Soup and Science

It's been a while since I discussed some science. As to be expected, experiments always take longer than expected and protocols don't always go as planned. We tried polymerizing a patch membrane excised from an oocyte using patch clamp protocols. Patch clamp is a technique developed in 1976 by Neher and Sakmann in order to study ion channels. For their work, they received the Nobel Prize in Physiology Medicine in 1991.

In the simpliest explanation, patch clamp measures the current flowing between two electrodes placed on different sides of an excised piece of cell membrane expressing ion channels or receptors. To excise membrane, a glass capillary is heated and pulled to make a pipette with an 1-3 micrometer aperture. This pipette is pressed against a piece of cell membrane and a small suction is applied, causing the membrane to press against the pipette walls, generating a highly resistive seal (on the order of gigaohms, hence it is called a "gigaseal") and capable of maintaining membrane integrity even after excising a piece by quickly retracting the pipette. Ion channels or receptors carried within the patch maintain their activity and are kept in their native environments for the most part. Agonists and antagonists may be administered to the patch to observe changes in the conductance state (fancy phrase to say how current changes) of the ion channel or receptor.

Explaining how patch clamp works is easy, actually getting a gigaseal is more difficult, and it seemed almost impossible for me today. Christophe didn't seem to have a problem forming a gigaseal, so I must have been having a bad day. To further complicate matters, gigaseals are only formed with still living oocytes. Old oocytes, and any cell for that matter, or dead oocytes have "leaky" membranes and it is incredibly difficult to form a gigaseal. If I recall correctly, we went through three oocytes this morning before we found one which could form a gigaseal, attempting to form a seal at least three times per oocyte. Sigh.

It probably didn't help that I was feeling a bit under the weather these past few days and the rainy weather didn't help but perpetuate the gloomy feel. To perk myself up, I asked Christophe if there were any places to buy soup and bread. To my surprise, soup is not a common food to find in France due to the underlying connatation that only poor people eat soup. In the winter months, eating soup is more acceptable, but in summer, not so much. This is different from America, where year around we can purchase items like "soup and salad," or "half-sandwich and soup" for lunch everyday throughout the year. I think the best example of the U.S. equivalent is where people shop. When I was growing up, I don't remember people openly admitting they shopped at such places as Goodwill, Salvation Army, or the Thrift Store. I feel nowadays, it has become more acceptable, at least among the younger generations to look for clothing there. Apparently there is a spinoff store called the Buffalo Exchange that utilizes some of the same principles, with one exception, that they buy back used clothing and then resell it for reduced cost. I went there last Halloween to purchase some items for my Waldo costume (it's actually quite nice and you can find a couple articles of clothing that are well worth the visit). Either way, a connatation is a connatation. I wanted soup. So, I rode my bike into town, walked into the supermarket bought some soup, bread, saucission, a mixed berry tart, fruit and a couple snacks and had a nice dinner outside in the sunshine with a cup of tea and a paper from Analytical Chemistry.