What It Means to "Cut a Cell"

Yesterday, I began my morning with a warm latte made from freshly ground Israeli espresso beans and topped with a dollop of foamy milk. Then, after a series of less than interesting events, I ended the night outside on the roof of my dorm with a cold Israeli beer, a Goldstar Dark Lager. Perhaps everyday should begin and end like this.

After guzzling down my morning coffee, I spent an hour doing work before going to Charlie's to grab something quick for breakfast. Because I love bread and I've heard that Jewish bakers make a rather keen bagel, I opted to try one out. Though it was tasty, it was also a bit much for the morning. The bagel had salt and tasted more like a soft pretzel than the traditional bagel I'm used to…I can't imagine what absurd flavor a layer of cream cheese would've given it!

I spent the remainder of the morning taking data that I collected in Arizona and "cutting cells," basically going through the data and identifying when a specific neuron is firing. When we record with an electrode in the brain, it's like lowering a microphone down from the ceiling of a sit-down family restaurant. Depending on where the microphone (electrode) is, we hear all sorts of different things. If it were nearby a fun kid like my ten-year old cousin Nicholas (or a glutamatergic interneuron), we'd hear some really exciting stories interspersed by periods of silence as Nicholas closed his mouth to politely slurp his chocolate milkshake and chew his cheeseburger. Because the microphone wouldn't be as close to the rest of the people at the table, we wouldn't be able to hear Nicholas's mom and dad very well. Occasionally the waitress would come over and say things in a quick and high-pitched happy voice causing everyone at the table to be quiet as they waited to see what she has to say (kinda like an inhibitory GABA neuron). Then, beneath all these noises, we'd hear the background chitter chatter of all the other tables. My job yesterday, was to try and pick out all the conversations I could, to figure out which neurons were talking and when they were saying something! It's very exciting, a lot like being a sneaky detective who spies on the brain and tries to figure out its secrets.

At lunch-time, Lior and I met up with Tess (the girl in my dorm from Colorado) and Tanmay (my newest roommate). We ate at Charlie's and, thankfully, the meals we chose to eat had little to do with the conversational topics we chose to entertain. I ate a tuna sandwich with cucumber and tomato, while I explained to everyone some of my lesser known research endeavors…namely, my expertise at measuring monkey testicles! I was pleased to hear that my friends at the Weizmann Institute agreed with me that water displacement would be the optimal method for measuring size, though the chosen method employing a pair of calipers was equally sufficient! To continue with the topic of the bizarre, Tanmay told us how in India once a year a drink is served legally to celebrate a festival to one of the Hindi gods. This drink, he told us, is made strictly of milk and marijuana!?!

After lunch, we all returned to our respective labs and finished off the work-day. At 5:30, Tanmay and I decided to take a trip to the cell-phone kiosk at the mall to get an Israeli SIM card for his phone and see about getting my phone to work in Israel. It's a bit annoying not being able to call someone in Israel and I'm worried I might get lost somewhere like Jerusalem, unable to contact the rest of the group! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my phone figured out but Lior mentioned that he might have one for me to borrow. On our way back to the dorm, Tanmay and I picked up falafel which was very tasty. Mine consisted of a pita slathered in hummus and layered with falafel, salad, and fried potato.

With the remainder of the evening, I finished up some more work stuff, read a couple chapters in the new book I'm reading ("Gentlemen and Players" by Joanne Harris), and then headed up to the roof of Clore House with Tanmay for a get-together with the other summer students. It was an excellent way to conclude the evening—getting to meet new people over drinks, watching the bats swoop out of the trees, and breathing in the cool night air.