Friday, May 18, 2007

The state of my career

I've been working toward my PhD for a very long time now. I submitted a paper, they asked for some additional experiments, I did them, and came up with an unexpected result that will require me to largely rewrite the paper. It kind of weakens the original point, but makes for a more complete story. However, I've been having a lot of trouble getting a couple of other experiments to work, so I went back to try and figure out what might have caused my unexpected result. Basically, my protein is synthesized much slower than a closely related protein, indicating a different RNA structure... Understanding how all this works is not necessary, however, as I think the picture is really worth 1000 words:


My career has been reduced to a picture of a phallus.

(As a sidenote, if you tilt your head to the right, it looks like a snowman with a big gun...or a huge erection...you know, whatever.)

The reason for the slower synthesis is likely the little antenna between the shaft and the left testicle. Sigh. I'm going to have to do a lot of practicing so I can present this with a straight face.

2 comments:

Josh said...

I just don't think it can be done. There is no way that you could keep a straight face when that slide comes up.

It will be an uncontrollable domino effect; one guy (or girl) will chuckle, triggering realization of the phallus in the other audience members followed quickly by mass hysteria.

No matter how educated you become, it is impossible to resist a good penis joke.

calico*knitter said...

Wow! That is one of the more comical things I have read in a while! Why does it always come down to penises! Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and I hope that you find all the answers you are looking for. You're the brightest person I know, so I would put money on you figuring out eventually!