The Railburn Affair

A couple of friends of mine are raising money for a MS trust charity sky dive so they have organised a murder mystery night.

Gosh, why did I have to be the seductress?? I wanted to play the role of a man! Apparently the "hot temper" bit of the character description is what made them decide...anyway; we are in 1936...the baron gets murdered at the hotel where we are all staying. Here the roles:

http://www.host-party.com

Character	Descriptions
Jake Daniels Bartender	Jake travels town to town getting work where he can find it. Bartending during prohibition is an odd occupation indeed. Jake’s real income comes from accessory sources: moonshine bootlegging and booking wagers.
Sylvia Railburn The Baron's Wife	Sylvia is a sensitive, caring woman, who has always been attracted to the opposite. She married Lawrence Railburn leaving her family and abandoning her aspiring art career.
Chastity Reynolds The Socialite	Attractive and seductive are the words most often used to describe Chastity. Her provocative nature has opened the door to many opportunities and challenges in her life. She attends all the best social events and is widely known among the fashionable elite. Those who know her best say that she is a lush with a hot temper.
Pippa Duright Hotel Manager	A proper host in all respects, except for a blaring deficiency in common sense. Philip’s absent-minded demeanor goes beyond common forgetfulness; his absolute disregard for the reality around him translates into a humorous, often ludicrous way of life. Many of his loyal patrons have known and appreciated this trait for many years during their free stays at his hotel.
Amos Hobo	To avoid an ugly and costly lawsuit the Western Pacific Railroad faced for unnecessary violence against a freeloader, the Company has given Amos (no one knows his real name) a complimentary vacation package to their most popular destination.
Sissy Bucks The Railsburn Accountant	Private accountant for Lawrence Railburn. Seymore is a human calculator and a shrewd businessman. After spending a career in public and private accounting, Seymore is preparing for an early retirement next year in the Bahamas.
Lolita Lady of the Night	Lolita spends most of her nights at the hotel bar. While she is not a member of the hotel, her hospitality services are highly regarded by the guests and staff alike.
Amber Bookly Personal Secretary	Recently hired, Ms Bookly is the precise and punctual secretary responsible for the Baron’s personal and professional affairs. She is a librarian with a wild side.
Sally Major The Sadistic Nurse	Sadistic Hotel nurse who’s remedy for all ailments is through torture or other infliction of pain.
Maria LaWenta The Chambermaid	Loyal servant and maid of the Railburn manor. She often travels with the Baron and Baroness to make foreign accommodations more hospitable. A young South American beauty, she has worked for the Railburn’s since the Baron made her acquaintance during a business trip to her country ten years ago.
Josh Railburn Son of Lawrence Railburn	A struggling artist with a flamboyant style, Josh is the only child of Lawrence and Sylvia Railburn. Josh has had few interactions with his family since a falling out during the previous year.
Johnny Fabulous Hotel Musician	Comedian, dancer and piano player extraordinaire, Johnny is the consummate vaudville entertainer. Quick with a joke and known for his ability to turn any conversation into a song.

The pre-game clue told us about some events published in the news regarding the Baron's business. Then the evening started with the discovery of the body with a broken bottle next to it.

The game was composed by 3 clue rounds, some to reveal to everyone, some to keep secret.

We all had fun..

SPOILER ALERT, if you plan to paly the same game don't read on.

At the final round we all had a go at guessing who did it. I thought it was Sylvia, she had 4 motives:

- the husband kept cheating on her (even had an illegitimate daughter: Amber)

- the husband really put their son's art down and she loved her son

- she was in love with the accountant and wanted to get rid of the baron

- she would inherit everything

Some of us believed it was Amos as the clues hinted to some sort of organised arrangement for the hobo to kill the "big guy" but again he was innocent. Jake attempted to hire him when he found his girlfriend Maria in the shower with the baron but also Sylvia and Josh were discovered plotting the same thing.

In the end the real murder was Josh, the son. the main motives were

- his father didn't accept he was gay and dis honed him 

- his father laughed at his artistic career and kept putting him down

- his father cheated repeatedly on his mother and mistreated her

Apparently there are several versions of the game. You can pick different time frames but also scenarios such as fairy tales etc. 

Introduction to Plankton

So far I haven't been really talking much about my science in this blog, but It's because I want to introduce things slowly. Today I would like to start from the basics and introduce Plankton. So...what is it?

Several scientific terms are derived either from the Greek or Latin. The word plankton, for example, is from the Greek for "drifters". It is because those things that are called plankton are very small and therefore not strong enough to actively move against underwater currents. Although some can move up and down (vertically) in the water column, others cannot move at all and just....drift. 

There are different types of plankton, classified depending on their size but also depending on their functional groups. The latter means that plant, animals and bacteria that are considered "planktonic" have different names.

• Phytoplankton: unicellular plants (they are photosynthetic). Phyto is from the Greek for plant.
• Zooplankton: animals (they eat other zooplankton and phytoplankton). Zoo is from the Greek for animal.
• Ichthyoplankton: eggs and larvae of fish. They are temporary plankton, once they reach adulthood they become NEKTON - free swimming animals that move independent of water motion. Ichthyo is from the Greek for fish.
• Bacterioplankton: bacterias (they live everywhere!). 

Here a quick sketch to show you what I mean (not to scale!!!)

Plankton sketch (not to scale)

Plankton. From: http://www.duke.edu/web/nicholas/bio217/jrc25/impacts.html

The size classification is based on certain metric ranges and it can be independent of the type of plankton, like this:

Mega-plankton          20+ mm                    e.g. Jellyfish

Macro-plankton         2mm - 20mm          

Meso-plankton          0.2mm - 2mm           e.g. larger copepods

Micro-plankton         20µm - 200µm        e.g. most phytoplankton

Nano-plankton          2-20 µm                    

Pico-plankton            0.2-2 µm                e.g. bacteria & small phyto

Femto-plankton        < 0.2 µm                    e.g. viruses

PS: µm is called micro-metre

You can be a little more precise if you want and take it a step further combining the plankton type with the size, like this:

Meso-zoo-plankton

Pico-phyto-plankton

Not all the combinations can make sense thought! As you can see the  biodiversity in the world of plankton is enormous. My areas of interest are mesozooplankton and phytoplankton.

Why do we study plankton?

From http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/research/research-home.aspx

Plankton as indicators of the health of the oceans

At the base of the marine foodweb, the free floating plant life of the sea (phytoplankton) provide food for the animal plankton (zooplankton) which in turn provide food for many other marine organisms. The carrying capacity of marine ecosystems in terms of the size of fish resources and recruitment to individual stocks as well as the abundance of marine wildlife (e.g. seabirds and marine mammals) is highly dependent on variations in the abundance, timing and composition of the plankton.

These organisms also play a crucial role in climate change through the export of the important greenhouse gas CO2 to the deep ocean by carbon sequestration in what is known as the 'biological pump'. Without this process concentrations of CO2 would be much higher in the atmosphere and the climate of the world would be much warmer. Apart from playing a fundamental role in the earth's climate system and in marine foodwebs, plankton are also highly sensitive indicators of environmental change and provide essential information on the 'ecological health' of our seas.

Game and Country Fair

Today I went to the East Anglian Game and Country Fair. There were a few shows on, I particularly liked the owls and the birds of pray demonstrations. I don't know very much about birds but the owners were very passionate about the subjects so I decided to look up at the differences between the types of bird.

It seems that owls are also classified as birds of pray but NOCTURNAL (hunt at night), while birds like falcons are diurnal (hunt during the day). That is why their eyes are so different. The eyes of an owl are incredibly large, it's one of the traits that makes them so interesting. I am a marine scientist so I cannot help comparing their physiological characteristics to the ones of fish living in the deep twilight zone of the ocean. Some of those fish have evolved very large eyes which, I believe, is an evolutionary trait to help taking in more light. I suppose the basic principle being that, if you increase the surface area of the eye, that increases the light intake and ultimately improving vision in darker environments. 

http://afishblog.com/?p=10

Usually a very good trick in nature, to maximize surface-area, is to shape things spherically or round-like, e.g cells or eggs! This is to help exposure to whatever they need/want to be exposed to (in poor words). In the case of eyes I think it would be evolutionary dangerous to have them completely spherical and bulging out too much because they are delicate and it would be difficult to keep them protected. Making them bigger often works better. 

If you want to know more about owl's eyes:
http://www.owlpages.com/articles.php?section=Owl+Physiology&title=Vision

Anyway, the fair was full of yummy food. I don't eat red meat but the others enjoyed great hog roasts. I also took advantage of the situation and enjoyed the first Pimms of the season. 

The best thing about the whole fair was the dancing sheep show! For days I kept telling everyone I really wanted to see it.

Richard Savory owns the show, he is from New Zeland but has moved here many moons ago, bringing his sheep farming skills to Norfolk. I suppose I can call his show a sort of "sheep-outreach" programme. The whole performance is very informative, we were introduced to all sorts of different breeds and Richard explained what the main characteristics are and their differences in terms of looks, wool and meat. He then went on sheering one and then the dancing started. Not all of them were up for it but a few attempted a few steps. 

things that make you smile

n a non-work related note, what makes you smile? It's pretty normal to feel down occasionally but I think that it's important to make the most of what we have. My stress level have never been so high at the moment, strangely "twitchy eye" has not begun yet. I think it happens to most people, is when you are so tired and stressed that one of your eyes start twitching uncontrollably. Comic relief is what I need. 

Check this out: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/858815-rude-herb-facebook-crew-terrorise-supermarket-shoppers

Anyway, one of the things that most definitely can lift my mood up is LOL Cats: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ I do love the ceiling cat saga (by the way he lives in Chri's room now).

<--

Hilarious version VS not-so-hilarious version ( religious version) 

                                                                     -->

Also I like to watch my friend Rob when is bakewelled (really really REALLY drunk) and my friend Daaaave, when he generally stands around breaking stuff and/or himself or just when swans come near him (he even has a facebook page about his specialness).  But that is a more evil kind of fun I suppose. He cooked me dinner last night so I should be nice to him. 

The other day for example, I locked Emma in the constant temperature room by mistake...good fun really but only because she could open the door from the inside (I am not that evil).

This morning, on the way to work, Radio 2 played "always look on the bright side of life". It did put me in a very good mood. 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python - Life of Brian)

words and music by Eric Idle

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

    And...always look on the bright side of life...
    Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

    And...always look on the bright side of life...
    Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.


       So always look on the bright side of death
       Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.


And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...

Grow Plankton

Hello,

It has been a while! I must apologize. I have been so busy I had no time to do anything. Busy doing what you may ask...erm...work! The most important experiments of my PhD career have started. I have set up 3 phytoplankton "continuous" cultures (in the pic) and I am now waiting for them to reach a "steady state".

My continuous cultures

Ok I think a brief explanation is in order. Well, phytoplankton are the little unicellular plants that live and drift in the ocean. There are many different species, of a variety of colours and sizes:

Batch cultures I grow to feed zooplankton

What they need to survive (like any plant), is light and nutrients dissolved in the water. The main nutrients they survive on are Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) [Iron (Fe) too but in minor quantities].

We grow different species in the lab and in order to do that we have to make some nice nutritious seawater for them, full of those nutrients they like as well  as vitamins and minerals. It's a bit like cooking, just mixing powders and/or solutions with strange names all in a bottle.

Anyway, if you grow them in a closed bottle, the little ones will go on absorbing all the nutrients in the water until they run out. Which means they will eventually die. That is called growth curve:

http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC205/Exams/05Exams/05Ex2key.htm
It says bacterias on the side but the principle applies to phytoplankton too (over DAYS not hours).

So...to keep them in the so called stationary phase I started to grow them in a "chemostat" or a continuous culture, where they receive daily rations of nutrients to keep them alive and going for a long time in a state of equilibrium (until the big carboy runs out of media that is). 

I must confess, set one of those things up is not that easy, there are a lot of things that go wrong all the time and the stress levels riseeeeeee. Every day there is something new to sort out...one day I will get it perfect! 

They are so colourful, nature is amazing.

Just add peas

At present I have the house all to myself and often I am not very motivated about cooking just for myself (although I love cooking). I must confess that sometimes I buy those ready made soups that sit in an old style milk carton container. They are not great but they are better than the canned ones. Anyway, I have recently found out a great trick to make them taste better. Looking at my sad tomato soup I decided, on the spur of the moment, to add frozen peas to it and dilute it a little with with veggie stock (the instant one). It worked great! You guys should try it too, I recommend it.

mushy‑peas‑what‑the‑hell.jpg

My friend Farah and I, have actually discussed this before, peas are great, we should eat more peas! I bet we could add sweetcorn too...yummy.

I think I will start a page on recipes etc. My mum and my aunties are such great cooks I must share their secrets with you. I am sure that not many people can say no to Italian food. The only problem is that I really don't measure quantities while I cook. I'll come up with something, watch this space!


Ciao