i'll buy you a drink

yesterday evening, beardo and i had to travel to buffalo wild wings to watch the penn state - illinois game. you see, we live in virginia tech country and even though the penn state game was the national game on abc, being that we are in tech's local market, that game got preference. the fact that we had to go out to watch the game kind of ruined the whole thing.

so we get to bw3s and i ask the folks at the front, which televisions the psu game would be on. they weren't too sure, so another scient rocketist came forth to help. she says, "is this a big game like the tech game?" to which i responded, "it's bigger than the tech game". she didn't seem too pleased with my comment and told us that no matter what area we sat in, the game would be on at least one television. so we went and got a seat. i gotta tell ya, there were a fair number of penn state fans in attendance, no doubt forced to leave the comfort of their homes in order to see the game.

now before we got there, beardo and i had discussed how we would handle the tech fans. we decided that we would cheer for nebraska just to piss them off. after all, we are card carrying assholes.

it was down right annoying having to be around all the va tech fans. the cheering was obnoxious. the game analysis that you could over hear was obnoxious. the fans are just downright obnoxious, especially considering the fact that their program has done absolutely diddly squat. no wait, i take that back. marcus vick did stomp on someone's leg in the bowl game a few years back. real classy program.

anyhow, nebraska ran a kick-off back for a td and beardo and i were the only one's in the bar cheering. it was fun. you could feel the eyes staring holes through you. literally in my case because a guy sitting behind us made it a point to yell and cheer extremely loud after he saw that we were pulling for the huskers. you know, some people just don't like beardo. it's just the way he looks. the way he acts. and the fact that he's a dirty ass hippie. the guy behind me was no exception. after tech made a big play he was hoopin' and hollerin' and looked at beardo and said, "i'll buy you a drink." we're not exactly sure what that was supposed to mean and i'm not sure that if you want to antagonize someone that the best way to do it is by offering to buy them a drink. this is the prototypical va tech fan...although he was probably a bit smarter. it didn't take long after this incident before the manager approached the unruly fan and told him to calm down. all in all, i would say that our mission (to piss of tech fans) worked very well.

some of you may have gotten a pic text from the bar. if you didn't, here it is:




these two beauties were sitting in front of us at the bar. the back fat of the one on the right looked like walter mathau's face. it looked as if her bra was hooked together with a buckle!!...very odd. we had never seen anything like it. the one on the right was wearing a thong...yummy...and she looked like chris farley from the old snl skits where he did the gap girls with david spade and adam sandler.

thats all.

sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand

Paul Newman
1925-2008

The Yeti is especially saddened by this news. Newman starred in some of the greatest movies of all time: Coolhand Luke, The Hustler, The Long Hot Summer, Slap Shot, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Color of Money. You owe it to yourself to see each of these movies.

Dr. Snail's Rebuttal

To be fair, Dr. Snail sent me this a while back:

Better Beer On Tap - Scientists Identify Genomic Origins Of Lager Yeasts

Submitted by News Staff on 10 September 2008 - 11:09pm. Genetics

Yeast, the essential microorganism for fermentation in the brewing of beer, converts carbohydrates into alcohol and other products that influence appearance, aroma, and taste. In a study published online today in Genome Research, researchers have identified the genomic origins of the lager yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus, which could help brewers to better control the brewing process.

For thousands of years, ale-type beers have been brewed with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer's or baker's yeast). In contrast, lager beer, which utilizes fermentations carried out at much lower temperature than for ale, is a more recently developed alcoholic beverage, appearing in Bavaria near the end of the Middle Ages.

Lager beer gained worldwide popularity starting in the late 1800s, when the advent of refrigeration made year-round low-temperature fermentations possible. Saccharomyces pastorianus, the yeast used in lager brewing, is a "hybrid" organism of two yeast species, Saccharomyces bayanus and S. cerevisiae. It is thought that the contributions of both parent species resulted in an organism able to out-compete other yeasts during the cold lager fermentations.

Though early brewers understood that different brewing conditions would produce a unique beer, scientists are now unlocking the genetic differences between yeast strains that produce variation in flavor, color, and aroma. By comparing the genomic properties of yeast strains sampled from breweries around the world, Drs. Barbara Dunn and Gavin Sherlock of Stanford University have measured the genetic contribution of the parent yeasts to strains of S. pastorianus and revealed new insights into the events that brought about the evolution of lager yeast.

Surprisingly, the researchers found evidence that S. pastorianus strains used by brewers today may not have arisen from a single hybridization event, as was previously believed. "There were two independent origins of today's extant S. pastorianus strains," said Sherlock. "It is likely that each of these groups derived the S. cerevisiae portions of their genomes from distinct but related ale yeasts, and that these natural hybrids were then selected by brewers due to their abilities to ferment at cold temperatures."

While this work identified two distinct groups of S. pastorianus, Sherlock noted that they observed significant genetic variation and flexibility within the groups as well. Dunn and Sherlock speculated this genomic flexibility could have implications for the unique properties of each brewer's beer. "The fact that lager yeasts isolated from different breweries each seem to have a unique genomic make-up may indicate that the yeasts are adapting to the conditions specific to each brewery," explained Dunn.

Furthermore, this work paves the way for the characterization of specific genetic features of each strain that could aid in the brewing process. "Our discovery that unique genomic structures may be characteristic to each brewery and/or beer type could lead to insights on how to directly control flavor and aroma in beer," said Dunn.

Scientists from Stanford University (Stanford, CA) contributed to this study.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Article: Dunn, B., and Sherlock, G. Reconstruction of the genome origins and evolution of the hybrid lager yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus. Genome Res. doi:10.1101/gr.076075.108.

This is shaping up to be a nerdy yeast war...my favorite kind.

Pure Genius

Hairy Parry found this amazing genius:

Ancient Yeast Reborn in Modern Beer

Eric Bland, Discovery News

Sept. 23, 2008 -- Trapped inside a Lebanese weevil covered in ancient Burmese amber, a tiny colony of bacteria and yeast has lain dormant for up to 45 million years. A decade ago Raul Cano, now a scientist at the California Polytechnic State University, drilled a tiny hole into the amber and extracted more than 2,000 different kinds of microscopic creatures.

Activating the ancient yeast, Cano now brews barrels (not bottles) of pale ale and German wheat beer through the Fossil Fuels Brewing Company.

"You can always buy brewing yeast, and your product will be based on the brewmaster's recipes," said Cano. "Our yeast has a double angle: We have yeast no one else has and our own beer recipes."

The beer has received good reviews at the Russian River Beer Festival and from other reviewers. The Oakland Tribune beer critic, William Brand, says the beer has "a wierd spiciness at the finish," and The Washington Post said the beer was "smooth and spicy."

Part of that taste comes from the yeast's unique metabolism. "The ancient yeast is restricted to a narrow band of carbohydrates, unlike more modern yeasts, which can consume just about any kind of sugar," said Cano.

Eventually the yeast will likely evolve the ability to eat other sugars, which could change the taste of the beer. Cano plans to keep a batch of the original yeast to keep the beer true to form.

If this has a ring of deju-vu, it could be because Cano's amber-drilling technique is the same one popularized in the movie Jurassic Park, where scientists extracted ancient dinosaur DNA from the bellies of blood-sucking insects trapped in fossilized tree sap.

Cano's original goal was to find ancient microscopic creatures that might have some kind of medical value, particularly pharmaceutical drugs.

While that particular avenue of research didn't yield significant results, the larger question of how microscopic creatures survived for millions of years could help scientists understand certain diseases, said Charles Greenblatt, a scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who studies ancient bacteria.

"We've got cases of guys who contracted [tuberculosis] during World War II and lived with it for 60, 70 years," said Greenblatt. "Then suddenly they get another disease, the TB wakes up from its dormancy and kills them."

Inducing dormancy could be a new way to fight disease and infection, said Greenblatt. Instead of outright killing infectious creatures, doctors could instead put them to sleep. The infection would still be present in the patient's body, but it wouldn't hurt the patient.

Neither Cano nor Greenblatt can say what the upper limit for hibernating yeast or bacteria is; it could be hundreds of million years. But while other scientists work on that, Cano plans to spend his time tossing back a few cold ones, and hoping others will too.

"We think that people will drink one beer out of curiosity," said Cano. "But if the beer doesn't taste good no one will drink a second."

Dr. Snail, I'm disappointed that you didn't run across this article first. Kill!

It's true, it's true.

This is my favorite Facebook wall post ever (From Dr. OBGYN):

"congrats on your recent becomings of a doctor of yeast. I too, could have become a doctor of yeast, but alas, I was not as good as you when it came to Dr Morrow's summer lab- therefore, i will soon be a doctor of vaginas, but perhaps we could work together someday because these two do have many similarities! : )"

It sounds like we should start a practice, eh comrades, eh?

isn't today????

oh yeah, it is. Happy birthday to the biggest


i know. that would be the scientist for those of you scratching your heads right now.

hey, are you old?

Does this remind you of any Juniata College volleyball players?

Image courtesy of the Yeti. Hilarity courtesy of assault by change.

not much else to say...

https://www.tankabar.com

i'm giddy and frightened. all at the same time.

People are idiots.

In honor of the high levels of education that our readers have achieved, I'd like to introduce you to your enemy:

Uh YEAH!!!

Department of Biological Sciences
PhD Dissertation Defense

The Scientist

Title: Helicases Are Good

Thursday, September 4, 2008
Noon
Crawfish Hall 169 (haha, 69)

Major Advisor: Dr. Doom

Tap him, put him into the wall.

It's good to have road rage. Most drivers are retarded, so you need to vent your hatred of them. The Yeti and I often take a page out of the NASCAR handbook and threaten to, "Tap 'im, put 'im into the wall!"

Basically, if you piss us off while driving, we want to hit your car at high speed and force you to wreck. It's what you deserve, douche bag.

Anyway, I thought the millions and millions of Dr. Yeti's fans might be interested to see what happens when two people have the same "tapping" idea:
I'm disappointed that no one's head went through the windshield, but I guess you do normally slow down towards toll booths. Still, the drivers could have at least opened those two middle windows and got into a fist fight.

Words of advice

Now that's we're going to join their club, Mr. and Mrs. Hairy Parry saw fit to send the Sciencette and I some words of advice:Why doesn't Hallmark sell useful cards like these?

Done and done!

I decided it was time to make an honest woman out of the Sciencette...