Thursday, March 24, 2005

Guess the Bug Competition

brucella
The spectre of a looming grant deadline is becoming all consuming and precludes a post on any of my usual topics. Unfortunately this is the lot of the modern scientist and chasing funding is an eternal treadmill. It doesn't seem to get easier with time either. Perhaps someone should have a word with SaneScientist who seems to be intent on walking the same pathway along which I've been staggering for the past xx years (no I'm not bloody well going to tell you how many decades I've been in this game as my brain refuses to accept my age and it's embarrassing to talk about how relatively little time there is before the free bus pass). Normal service, such as it is, will resume after April 1. Until then here's a picture of my latest "foe". I wonder if any smarty pants can guess what it is? Post if you can figure it out. The winner(s) will be invited to contribute to the grant writing and provided with a week's supply of Starbucks coffee. The answer and reference source will be revealed on my next entry.

Peace!

6 comments:

SaneScientist said...

Well its not saccharomyces cerevisiae. That's my microbiological contribution.

Mad Dog said...

You are quite correct in saying it's not S. cerevisiae. Here's a clue: Gram-, human and animal pathogen, category B bioterrorism agent...

SaneScientist said...

Yersinia pestis - although I think that may be harmelss to the Rats and Ticks that transmit it?

Failing that, Shigella perhaps?

My microbiology sucks - I'm definately a molecular biologist rather than a microbiologist.

Mad Dog said...

Close but no cigar!

I'm sure my molecular biology is worse than your micro. And now I'm wrestling with high througput proteomics which is very cool but taxing the aging grey matter.

Y. pestis was the grant before last. The bug in the EM is not as sexy as plague and in this day and age and is mostly thought of as an animal disease...

SaneScientist said...

Brucella?

Mad Dog said...

Bingo!