Innana's interview
Answers to Innana's questions - Innana's blog http://lapisforinnana.blogspot.com/
1. What does your blog name mean?
Promenea is a genus of orchid - I grow orchids and was interested in this group for breeding for awhile. I'm still growing but since I moved I don't have room for any massive breeding program.
2. What kind of science do you practice and how did you come to choose it?
I am a molecular, neurobiologist. That means I try to understand nervous systems at a molecular level. My area of study is in sensory perception and I study how certain receptors on the surface of sensory cells work. If I give you specifics it would let you google and ID me and I'd have to kill you because I'd just as soon stay anon.
3. What is the funniest thing you ever saw?
Hmmm, saw as in visually funny - funny ha ha or funny strange? I'll pick funny strange but in this case really interesting and in their own way beautiful. I was living in a very small house in Oregon. I had just tilled a large garden area 50' x 50' the previous week so the garden area was all fresh, moist, weed-free loam. It was late on a spring night but the moon was full and the sky clear. I felt called to go outdoors and in the mist rising from the ground I saw all these funny looking two humped white spots spread at 1 foot intervals all over my freshly tilled garden. I looked closer. Each two humped white spot joined two earthworms. Each earthworm had its tail in its own hole but was reaching out to "touch" a buddy in two places (where the white spots were). Now I happened to know that earthworms are hermaphrodites or I wouldn't have figured out so fast that my garden plot was host to a zillion, 69'ing earthworms. The image has stuck with me for many years as one of the strangest (funny) things I've ever seen.
4. What in your life are you proudest of?
Making it this far? When I was in my 20s, like others of my generation, I didn't think I would or even want to live past 30. When I think of that and think of all I'd have missed I better understand the angst of those now in their 20s. The things of life are hard to put into perspective when you don't have a lot to compare to. I actually don't do a lot of looking back at what I've done. I still tend to look forward to what I want to do instead.
5. What do you think the most important invention of the 20th century was?
This is an interesting question because it can be answered from a lot of different levels. Politically with biggest impact on the 20th century - I think the atomic bomb which of course lead to the cold war and to the rise of America as a superpower and all the weirdnesses we are today. On a social level, the pill, single most important event changing the the lives of women (along with women working during wwII). I think an example of what will be most impactful on the early part of the 21st century is something invented in the late 20th century - PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which represents all the advances in molecular biology that led to sequencing the human genome. The fallout of that is only just beginning.
__________________
interview rules!
1. Leave me a comment saying 'interview me please'
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here on my blog (not the same questions you see here)
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions
1. What does your blog name mean?
Promenea is a genus of orchid - I grow orchids and was interested in this group for breeding for awhile. I'm still growing but since I moved I don't have room for any massive breeding program.
2. What kind of science do you practice and how did you come to choose it?
I am a molecular, neurobiologist. That means I try to understand nervous systems at a molecular level. My area of study is in sensory perception and I study how certain receptors on the surface of sensory cells work. If I give you specifics it would let you google and ID me and I'd have to kill you because I'd just as soon stay anon.
3. What is the funniest thing you ever saw?
Hmmm, saw as in visually funny - funny ha ha or funny strange? I'll pick funny strange but in this case really interesting and in their own way beautiful. I was living in a very small house in Oregon. I had just tilled a large garden area 50' x 50' the previous week so the garden area was all fresh, moist, weed-free loam. It was late on a spring night but the moon was full and the sky clear. I felt called to go outdoors and in the mist rising from the ground I saw all these funny looking two humped white spots spread at 1 foot intervals all over my freshly tilled garden. I looked closer. Each two humped white spot joined two earthworms. Each earthworm had its tail in its own hole but was reaching out to "touch" a buddy in two places (where the white spots were). Now I happened to know that earthworms are hermaphrodites or I wouldn't have figured out so fast that my garden plot was host to a zillion, 69'ing earthworms. The image has stuck with me for many years as one of the strangest (funny) things I've ever seen.
4. What in your life are you proudest of?
Making it this far? When I was in my 20s, like others of my generation, I didn't think I would or even want to live past 30. When I think of that and think of all I'd have missed I better understand the angst of those now in their 20s. The things of life are hard to put into perspective when you don't have a lot to compare to. I actually don't do a lot of looking back at what I've done. I still tend to look forward to what I want to do instead.
5. What do you think the most important invention of the 20th century was?
This is an interesting question because it can be answered from a lot of different levels. Politically with biggest impact on the 20th century - I think the atomic bomb which of course lead to the cold war and to the rise of America as a superpower and all the weirdnesses we are today. On a social level, the pill, single most important event changing the the lives of women (along with women working during wwII). I think an example of what will be most impactful on the early part of the 21st century is something invented in the late 20th century - PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which represents all the advances in molecular biology that led to sequencing the human genome. The fallout of that is only just beginning.
__________________
interview rules!
1. Leave me a comment saying 'interview me please'
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here on my blog (not the same questions you see here)
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions
5 Comments:
But is the name of the blog, Some Day Soon, for the Ian & Sylvia/Judy Collins (but I think Ian Tyson wrote it) song, Some Day Soon?
Nope, it was for my state of indecision (will decide what to do soon) at the time I started it.
Prom- you wrote in your blog again! You can ask me 5 questions if you want.
You should start writing again!
Oooh. Oooh. Me, me, me! I want to be interviewed by a molecular neurobiologist! I think that would be very cool.
Sounds fun, I want to play!
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