More Beef with China

On Thursday, my adviser told me my research needs to start working or I need to "shift gears." Why? Partly because, well, my results don't look so hot and because a research group at the China Agricultural University in Beijing published a paper using a regulatory protein (that I was working with) to improve ethanol production in E. coli. This protein comes from Deinococcus radiodurans, one of the most ridiculous organisms on Earth. It's so tough that it's in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most radiation resistant life form.

The paper itself is crap. The authors misspell words, they leave out a whole section in their methods and materials. I don't know if I can trust anything they wrote, but it's enough for my adviser to say, "Let's take a few steps back." I have a couple ideas, but if I knew what would work, I'd obviously be doing that!

And if all else fails, my dad always says I can come back home and drive a gravel truck.