Wednesday, February 3, 2010

crafty bio geek-out

During the work restructuring and grand cleaning i went through 16 years of accumulated stuff. In a take-away pile inside of an old convention bag i found instructions on how to make my own pet neuron from pony beads. Do i like crafty projects? check Do i own pony beads? check Do i know someone who has an undergrad degree in neurobiology who currently teaches AP biology, is an EMT and is going to medical school next year? check One afternoon i sat down and tried to make a pet neuron. And i tried. And i tried. I'm not gonna lie: those were the most poorly written directions i have ever read. They were atrocious. How could any educator from any museum have allowed them to be printed? After a few attempts i tried to just go off of the xeroxed picture, only to find out that the picture and the directions didn't even match each other. UGH! After quite a bit of time and a lap full of ugly, half-formed, mutant neurons i decided to take matters into my own hands. Firstly, i decided to dump the bulky pony beads and go with smaller, sleeker, pretty rondelles. Then i decided to make each anatomical part of the neuron a different color since i figured it might end up being used during a class session. After playing with the proportions i was happy when i finally had an identifiable pet neuron complete with crystal dendrites, a rosy cell body, a red axion and brown synaptic terminus. I liked the name Clive, but fTM Matt has declared his name to be Heathcliffe. Is it wrong that something so ridiculous can make two grown people so happy?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks a little like a coral polyp to me...how do I get one sent to me? Do I have to move to California?

-me

Niki said...

You don't have to move to CA; i don't want you to move to CA. Heathcliffe was a ginormous pain to make, however.
How about a nice plushy clown fish mobile instead?

Anonymous said...

hmmm...maybe...