The gay gene

I was having a discussion with a friend at the bar the other night and the topic of personality came up. We were mainly discussing how much of it can be/is determined by genetics and I began wondering about the genetics of homosexuality. In particular, I just wondered if being gay was genetic or not.

In reality, I don’t really care if being gay is genetic. Gay people ARE people and therefore deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity as anyone else, but my question still remains. I’m merely curious about how much of someone’s personality can be considered “genetic.”

I’m of the belief that genes don’t determine, but clearly influence, aspects of personality. (See what I did there? Being vague is what I do best) I’m still not sure of how to proceed with clearing this up in my own head. Any of you have legitimate ideas?

A day “off”

I’m taking a day off.

Well, kinda. I’m staying home, but I’m still working so it’s about as close to a day off as I’ve had in the past year. It can get crazy in the lab and I can end up being so distracted that in the ten to twelve hours I’m there very little actually gets done. Also, I’m getting burnt out due to the stress of science.

Ever wonder what a scientist does? Then I’ll tell you (I’m assuming you said “yes”).

These days science is highly technique heavy which means two things. One, the research is incredibly interesting and typically quite solid. Two, there is loads of failure and data interpretation can be rather difficult. A relatively common technique we currently use to understand neurons is called patch clamping for reasons that will shortly become obvious. Exactly what I do is called slice physiology since I’m patch clamping in a thick slice of brain. Anyway, let’s get to the technique.

We take a mouse/rat and deeply anesthetize it, then pump a very cold, oxygenated saline solution into the heart to perfuse the brain. This step serves to rid the brain of blood and rapidly cool it to ensure minimal death of the tissue. We then remove the brain immersed in the cold saline solution, glue it to a pre-chilled metal plate, and then place that metal plate in another pre-chilled basin filled with the chilled saline solution. We then use a machine called a vibratome to cut “thick” sections of brain tissue between 250-350 microns thick (roughly the thickness of 3-4 slices of standard paper). We collect those sections and place them at an elevated temperature to help them recover from the trauma induced by the slicing. The whole process takes about an hour.

After 30-40 minutes at the elevated temperature the slices are ready to use. We place them under a microscope and visualize individual neurons that we will want to record from. The rig we use is actually quite impressive looking (an example) and we get images that look something like this.

And that’s something similar to what you SHOULD see. If that’s what you see then your job is easy and you can go ahead and get nice recordings easily (which is what that blueish thing coming from the left of the image is doing). However, the image above is from a very young animal and is of an area that is very easy to visualize, both of which lead to clear images and relatively easy experiments. I have to use six-month old animals (cells die extremely easily) and record from an area where there are so many neural fibers running through that it’s difficult to see anything, meaning that even my best days suck. Yesterday I just couldn’t take any more of it. Four straight hours of trying to get a decent cell and I may have gotten one.

I wanted to kill someone. That’s why I needed a day off. I deserve this.

One year later…

Wow, it’s been a full year since I last posted. That is not good.

Really the only thing that has kept me from writing has been grad school. There is simply so much to do all the time (I’ve been at the lab for twelve hours at this point and I’ll be here for at least another two or three) that I’ve been putting off everything else in my life that I can to devote my time to research. I’ve been neglecting my wife, eating terribly, not exercising, and stressing over not getting enough data.

Finally, things have begun to turn around and progress is beginning to be made. I’m currently working on someone else’s project, but I’m also finding a little time to work on my own here and there. Good stuff, I think I’ve nailed down and reproduced some old data that gives me a little confidence that my project will be useful for the lab. Now I just need to justify it to a funding agency…

I’m not sure of how to proceed with the blog since I’m not fully sure of how much information I can/should divulge about my project or others in the lab, so I may just speak about the larger trends in the field. However, I will be writing more since I just desperately need an outlet to speak my mind outside of what I typically do: talk to friends over beers at the bar.

Get ready, it’s going to be a wild ride.