Labs and Typhoons: June 29

This might be a good opportunity to write a little about my work here in HK. My labwork revolves around two areas: a protein called RuBisCo, and toxicity of heavy metals using algal colonies as bioassay models. English: RuBisCo is an enzyme found in most plants, essential for freeing up trapped carbon for use in carbon dioxide. If you cast your minds back to high school, you'll remember CO2 is essential for plant growth via photosynthesis. RuBisCo is the world's slowest enzyme, converting three molecules per second (a normal enzyme can push out tens of thousands of molecules per second). Because the protein is so slow and yet so crucial for plant function, plants have to make a hell of a lot of RuBisCo to work and their total protein bulk comes from RuBisCO (40% total, I think?). 

So, I'm working on cloning the RuBisCo large and small subunits for study and I'm also working on the effect of heavy metals (like copper) on the growth rate of algal colonies.

Here's what a lab in Hong Kong looks like:

My desk is towards the end, just past those pot plants on the left shelf.

I'm not sure if these are for somebody's project or just ornamental. There's a girl who grows these plants and they cover her desk and the surrounding shelf area.

Messy, but homely.

A fridge full of stock algae samples. Mine are somewhere in there!

Algae, exciting stuff!

Central corridor. Labs are on both sides, with office cubes running parallel.

Zebra-Fish, the ubiquitous animal model.

One of the three areas I call home.

Looking out one of the blue windows in that crazy building I showed you in my first post. This is looking out from one of the parallel corridors that flank the labs. 

How cool are these protein crystals! This is a poster on one of the doors.

Everything feels familiar in these labs. I guess science is the same no matter which country you're in. Ovens, autoclave machine, PCR machines, fridges full of cells and enzymes, ovens...it's all here.

I should grab lunch now before I head back to work, but another thing I might mention:

Yeah, there's a severe storm heading to Hong Kong tomorrow with winds of...85km/h, so that should be fun! There's a university-wide (and city-wide, I believe) typhoon warning system. Standard protocol is to head inside and stay inside until the storm passes. I just spoke with a friend in the labs; it's going to be a category 9 storm, meaning that everybody usually stays home and work/school are cancelled! There goes any plans for Saturday (and also, perhaps, for any July 1st protests marked for Sunday to voice anger against the government/visiting Premier). More on that later, though.