Oh, that noble jellyfish; it is easy being green.

Two days ago, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.”

This is very exciting to me since I have worked with GFP a lot in the past. It is cool. Hey, anything that glows green is coolness. GFP was originally isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria or the crystal jellyfish in the early 1960s at the University of Washington by Dr. Shimomuru and Frank Johnson. It was one of two proteins isolated from the jelly; the other was given the name aequorin. GFP only produced green when hit by ultraviolet light, and it was discovered that aequorin and GFP work together in the crystal jellyfish to give that sea creature its bioluminescent properties.

On the Physiology/Medicine Nobel Prize front, Harald zur Hausen of Germany was granted 50% of the prize “for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer.” The remaining 50% was split between Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of France “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus.

References

• http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/livecellimaging/fpintro.html
• http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Aequorea.html
• http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm

So I haven’t turned into Spider-Woman yet…

When I was a kid, I practically lived outdoors; you couldn’t lure me in for dinner or money.  Now that’s the reverse but besides the point.  Being outside summers can translate to bug bite hell.  I’d yet to experience an eight-legged creature biting me (no octopus interactions either), until now.  I think.  And this bite occurred inside!   

One evening I’m minding my own business and get irked when I spot a bug bite on my ankle.  I didn’t think much of it until the next day, when it had swollen up.  Again, I still didn’t think much of it because that happens with mosquito bites and my immune system.  Later the ankle is swollen, itchy as hell, and the point of contact is a wee microscopic scab surrounded by a red blotchy oval about the size of a quarter.  That’s funky.  Someone suggested it was a spider bite.  Hmm.  So I’ve been bitten by a spider and have yet to be able to zip up the Chrysler Building?  No spidey sense either.  Guess it wasn’t a radioactive spider. 

I don’t like spiders too much, especially mammoth ones.  Ick.  Did you know that youthful spiders are called spiderlings?  And daddy-long-leggs are not spiders at all?  How could I have gone through life being misled like that?  These dads don’t build webs and belong to the order Opiliones while true spiders are members of order Araneae. 

There’s a wealth of info of poisonous spider bite treatment but that’s not what I’m interested in.  Guess black widows and brown recluses get all the deadly glory.  In general, if you’ve been bitten by spiders other than these guys, you’ll survive unless you’re stationed in Australia because some scary spiders live down under.  Itchiness and swelling are the devil, but I’ll deal.  Experts suggest washing the bite area, and then applying ice, ammonia, and/or alcohol to the bite might help.  And take a pain reliever if necessary.  I’ll let you know if I become Spider-Woman in the next day or so.   

References

• http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/l-1787.html
• http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-Fact/2000/2060.html
• http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/
• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-spider-bites/FA00048