Sleepsleep

Happy Birthday edith_the_hutt!!
I have been practically narcoleptic today - I can't stop falling asleep. First Plant Sciences, then the library - then I got home and slept all the way through the Over the Hills and Far Away album. And beyond. An hour and a half, more or less.

Got an e-mail from dad about laptops. Looks like we might be looking at Dell, despite their evilness, because they have a huge sale on. Possibility of Inspiron 1150...

We were playing with dry ice in the Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) practical. They had a freezer bucket full of pellets. Very fun.

Things we learned:

• Putting dry ice pellets in a latex glove then knotting the end results in said glove inflating to the size of a small watermelon as the ice 'melts' and gaseous CO₂ fills the glove.
  
• The same principle of expanding gas can be used to turn eppendorf tubes (small plastic tubes with tops that snap shut) into bombs as the gas pressure builds up inside. --> BOMBS! The risk is that the extreme cold will turn the plastic brittle, making it shatter as it explodes and pieces fly everywhere.
  
• Putting dry ice in water isjust generally fun, and works just as well in the lab as at pop concerts.

Oh, btw the practical was about DNA supercoiling and enzyme assays and had no bearing on dry ice effects at all. But I now have inflated gloves!

Eagle Debate at CTS very funny. My Gandalf got voted off with a spectacular number of votes...am proud. Am still working out what the formula for winning is though ^^

Bizarre day.