Coffee Achiever

The unthinkable has happened.

I can and now do drink coffee on a regular basis. I started off with mochaccinos, but now I can handle a long black. My favourite tea-break food consists of chocolate-coated Scotch fingers dipped in hot black coffee, such that the chocolate melts and the biscuit part softens while taking on a coffee taste. Strangely enough, one of my friends at the lab likes the exact same thing. (The difference is that she throws out the coffee post-dipping, while I drink it.)

I suppose I'm going to get married even later now.

I got to try out Lindt's newest offering: dark chocolate with a few salt grains thrown in. It is actually and surprisingly very good. It works the same way as the M&Ms with peanut butter: the salt accentuates the flavour and texture of the chocolate. However, the salt is not homogenous; it is left as crystals embedded in the chocolate. Some people may like it that way, crunchy with little bursts of flavour, but personally I'd rather have some peanut butter M&Ms.

On the further subject of food, I could really go for some marinated goat's cheese with olives right now.

Almond Orange Halva Cake

Yeah, totally not twenty-one anymore. Still, a birthday is a birthday.

With that, the recipe for the second cake I brought in today! This one was very popular, even more so than the Sacher Torte. I've had this one for my birthday every year, since the age of, uh, three maybe?

Almond Orange Halva Cake

125 g butter
2 1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup semolina
1 cup ground almonds
3 tbs orange juice

Syrup
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp brandy

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a deep, round 20 cm pan.

Cream butter, rind and sugar with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well-combined.

Mix together the baking powder, semolina and almonds. Stir in half of the dry mixture into the butter mixture with 1 1/2 tsp of the orange juice, then stir in the rest of the dry mixture and the orange juice.

Pour cake mix into the pan and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out cake, upside-down, onto a wire-rack, over a tray. Brush the top and sides with half of the hot syrup. Return the cake to the oven on the wire rack and bake for a further 5 minutes. Overturn the cake again and return it to the original cake pan. Brush the top with the remaining syrup. Cover and stand for 12 hours before serving.

Syrup

Combine orange juice and sugar in saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Stir in brandy.


Additional notes

Some people like this cake slightly burnt. If you want to cater to them, bake at 200°C.

Almond meal can also be used for this recipe; the cake will have a finer texture. If almonds are too expensive, other nuts can also be substituted. My mother likes to use cashews.

Choose your oranges and orange juice carefully! For oranges, they must have a bright colour and have a slight citronella scent, so that the rind will be good. I used fresh pulpy orange juice with no added sugar, but the best orange juice is the kind you squeeze yourself from a fresh orange.

Cherry brandy flavouring is a good non-alcoholic substitute for brandy in this recipe.

For a lemon version, double the amount of sugar for the cake and prepare the syrup using 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice and 1/2 cup pineapple juice.

Two Down

Guess what I managed to do!

In an incident involving my left little finger and a soup can... Yeah. It isn't very serious, but it does hurt a lot. Apparently, I have to keep away from sharp objects in kitchens. All sharp objects. Or possibly wear gauntlets.

So, uh... Eight-Fingered Scientist?

Let's see which one is the next to go! I'm betting that the cheesegrater will be involved, and it'll be an index finger.

Google Pac-Man!

This is the greatest Google Doodle I have ever seen. Or the greatest anything, really.

Go to the Google homepage (now permenantly archived here) and play it, now! Click on "Insert Coin" to play, arrow keys or mouse clicks control Pac-Man, and click on "Insert Coin" again to load a two-player game with Mrs. Pac-Man, who can be controlled with the WSAD keys. (I had a ton of fun controlling both Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man at the same time with both hands. It's also great for playing co-op with  a friend, especially since the Google maze is a little larger than the regular one.) It has sound effects and everything - so completely cool!

Thanks for making this, Google! And happy 30th birthday to Pac-Man!

Objects in Mirror

I looked myself in the mirror today, and really took a look. As in not "Do I look presentable?" but rather "Oh hey, that's me."

The way I look doesn't match what I am inside. Or maybe it does, but I spend entirely too much time in my own headspace and not enough in the real world. There's a curious dissociation between ME me and the me presented to the world. It's like inner me is an underachieving loser, outer me has a happy and fulfilling life, and the two never meet. Even though they occupy the same body.

I'm always startled when I realise the two are the same, and in fact, that happy and fulfilling life is mine.

I'm not sure I deserve it.

Sacher Torte

100 g Cadbury Old Gold dark chocolate
50 g Lindt Excellence milk chocolate
1 tbs water
155 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
Extra 2 tbs caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour, sifted
2/3 cup apricot jam

Icing
100 g Cadbury Old Gold dark chocolate
25 g Lindt Excellence milk chocolate
125 g unsalted butter

Grease a round non-stick cake pan (I use a flexible sillicone pan). Preheat oven to 200°C.

Chop or break chocolate; melt over a double boiler, or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, until smooth. Stir in water and allow to cool to room temperature. The chocolate will have a paste-like consistency.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the chocolate mixture, and then the sifted flour.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the electric mixer, until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the extra caster sugar, beating until dissolved after each addition. Fold gently into the cake mix.

Spread half of the cake mix into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow the cake to stand for 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the other half of the cake mix.

While the cakes are cooling, heat up the apricot jam in a double boiler, until liquid. Strain the jam (if you like the jam with some chunks, just remove the bigger pieces). Once the cakes are completely cooled, overturn one of the cakes and spread hot jam over the top surface. Place the second cake on top and brush the top and sides with the remaining jam. Allow the jam to set. To finish the cake, decorate with icing (see below) and allow to set at room temperature. Serve with unsweetened whipped cream.

Icing

In a double boiler, slowly melt the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a spreadable consistency (this may take 1-2 hours). This icing can be piped.


Additional notes

I use a combination of dark and milk chocolate, although pure dark chocolate was used in the original recipe. If you're willing to splurge on the chocolate, Valrhona is an excellent brand to use, as the chocolate is of a high quality and has subtle fruity notes. The cake is meant to be rather dry, which is why it is served with whipped cream, but if you want it a little more moist, heat it up before serving.

This cake recipe was originally published in The Australian Women's Weekly, i.e. it works perfectly if your kitchen is in Australia, less so elsewhere in the world. You may have to refrigerate or heat things up to get the recipe right.

This was the first cake I ever tried making - wasn't I an ambitious child? Needless to say, it didn't go so well, so I'm pretty pumped about getting it right this time.

Next challenge: griddle scones!

The Competent Sequel

Just came back from watching Iron Man 2, and I think it's best described as a competent sequel. It falls a little flat - none of the hook of the first movie, which just dragged you into the plot. If Transformers 2 had too many explosions, I think Iron Man 2 didn't have enough, or rather, they were not as well-placed. The battle with the main enemy was just bland Although we know he's going to be defeated in the end, it would be nice if there was a big struggle first, instead of him just falling over after a few hits. It was just... not epic.

On the other hand, it was hardly bad. The story was solid and believable, and the acting was excellent. You really feel that you're looking at real people interact, not some characters from a Marvel comic book. I especially liked the dynamic between Stark and Rhodes - you can tell they're good friends, with the arguments, bantering and utter lack of discomfort with each other that such a friendship entails. Also, the humour was top-notch. It flowed naturally, the dirty jokes were kept subtle, and the silliness never undermined the more serious messages.

Also, we find out what Stark does if he needs to go to the toilet while in his suit! (It involves one of the most hilarious facial expressions I have ever seen on film.)

In other words, a decent movie and worth watching, if only for the high-octane Grand Prix scene, but don't expect the thrill of the first movie.

So that was fun! Back to work tomorrow, of course.

Sorry About the Thumb

... said the server at the fish and chips shop, as he took my ticket number and handed over my food order.

How do they even do that? Note that he had to:
 - Observe, in an instant, the nasty-looking scab on my thumb, complete with a crusting of dried blood
 - Not get grossed-out or drop the fish
 - Comment readily and inoffensively while conveying sympathy

Hospitality school must be gruelling. I'm imaging some sort of commando-style training here.

A McDonald's restaurant, just a few minutes after opening, gleaming and smelling faintly of floor-cleaner. The counter staff wait in their freshly-pressed uniforms, for the first customer of the day.

The door bursts open, or perhaps it would be better to say it shattered open, because a bloodied corpse has just been flung through the glass. It rolls across the floor, smearing the polished tiles, before coming to rest against a chair. A man limps through the broken door, boots crunching the glass, clad in rags which at one time may have been clothing. His face is blackened with soot and dust and motor oil and who knows what else. A rusty old submachine gun is tied to his arm with a blood-spotted bandage, such that his finger can rest on the aged trigger. His free hand is clenched around a bayonet or knife, blade still dripping. He looks around, sniffing in big, noisy breaths. His eyes are yellowed with madness.

Abruptly, he throws his head back and roars. "BIG MAAAAAC!"

One of the counter staff, a pretty blonde, steps up to the cash register and swiftly punches some buttons. "One Big Mac. Any fries or drink for you?"

As implied earlier in this post, the bandages are now off, to allow my injury to complete its healing in the open air. This is a good idea as the majority of the visible damage to my thumb is arguably attributable to the compressive bandaging, and not the V-slicer.

I'm also wondering if I should be concerned that my thumbnail doesn't seem to have grown at all while bandaged.

On an entirely different note, that second-last cake is totally from Coles. Funny how something familiar just jumps at you from a page.

Left Hand Man

Part of my thumb has been reacting badly to the bandaging. Which means it has to be kept exposed. Which means I can't wear a glove over it. Which means I'm back to being one-armed once more.

On the day when I plan a colony PCR, no less. (Fifty colonies, and six controls. Each one individually picked out and loaded onto a gel after the PCR. You do the math.) And the thing is that doing it one-handed is only slightly slower than with both hands. Is there anyone who actually enjoys doing colony PCRs?

Skills mastered so far:
Left-handed pipetting
Left-handed labelling
Left-handed, one-handed gel loading
One-handed Parafilm sealing of plates
One-handed, four-fingered typing
One-thumb grossing-out of anyone who looks at it

Why I Experiment

The sling is off, and my thumb is well on the way to recovery. Soon, the One-Armed Scientist will be no more. But that's not what I want to talk about here.

In the course of my type of research, we make mutants. Not the grotesque humanoids of fiction with special powers, but rather individual cells - bacteria - with changes at a fundamental, microscopic level. Some of them do have special powers, such as antibiotic resistance or increased ability to cause disease. I usually work with mutations for the worst - bacteria which are slower, die more easily, infect less than the pathogenic originals, because an analysis of them says something about how an unmutated strain causes disease. Technology has progressed to the point that we can manipulate the genetic material of an organism to a fine level, precisely cutting out a single gene and inserting it to cause a controlled mutation. Barring random chance, one can practically tailor a single organism to one's desire, especially with a simple, single-celled bacterium.

I think sometimes we forget that they're still living, natural things, with all the variation and unpredictability which that implies.

The standard way to construct a mutant in my lab, is to prepare a stretch of DNA precisely constructed to be identical to the target region in the bacterium under study, with a single point artificially changed. The constructed DNA, through random chance, is then exchanged with the original sequence, causing the bacterium to acquire the mutation. Usually we insert something to make it favourable for the constructed DNA to be taken up, such as adding an antibiotic resistance gene and then growing the bacteria in the presence of that antibiotic. Notwithstanding whatever disadvantage the bacteria may experience from the mutation, the induced survival advantage enables it to survive long enough that the mutation can be studied. The entire process can be controlled carefully, by cutting DNA with enzymes which only cut at certain points, by checking the size of fragments by running them on agarose gels, and, ultimately, by sequencing the constructed DNA so that even a single wrong base can be seen. We can construct a sequence of DNA exactly to specifications using these modern tools.

But then there are the things which happen which don't fit our ideas of how things work.

I once cut a piece of DNA with two enzymes, such that only another piece of DNA cut with the same enzymes could join to it. The second piece contained a gene for a red fluorescence protein - if the two pieces successfully joined and entered a bacterial cell, the bacteria would glow pink. However,  I made a mistake - the second piece of DNA I added had not been cut with any enzyme, much less the correct ones. By all rights, it could never have connected with the first piece.

I got pink bacteria.

If I had straightaway realised my mistake, and thrown out the DNA, I would never had known that could happen.

Science is a systematic way to examine the world, by determining a way in which something can be tested, and then going ahead and testing it. That is the basis of the research I do. But the world is diverse - incredibly so. To systematically examine all phenomena is impossible. There is so much out there to question, one needs a place to start. And there is no better start than the random, anomalous occurance which doesn't fit in with one's preconceptions. Most major discoveries have started from such random occurances.

Which is why I believe one should keep working with things even if logically, they seem to have gone wrong. Accidentally tried to join uncut DNA with a cut sequence? Put it in some bacteria anyway and see what happens, it might be something exciting or unusual. Gel bands don't look right? Maybe you're the one expecting the wrong thing. Look at it again. The mutant bacteria seem to be missing something important which no bacteria should be able to survive without? Maybe that's precisely what you're looking for. If you wait, and keep repeating things until you get the results you were expecting, you might lose the truth.

After all, we are not here to construct precisely-specified pieces of DNA, or mutants with prescribed features. We are here to do research. We are here to examine, and discover. We are here to understand the world better so that we adapt ourselves to live in it better.

We are the children, gathering pebbles on the beach.

It might make more sense to look at each pebble, one by one, starting from one end of the beach and working towards the end.

But then you miss the view of the ocean.

Missing

When I was seven I got into a heated argument with my brother, and he slammed his bedroom door in my face. Unfortunately, my hand was resting on the doorframe, with left thumb between the frame of the door and the hinges, and even more unfortunately, my first reaction upon my thumb getting jammed was to pull it free.

It wasn't painful, up until the point where I noticed my entire thumbnail had been ripped off and was sitting in the doorframe. Then it hurt. Bad. I was taken to the hospital and my thumb was bandaged up. The nail eventually grew back, but it was a number of months before I could use that finger again.

I was taking piano lessons at the time, and in spite of my injury I wasn't too concerned. Surely I could compensate for the out-of-action digit with another finger.

No such thing. My music instructor absolutely refused to allow me to continue my lessons, insisting that I could NOT play a piano without a full set of fingers. My piano training ended with that.

I still enjoy listening to piano pieces very much. I still cannot play it.

On reflection, now that I'm older, my instructor was utterly terrible. On additional reflection, I should have read through my brother's music books and learnt to play myself, compensating for the injury as required. But for a little girl, the word of a teacher is the law, and if she said something was impossible, it was.

I think of this, every time I struggle to open a door while holding something in my only good hand, or whenever I have to take three trips to move equipment to a room, or whenever I have to find someone to ask for help to get the plastic wrap off a new box of pipette tips, or whenever my supervisor cracks yet another tasteless joke regarding my right hand.

And I swear that I will never allow that to happen ever again.

One-Armed Zombie Scientist

No, I didn't die, get resurrected, etc. I did take part in the Zombie Shuffle earlier today (more photos can be seen here). I went as a zombie doctor (one-armed, of course) in a labcoat liberally coated in some very realistic and gory-looking fake blood, and joined the shuffling crowds at the Carlton Gardens. It was a lot of fun! Some people had really spent a lot of time on their costumes. We saw a zombie smurf, a zombie Ronald McDonald, a zombie Statue of Liberty, a zombie samurai, a zombie television (you read that right), a zombie Domo-kun... Heaps of creativity!  A lot of the "zombies" got into character, sniffing around, leering at passing cars, clawing signposts or even crawling across the floor. One chap even staggered around dustbins, took out random pieces of garbage and gnawed on them. Admittedly, that was perhaps a little too in-character.

Anyway, it was a ton of fun, and if I can I'll go again next year. Pretending to be mindless is fun!