Human embryonic stem (ES) cells or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells promise to serve as an unlimited source for transplantation or tissue-specific differentiation. However, obtaining and maintaining stem cells are very difficult tasks for multiple reasons. For instance, most stem cell lines tend to spontaneously differentiate in culture, and even if the cells form stem cell-like colonies, they may be of a heterogeneous population.
To identify pluripotency of stem cells, expression of stem cell-specific marker genes (i.e. Oct-3/4, Sox2, Nanog, Rex-1) is monitored by RT-PCR. Alkaline phosphatase activity and methylation profiles of promoters of pluripotency-relevant genes are often analyzed as well. Compared to murine cells, it is noticeably more difficult to obtain human iPSCs, of which stem cell-like colonies sometimes turn out not to be pluripotent cells. We highly recommend testing iPSCs, especially human iPSCs, with antibodies against stage-specific embryonic antigens such as SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, and TRA-1-81.
Clink here to read what research reagents are available from Allele Biotech
New product of the week 01-25-10 to 01-31-10:
All-In-One-Vector: Human OSKM Lentiviral Paticles, with Oct-4, Sox-2, Klf, and c-Myc all expressed from a single virus, ready-to-use.
Promotion of the week:
human iPS cell detection primer set, the same as the landmark Yamanaka paper [4] on creating human iPS for the first time.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
原载作者博客(已被删除), 韩寒：中国官员必修课之第一讲“兰州悲剧”
This blog does not re-post except for under the two following conditions:
1) The content has been published many years ago, and has become
public literature mostly for inspirational reasons. Reposting here is
merely to promote the broader awareness of the underlining philosophy and
spirit.
2) The post has been removed from its original source (e.g. a personal
blog) not by the author but by some authority. Under such circumstances
reposting here is part of our fight against censorship and oppression of
free speech.
原载作者博客(已被删除)
正如一位网友所说，中国现阶段的主要矛盾是人民群众日益增长的智商和官员们不断下降的道德之间的矛盾，但是，在道德下降之余，他们的判断力，决策力，眼光，公关能力，口语表达，个人魅力，危机处理能力也在不断的下降。经过我多年的观察，我发现其实很多事，本来没事，但经过一些官员出面处理以后，小事化大，大事化炸，最后成为焦点新闻。在这里，我将讲述一些在我国如何正确处理一些危机和政府事物的技巧和常识，以帮助各个领导更快的升官发财。今天的是第一讲。我们从一条新闻说起:
据甘肃省新闻网报道,甘肃将要组建一支650人的网络评论员队伍，正确的引导舆论。
这条新闻起先是由甘肃省自己的内部新闻网发布，甘肃省本想将此当做重大的政绩工程来宣传，本意是想向上级政府邀功请赏。甘肃的政府各部门特地在兰州开会，省宣传部部长特地讲话，最后作为新闻对外发布。
在互联网上，我们经常看到有人说，兰州悲剧了。当然，甘肃省的领导们肯定不知道这句话什么意思。如今我们真正看到兰州悲剧了。在这个新闻发布以后，被各大网站转载，但是今天打开这些网站，发现所有的新闻链接都已经失效，没有一条能够打开。是谁能和谐省宣传部呢，当然是宣传总部。甘肃省的领导们对圣旨的领悟能力极差。他们犯下了重大的错误。马屁拍在老虎屁股上。
网络评论员也叫五毛党，乃是地下党。你把成立一支地下党的消息以及名单直接公布了，乃是大忌。这个消息应该是一个密件，由专人送达上级部门，那么上级部门必将重重有赏。这个新闻直接透露了政府一直不愿意承认的一个事实，那就是五毛党的存在。如果一个人想要获得赞美和拥护必须要靠花钱收买别人的嘴才可以，那说明这个人肯定够丑的。这条新闻直接摧毁了上级部门努力营造的假象。兰州宣传部门的领导看来一辈子升官无望。
另外，这条新闻的灾难性在于，他完全暴露了五毛党的结构组成以及基本人数，并且容易被一些网友所利用。新闻里说，今年甘肃省要加快网监、网评队伍建设，形成以50名网络评论“高手”为核心层、100名网络评论“好手”为紧密层、500名网络评论“写手”为外围层的网评队伍体系。
在甘肃省这么一个小省里，尚且需要新增添650的专业网络评论员，那么好事者很容易推算出，在全国范围内，专业网络评论员的数量应该不下十万人。假设每个网络评论员的年工资平均为五万元人民币，那么政府每年要为自己夸奖自己支付50亿人民币，也就是25000个希望小学，或者十分之一个三峡大坝，或者杨浦大桥加南浦大桥加东方明珠打包带走还是双份，或者30架波音737，或者一个中型航空母舰，或者90台在汶川地震中急缺的只向俄罗斯租借到一台的空中巨无霸米26H直升机。这个数据如果不小心让人知道了，非常容易引起人民群众和政府之间的矛盾，往自己脸上贴金乃是人之常情，贴金就要花钱，但往自己脸上贴航母的确说明这脸有点太大了。好在还没有好事者这样推算过，至今也没有人提出过质疑，算是万幸。
通过这场兰州悲剧，各位领导们也知道了领会上级精神和误会上级精神之间其实只有一念之差，各省市宣传部领导们应该引以为戒。
1) The content has been published many years ago, and has become
public literature mostly for inspirational reasons. Reposting here is
merely to promote the broader awareness of the underlining philosophy and
spirit.
2) The post has been removed from its original source (e.g. a personal
blog) not by the author but by some authority. Under such circumstances
reposting here is part of our fight against censorship and oppression of
free speech.
原载作者博客(已被删除)
正如一位网友所说，中国现阶段的主要矛盾是人民群众日益增长的智商和官员们不断下降的道德之间的矛盾，但是，在道德下降之余，他们的判断力，决策力，眼光，公关能力，口语表达，个人魅力，危机处理能力也在不断的下降。经过我多年的观察，我发现其实很多事，本来没事，但经过一些官员出面处理以后，小事化大，大事化炸，最后成为焦点新闻。在这里，我将讲述一些在我国如何正确处理一些危机和政府事物的技巧和常识，以帮助各个领导更快的升官发财。今天的是第一讲。我们从一条新闻说起:
据甘肃省新闻网报道,甘肃将要组建一支650人的网络评论员队伍，正确的引导舆论。
这条新闻起先是由甘肃省自己的内部新闻网发布，甘肃省本想将此当做重大的政绩工程来宣传，本意是想向上级政府邀功请赏。甘肃的政府各部门特地在兰州开会，省宣传部部长特地讲话，最后作为新闻对外发布。
在互联网上，我们经常看到有人说，兰州悲剧了。当然，甘肃省的领导们肯定不知道这句话什么意思。如今我们真正看到兰州悲剧了。在这个新闻发布以后，被各大网站转载，但是今天打开这些网站，发现所有的新闻链接都已经失效，没有一条能够打开。是谁能和谐省宣传部呢，当然是宣传总部。甘肃省的领导们对圣旨的领悟能力极差。他们犯下了重大的错误。马屁拍在老虎屁股上。
网络评论员也叫五毛党，乃是地下党。你把成立一支地下党的消息以及名单直接公布了，乃是大忌。这个消息应该是一个密件，由专人送达上级部门，那么上级部门必将重重有赏。这个新闻直接透露了政府一直不愿意承认的一个事实，那就是五毛党的存在。如果一个人想要获得赞美和拥护必须要靠花钱收买别人的嘴才可以，那说明这个人肯定够丑的。这条新闻直接摧毁了上级部门努力营造的假象。兰州宣传部门的领导看来一辈子升官无望。
另外，这条新闻的灾难性在于，他完全暴露了五毛党的结构组成以及基本人数，并且容易被一些网友所利用。新闻里说，今年甘肃省要加快网监、网评队伍建设，形成以50名网络评论“高手”为核心层、100名网络评论“好手”为紧密层、500名网络评论“写手”为外围层的网评队伍体系。
在甘肃省这么一个小省里，尚且需要新增添650的专业网络评论员，那么好事者很容易推算出，在全国范围内，专业网络评论员的数量应该不下十万人。假设每个网络评论员的年工资平均为五万元人民币，那么政府每年要为自己夸奖自己支付50亿人民币，也就是25000个希望小学，或者十分之一个三峡大坝，或者杨浦大桥加南浦大桥加东方明珠打包带走还是双份，或者30架波音737，或者一个中型航空母舰，或者90台在汶川地震中急缺的只向俄罗斯租借到一台的空中巨无霸米26H直升机。这个数据如果不小心让人知道了，非常容易引起人民群众和政府之间的矛盾，往自己脸上贴金乃是人之常情，贴金就要花钱，但往自己脸上贴航母的确说明这脸有点太大了。好在还没有好事者这样推算过，至今也没有人提出过质疑，算是万幸。
通过这场兰州悲剧，各位领导们也知道了领会上级精神和误会上级精神之间其实只有一念之差，各省市宣传部领导们应该引以为戒。
Friday, January 22, 2010
Submit Your Pictures and Enter to Win $100 in Cash
Allele wants to display your art work on the cooperate web homepage, which is visited by tens of thousands of viewers per month. As our project leader Kalyn said it, "Let your creative juices flow and you could get $100 in return. Your picture could be funny, serious, or even super nerdy!"
Go here and get started.
Or c/p this link into your brower address bar: http://allelebiotech.com/blogs/2010/01/submit-your-pictures-and-enter-to-win-100-in-cash/
Go here and get started.
Or c/p this link into your brower address bar: http://allelebiotech.com/blogs/2010/01/submit-your-pictures-and-enter-to-win-100-in-cash/
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Unhappily ever after—business lessons learned from our daily lives
I have never hired a MBA other than having my wife run a regional subsidiary for a short period of time before the birth of our first child. Sure, I have had MBA students as interns, but never quite got the chance to ask exactly how they are trained to handle daily business aside from theories and models. I would want to learn my craft as a business manager in addition to being a scientist, perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of running a research company than an academic lab—you get to do everything you find most intriguing.
In addition to the sell side, our company is of course also a customer to other companies, so are ourselves in our non-corporate lives. If you pay attention, observe how other companies market their products and services to you, deal with your problems and complaints, and the way to stand by a company’s policies and principles, you can learn so much.
I have blogged here last year how CapitalOne, among a number of other banks, disappointed me when I was working to improve our situations with business credit accounts. A month or two later I noticed that our rate with CapitalOne was cut by more than 2/3, and they didn’t even mention it. I still do not know how that happened, but now our CapitalOne Visa card is the most used, and with our current business expansion, I would think that they are duly rewarded for their effort to recognize the value of our accounts and to help me out as much as they can. At the end of 2009 I tweeted about how ATT allowed an unbelievably bad third party service provider to piggyback and cheat on our monthly bills from ATT, which was corrected on the first phone call. Even though that should not have happened in the first place, but the way it was swiftly dealt with at the first level of customer service still shows that ATT is a giant well organized.
More recently I had a discussion with Bank of America over monthly fees for my personal account with them for 20 years, since the first day I came to this country. I still remembered opening my very first bank account with an advance of my first paycheck of $800 from USC at the BOA branch across the street from the campus. In the back-and-forth emails with BOA since late December, a different person responded to me every single time. After I asked for a manager level person to make a decision on either waiving the fee or switching my old account number to a new free checking account (yes, I did mention 20 years’ using that account as sentimental as well as very practical reasons for the request), the same message of how they appreciate my business but I have to abandon my old account, open a new one, transfer all AP, AR, payroll and such, and get free checking. No managers. They used the word ‘courtesy’ twice as showing how they did me a favor by not charging a monthly fee for the first month when they decided it was time to do so, and when they threw me back 2 more months worth of fees, almost like a bone. The worst part was perhaps the inconsistency, since every time it was a new person, she/he did not either understand the whole story or flat-out ignored a previous person’s promise to switch account number.
I was saying to myself, you know I was a 20 year customer as loyal as one can be, a BOA stock holder through good and extremely bad times like right now, a good referral who got at least 10 friends to use BOA, and, as I told them, my wife has mortgage and retirement accounts with them, and most annoying of all, I am a taxpayer who helped bail these bastards out after they screwed up! All I was asking is to get the free checking as they are offering to everybody who knows how to sign up online (so not that it is such a privilege!) and keep my old account number, is that too much to ask?
Settling down, I thought about how I would want my employees to handle such a situation. 1) Technically, I want my online system to be at least flexible enough for a simple account type switch to save all the work hours the representatives have to spend reading, re-reading customer emails, not to mention the completely unnecessary inconvenience to the customer; 2) have management personnel intervene after the 3rd customer email because, obviously, the problem is taking too long to resolve and there is a risk of losing a good customer (unless they believed that I was a bad customer, but I don’t see why); 3) never talk to a customer like you are doing him or her a favor, need to particularly remind ourselves every time we get a unpleasant customer response, always remember who is paying; 4) use one person as a point of contact of every string of discussions, like many businesses already do.
If a service provider gives such slow pain to a customer once, he or she will be feeling and talking about the business unhappily ever after. BTW, I am finally opening personal accounts at Wells Fargo, who courted me since we opened our business accounts there with forever free checking and other goodies. I didn’t take their offer previously because, as I have said, I was a loyal customer to BOA, always remembering my first day in that BOA branch across the campus...but no more.
In addition to the sell side, our company is of course also a customer to other companies, so are ourselves in our non-corporate lives. If you pay attention, observe how other companies market their products and services to you, deal with your problems and complaints, and the way to stand by a company’s policies and principles, you can learn so much.
I have blogged here last year how CapitalOne, among a number of other banks, disappointed me when I was working to improve our situations with business credit accounts. A month or two later I noticed that our rate with CapitalOne was cut by more than 2/3, and they didn’t even mention it. I still do not know how that happened, but now our CapitalOne Visa card is the most used, and with our current business expansion, I would think that they are duly rewarded for their effort to recognize the value of our accounts and to help me out as much as they can. At the end of 2009 I tweeted about how ATT allowed an unbelievably bad third party service provider to piggyback and cheat on our monthly bills from ATT, which was corrected on the first phone call. Even though that should not have happened in the first place, but the way it was swiftly dealt with at the first level of customer service still shows that ATT is a giant well organized.
More recently I had a discussion with Bank of America over monthly fees for my personal account with them for 20 years, since the first day I came to this country. I still remembered opening my very first bank account with an advance of my first paycheck of $800 from USC at the BOA branch across the street from the campus. In the back-and-forth emails with BOA since late December, a different person responded to me every single time. After I asked for a manager level person to make a decision on either waiving the fee or switching my old account number to a new free checking account (yes, I did mention 20 years’ using that account as sentimental as well as very practical reasons for the request), the same message of how they appreciate my business but I have to abandon my old account, open a new one, transfer all AP, AR, payroll and such, and get free checking. No managers. They used the word ‘courtesy’ twice as showing how they did me a favor by not charging a monthly fee for the first month when they decided it was time to do so, and when they threw me back 2 more months worth of fees, almost like a bone. The worst part was perhaps the inconsistency, since every time it was a new person, she/he did not either understand the whole story or flat-out ignored a previous person’s promise to switch account number.
I was saying to myself, you know I was a 20 year customer as loyal as one can be, a BOA stock holder through good and extremely bad times like right now, a good referral who got at least 10 friends to use BOA, and, as I told them, my wife has mortgage and retirement accounts with them, and most annoying of all, I am a taxpayer who helped bail these bastards out after they screwed up! All I was asking is to get the free checking as they are offering to everybody who knows how to sign up online (so not that it is such a privilege!) and keep my old account number, is that too much to ask?
Settling down, I thought about how I would want my employees to handle such a situation. 1) Technically, I want my online system to be at least flexible enough for a simple account type switch to save all the work hours the representatives have to spend reading, re-reading customer emails, not to mention the completely unnecessary inconvenience to the customer; 2) have management personnel intervene after the 3rd customer email because, obviously, the problem is taking too long to resolve and there is a risk of losing a good customer (unless they believed that I was a bad customer, but I don’t see why); 3) never talk to a customer like you are doing him or her a favor, need to particularly remind ourselves every time we get a unpleasant customer response, always remember who is paying; 4) use one person as a point of contact of every string of discussions, like many businesses already do.
If a service provider gives such slow pain to a customer once, he or she will be feeling and talking about the business unhappily ever after. BTW, I am finally opening personal accounts at Wells Fargo, who courted me since we opened our business accounts there with forever free checking and other goodies. I didn’t take their offer previously because, as I have said, I was a loyal customer to BOA, always remembering my first day in that BOA branch across the campus...but no more.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
google.cn image search for "tiananmen massacre" shows tanks and corpses now.
Stand up google, finally! No amount of money is worth bending your knees. Yahoo has also just waken up and supported google's stance.
There has been some funny logic going on after Baidu, who calls themselves "google of China" to get money in the US stock market, was attached by hackers from an Iranian web group a day before the google saga. Some well-known personnel in China's official-run TV and bunch more people online couldn't believe that a pro-Iran group would attach something China, "we have supported Iran, as the only supporter almost, to fight against US and the West, it is not possible for them to do this to us!!! it must be a conspiracy originated by the US (like everything else that is considered against China, more precisely against the ruling and only party in China)".
The same people or mentality had problems understanding African pirates took a Chinese ship and more than 20 sailor for hostage, and got many millions of dollars in ransom right after the show of power bythe Chinese military during a National Day goose-step zero-audience-on-street parade, because these people in China cheered for the pirates when they took American hostages. Same disbelief when Al Qaeda announced war against the Chinese people after a brutal oppression of Chinese Muslims in Xingjiang because these group of Chinese people cheered for Al Qaeda too when 9/11 happened.
By the same line of reasoning, they can never understand why the US would air-raid Yugoslavia to save the Muslims in Bosnia if the Muslims are against the US. Neither can they ever understand why the first response after the Haiti earthquake yesterday was from Washington, and all the rescue teams, millions of dollars from USA even still in economic turmoil, USS Carl Vinson, and the hundreds of marines going in to that part of the world after Black Hawk Down and Maersk Alabama/Captain Richard Phillips.
In Chinese sayings: these people have 小人之心 (tiny shrivel little heart) and are 井底之蛙 (narrow slit of opening for a view of the world, should feel sorry for themselves of living a pitiful narrow-minded life)。
There has been some funny logic going on after Baidu, who calls themselves "google of China" to get money in the US stock market, was attached by hackers from an Iranian web group a day before the google saga. Some well-known personnel in China's official-run TV and bunch more people online couldn't believe that a pro-Iran group would attach something China, "we have supported Iran, as the only supporter almost, to fight against US and the West, it is not possible for them to do this to us!!! it must be a conspiracy originated by the US (like everything else that is considered against China, more precisely against the ruling and only party in China)".
The same people or mentality had problems understanding African pirates took a Chinese ship and more than 20 sailor for hostage, and got many millions of dollars in ransom right after the show of power bythe Chinese military during a National Day goose-step zero-audience-on-street parade, because these people in China cheered for the pirates when they took American hostages. Same disbelief when Al Qaeda announced war against the Chinese people after a brutal oppression of Chinese Muslims in Xingjiang because these group of Chinese people cheered for Al Qaeda too when 9/11 happened.
By the same line of reasoning, they can never understand why the US would air-raid Yugoslavia to save the Muslims in Bosnia if the Muslims are against the US. Neither can they ever understand why the first response after the Haiti earthquake yesterday was from Washington, and all the rescue teams, millions of dollars from USA even still in economic turmoil, USS Carl Vinson, and the hundreds of marines going in to that part of the world after Black Hawk Down and Maersk Alabama/Captain Richard Phillips.
In Chinese sayings: these people have 小人之心 (tiny shrivel little heart) and are 井底之蛙 (narrow slit of opening for a view of the world, should feel sorry for themselves of living a pitiful narrow-minded life)。
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
10 Ways to Stay Green in the Lab in 2010
It is hard to do in this business. Numerous consumables, single-use everything to maintain experiment integrity, and constantly ordering reagents with all that packaging! It is a never ending stream of materials that go into experiments dealing with such small molecules. Hope is not lost- there are a few cheap and easy things we as bench scientists can do to help make our labs a little greener.
1 Always recycle- It is mandatory now for most companies and organizations to recycle (especially in California) if they produce more than 1 dumpster full of trash per week. You can do your part in the lab by always putting non-toxic/hazardous recyclables in the recycle bin! Even here in the Allele labs I often find Kimwipe boxes, glove boxes, and even plastic drinking water bottles in the trash and have to fish them out. Always recycling is an easy and, best of all, free thing to do to make your labs more earth friendly.
2 There’s no place like the correct waste receptacle- Every type of waste has its place. Be nice to the earth by putting biohazard in the biohazard, sharps in the sharps, organic solvent waste in the organic solvent waste drum etc.
3 Shut it down!- Always turn off your computer and unused equipment. You can save about $250 per computer per year just by shutting it down every night. Turning off other equipment like the UVP is easy to forget too. Just powering off that at night saves energy and extends the life of the bulb which also saves your lab some cash.
4 Look for ethidium bromide alternatives- This is a work in progress. With all the controversies regarding SYBR and DAPI in their function and mutagenic qualities it seems that there is a call for development of a legitimately safe method to visualize DNA and RNA. Allele is on the case and hopes to have something in the pipeline soon!
5 Swap your boxes- Styrofoam is a necessary evil in the lab. It is the easiest way to transport your temperature sensitive reagents and diagnostics; it is lightweight so it does not add too much to your shipping charges. The bad news is (until better recycling is implemented) that one styrofoam box will be here forever! If you have no occasion to reuse your styrofoam within your own institution there is good news. There are companies out there who will buy your used styrofoam boxes, like Allele with its Box Swap Program, so at the very least that styrofoam box can be used a few more times, eliminating the need to buy it brand new and decreasing demand for this material. If you cannot take advantage of our program then set one up for your own company!
6 Only use dry ice when you have to- If your shipment only requires -20 degrees C for a single day transit time blue ice will work! I have seen it more than I can say when we get a robust reagent sent to us in dry ice with priority shipping. Within the US, priority shipping usually means a transit time about 20 hrs. This last time I saw a small vial in the box which had ~7 lbs of dry ice. This much dry ice will keep a 2lb object frozen for about 24 hrs and someone used it to ship a 10g vial that only needed to be stored at -20 deg C for about 20 hrs! If they had used a 12oz blue ice pack they would have saved on shipping and packaging and we would have been able to reuse the pack, furthering our green endeavors.
7 Close the sash!- This is another great and inexpensive way to save the environment and some money. Closing the hood sash, incubator doors, and refrigerators adds up; constantly leaving them open add up too!
8 Back that thing up!- Since we are lab folk we do not have as many crazy office chain emails going around but I checked and yesterday I sent out 17 emails and received a few more than that! Days like that I shudder to think that there are people out there who receive more than I do on a daily basis and print out every single one for their “records”. This is madness. Please remember to not print emails unless you really need a hard copy. It’s just as easy to save it in a computer file and back your file up.
9 Talk about it- Those motivational types tell you to talk about your goals to others as a means of supporting and motivating yourself to accomplish said goals. Talk to your lab mates and ask them things they can think of to green up your lab. Do not feel weird about seeming “nerdy” by supporting the environment. Chances are, if you work in a lab everyone thinks you are a big nerd already!
10 Network green- I do not like business cards. They are usually made of paper, come in obscene quantities, and do not get recycled. If your title changes or you switch companies you have to go a buy thousands more to update your info. Additionally, they are only for work; there is no social aspect to them and they are too small to really put all your contact info on. Good news is you can go green in networking with Pokens! Pokens are these amazing little animal and people shaped devices that store all your contact info including your company’s website, your email, your social networking pages (i.e. facebook, linkedin, etc.), phone numbers, and whatever else you want. When someone else has a Poken you can “high-four” them and your contact info is swapped. Your Poken can hold many profiles and when it gets full you can load them onto your address book on your computer. There is an upgraded model specifically for business that is not animal shaped and is a zip drive as well. They are relatively new to America and I am one of the many campaigning for them to revolutionize the business card industry! I have two- one for work and one for play.
1 Always recycle- It is mandatory now for most companies and organizations to recycle (especially in California) if they produce more than 1 dumpster full of trash per week. You can do your part in the lab by always putting non-toxic/hazardous recyclables in the recycle bin! Even here in the Allele labs I often find Kimwipe boxes, glove boxes, and even plastic drinking water bottles in the trash and have to fish them out. Always recycling is an easy and, best of all, free thing to do to make your labs more earth friendly.
2 There’s no place like the correct waste receptacle- Every type of waste has its place. Be nice to the earth by putting biohazard in the biohazard, sharps in the sharps, organic solvent waste in the organic solvent waste drum etc.
3 Shut it down!- Always turn off your computer and unused equipment. You can save about $250 per computer per year just by shutting it down every night. Turning off other equipment like the UVP is easy to forget too. Just powering off that at night saves energy and extends the life of the bulb which also saves your lab some cash.
4 Look for ethidium bromide alternatives- This is a work in progress. With all the controversies regarding SYBR and DAPI in their function and mutagenic qualities it seems that there is a call for development of a legitimately safe method to visualize DNA and RNA. Allele is on the case and hopes to have something in the pipeline soon!
5 Swap your boxes- Styrofoam is a necessary evil in the lab. It is the easiest way to transport your temperature sensitive reagents and diagnostics; it is lightweight so it does not add too much to your shipping charges. The bad news is (until better recycling is implemented) that one styrofoam box will be here forever! If you have no occasion to reuse your styrofoam within your own institution there is good news. There are companies out there who will buy your used styrofoam boxes, like Allele with its Box Swap Program, so at the very least that styrofoam box can be used a few more times, eliminating the need to buy it brand new and decreasing demand for this material. If you cannot take advantage of our program then set one up for your own company!
6 Only use dry ice when you have to- If your shipment only requires -20 degrees C for a single day transit time blue ice will work! I have seen it more than I can say when we get a robust reagent sent to us in dry ice with priority shipping. Within the US, priority shipping usually means a transit time about 20 hrs. This last time I saw a small vial in the box which had ~7 lbs of dry ice. This much dry ice will keep a 2lb object frozen for about 24 hrs and someone used it to ship a 10g vial that only needed to be stored at -20 deg C for about 20 hrs! If they had used a 12oz blue ice pack they would have saved on shipping and packaging and we would have been able to reuse the pack, furthering our green endeavors.
7 Close the sash!- This is another great and inexpensive way to save the environment and some money. Closing the hood sash, incubator doors, and refrigerators adds up; constantly leaving them open add up too!
8 Back that thing up!- Since we are lab folk we do not have as many crazy office chain emails going around but I checked and yesterday I sent out 17 emails and received a few more than that! Days like that I shudder to think that there are people out there who receive more than I do on a daily basis and print out every single one for their “records”. This is madness. Please remember to not print emails unless you really need a hard copy. It’s just as easy to save it in a computer file and back your file up.
9 Talk about it- Those motivational types tell you to talk about your goals to others as a means of supporting and motivating yourself to accomplish said goals. Talk to your lab mates and ask them things they can think of to green up your lab. Do not feel weird about seeming “nerdy” by supporting the environment. Chances are, if you work in a lab everyone thinks you are a big nerd already!
10 Network green- I do not like business cards. They are usually made of paper, come in obscene quantities, and do not get recycled. If your title changes or you switch companies you have to go a buy thousands more to update your info. Additionally, they are only for work; there is no social aspect to them and they are too small to really put all your contact info on. Good news is you can go green in networking with Pokens! Pokens are these amazing little animal and people shaped devices that store all your contact info including your company’s website, your email, your social networking pages (i.e. facebook, linkedin, etc.), phone numbers, and whatever else you want. When someone else has a Poken you can “high-four” them and your contact info is swapped. Your Poken can hold many profiles and when it gets full you can load them onto your address book on your computer. There is an upgraded model specifically for business that is not animal shaped and is a zip drive as well. They are relatively new to America and I am one of the many campaigning for them to revolutionize the business card industry! I have two- one for work and one for play.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
索尔仁尼琴：《活着，并且不撒谎》（节选）
载于1974年2月8日《华盛顿邮报》, 就象今天说的一样.
（节选）
起初，暴政刚刚出现的时候，它的脸上洋溢着自信，好像挥舞着旗帜，高喊：“我是暴政。滚开，为我让路。我将捏死你们！”但是，暴政很快就会衰老，对自己失去自信，为了维持脸面，它只好找到谎言作为同盟，因为它无力将可怕的爪牙每时每刻放在每个人的肩头。它要求我们服从谎言，要求我们永久性成为谎言的一份子。这就是它所要求的全部忠诚。
要想找回我们自暴自弃的自由，最简单、最容易的方法就是，你作为个人绝不参与谎言。虽然谎言遮天蔽日，无处不在，但是休想从我这里得到支持。
只要我们不合作，铁筒一般的包围圈就有一个缺口。这是我们能做到的最简单的事情，但是对于谎言，却是最具有毁灭性。因为只要人们不说谎，谎言就无法存在。它就像一种传染病，只活在那些愿意说谎的人身上。
虽然我们每个人都是胆怯的，但是让我们做出一个选择。要么你自觉地作为一个谎言的仆人（当然，这并非由于你赞成谎言，而是由于你要养家，你不得不在谎言之中把孩子们养大），要么你就脱掉谎言的外套，变成一个忠实于自己的人，得到你的孩子和同时代人的尊重。
从今以后，你——
不以任何方式书写、签署、发表任何一句在你看来不是真话的句子。
不在私下或公开场合，以宣传、指导、教授、文艺演出的形式，自己说出或鼓动他人说出，任何一句在你看来不是真话的句子。
不描述、培育、传播任何一个你认为是谎言或是歪曲真相的思想，不管它的形式是绘画、雕塑、摄影、科技、或者音乐。
不以口头或书面的形式，不为了个人利益或个人成功，引用任何一句取悦他人的话，除非你完全认同你所要引用的话，或者它确实准确反映了实情。
不参加任何违背你心意的集会或游行，也不举手赞同任何一个你不完全接受标语或口号。
不为任何一个你不真心支持的提议而举手，不公开或秘密投票给任何一个你觉得不值得或怀疑其能力的人。
不同意被拉去参加任何一场可能强奸民意或歪曲事实的讨论会。
如果听到任何一个发言者公然说谎，或者传播意识形态垃圾和无耻的洗脑宣传，你应当立即退出该会议、讲座、演出、或者电影放映场合。
不订阅或购买任何歪曲事实或者隐瞒真相的报纸或杂志。
对于所有那些想要诚实生活的人，是没有第三条路的。要么选择真相，要么选择谎言，要么选择精神的独立，要么选择精神的奴役。
即使这样一种反抗是所有反抗中最轻微的，也是很不容易做到的。对于你的肉体，这不是一个容易的选择；但是对于你的灵魂，这是唯一的选择。
如果我们被吓破了胆，那么我们就不要再抱怨，别人在压迫我们，是我们自己在这样做。我们只好弯下腰等着，让生物学家把我们的猴子兄弟变得更进化一些，等到那一天，它们可以读懂我们的思想是多么的没有价值和没有希望。
如果我们连不参与撒谎都不敢，那么我们就没有价值和没有希望。普希金的讽刺用在我们头上正合适：“为什么要给畜牲自由？它们一代代的命运就是套上枷锁，接受鞭挞。”
（节选）
起初，暴政刚刚出现的时候，它的脸上洋溢着自信，好像挥舞着旗帜，高喊：“我是暴政。滚开，为我让路。我将捏死你们！”但是，暴政很快就会衰老，对自己失去自信，为了维持脸面，它只好找到谎言作为同盟，因为它无力将可怕的爪牙每时每刻放在每个人的肩头。它要求我们服从谎言，要求我们永久性成为谎言的一份子。这就是它所要求的全部忠诚。
要想找回我们自暴自弃的自由，最简单、最容易的方法就是，你作为个人绝不参与谎言。虽然谎言遮天蔽日，无处不在，但是休想从我这里得到支持。
只要我们不合作，铁筒一般的包围圈就有一个缺口。这是我们能做到的最简单的事情，但是对于谎言，却是最具有毁灭性。因为只要人们不说谎，谎言就无法存在。它就像一种传染病，只活在那些愿意说谎的人身上。
虽然我们每个人都是胆怯的，但是让我们做出一个选择。要么你自觉地作为一个谎言的仆人（当然，这并非由于你赞成谎言，而是由于你要养家，你不得不在谎言之中把孩子们养大），要么你就脱掉谎言的外套，变成一个忠实于自己的人，得到你的孩子和同时代人的尊重。
从今以后，你——
不以任何方式书写、签署、发表任何一句在你看来不是真话的句子。
不在私下或公开场合，以宣传、指导、教授、文艺演出的形式，自己说出或鼓动他人说出，任何一句在你看来不是真话的句子。
不描述、培育、传播任何一个你认为是谎言或是歪曲真相的思想，不管它的形式是绘画、雕塑、摄影、科技、或者音乐。
不以口头或书面的形式，不为了个人利益或个人成功，引用任何一句取悦他人的话，除非你完全认同你所要引用的话，或者它确实准确反映了实情。
不参加任何违背你心意的集会或游行，也不举手赞同任何一个你不完全接受标语或口号。
不为任何一个你不真心支持的提议而举手，不公开或秘密投票给任何一个你觉得不值得或怀疑其能力的人。
不同意被拉去参加任何一场可能强奸民意或歪曲事实的讨论会。
如果听到任何一个发言者公然说谎，或者传播意识形态垃圾和无耻的洗脑宣传，你应当立即退出该会议、讲座、演出、或者电影放映场合。
不订阅或购买任何歪曲事实或者隐瞒真相的报纸或杂志。
对于所有那些想要诚实生活的人，是没有第三条路的。要么选择真相，要么选择谎言，要么选择精神的独立，要么选择精神的奴役。
即使这样一种反抗是所有反抗中最轻微的，也是很不容易做到的。对于你的肉体，这不是一个容易的选择；但是对于你的灵魂，这是唯一的选择。
如果我们被吓破了胆，那么我们就不要再抱怨，别人在压迫我们，是我们自己在这样做。我们只好弯下腰等着，让生物学家把我们的猴子兄弟变得更进化一些，等到那一天，它们可以读懂我们的思想是多么的没有价值和没有希望。
如果我们连不参与撒谎都不敢，那么我们就没有价值和没有希望。普希金的讽刺用在我们头上正合适：“为什么要给畜牲自由？它们一代代的命运就是套上枷锁，接受鞭挞。”
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