inside the Zitadelle, but they’ve converted it into a high school inside, which was very interesting (and a very interesting way of keeping your kids in school, as well).


Here’s Julie, Rehan, and Will, from right to left, in front of the Zitadelle. Julie very unobligingly turned away just as I was taking this photo.


The Zitadelle (citadel). Sorry, bad picture, I know.


On the night of our arrival they had fireworks to welcome us. Just kidding, these weren’t for us. What we got was much better.
Rehan convinced me to try taking pictures of them, and some of them actually turned out pretty well, somewhat to my surprise.


We were standing on the banks of the Rur River when this was taken. The fireworks took place in the park, but it cost 11 euros to get in, which was a bit steep for everyone just for a fireworks display.


Boom.


The grand finale – here I think you can see the river clearly.

The GuestHouse (Gaestehaus)

Finally, pictures of my abode. I’m sure you’ve all been on the edges of your seats throughout.

Here’s my room moving in. I was expecting the other wall to be about where the left edge of that little desk is.


But no… it turns out I actually have a huge amount of space, far more than I know what to do with. Cool!


Now here’s my room after I’ve actually gotten a bit moved in.


I also have a pretty amazing desk set up, but I prefer to use the little desk by my bed when I’m not doing actual work, because I like looking out the window.


Here’s my desk set up. Some good pictures accompanied me here.


We also have a kitchen…


and a dining room, for all four of us.


Here’s the guesthouse from the outside. I’m on the second floor from the top, the small window that’s one of the two left-staggered windows. We get a pretty awesome view from up there, as well – I’m glad we’re not down a few floors because then we’d see nothing but trees.
All four rooms in the suite are different, too, and have different furnishings – Rehan’s room is next door to me, the one with the balcony to the left of mine in this picture. As I may have mentioned, he has a balcony, and a really nice panoramic view. I’m a little jealous.

The view out of my window is really nice, too. I’m not complaining.


This is for Jess – you like?


But there’s also this, out of the kitchen window. I’ve been told that it’s a coal plant, and also that it’s a nuclear plant, so I’m not really sure what to believe.


Maybe this picture will mitigate that last one.


One last windmill picture for good luck.