the new 4126 was a BLAST (not an EZTAXON)....

BIOL 4126 was only taught once before in Spring 2003 - then Rainey served as the Assoc Dean in BASC for 5 years before finding the light and coming back from the dark side. The first 4126 was a very different "beast" to that of this semester. In fact it was taught in a different world, a world with no BLOGs or AirSet, in fact Al Gore had just finished inventing the internet and was starting on his next invention.......

The new format and the components included seemed to work well for everyone and a real hands on research experience was had by all. On the basis of the comments on the BIOL 4126 survey (thanks to those who completed it) there is not too much to change in the format and components of the class. The next class will work on a different set of strains that belong to a different family of bacteria.

At the end of the semester we have made new discoveries (that strains are resistant to radiation and desiccation and that it differs between strains and genera) and collected a set of data that can be used to describe some new species of the family Geodermatotophilaceae. There is still some data to collect and this will be done in the summer and a paper(s) will be submitted to IJSEM in late Summer/early Fall. We will all be coauthors on the paper(s) along with Keren (Keren Ray - first student from RaineyLab who went to Med School in 1999 and is now a Peds Doc in Baton Rouge) and Danielle (who you all met and is finishing her PA training) who isolated the strains in the first place.

The class party was fun and Rainey was impressed with these GOLD shoes some of our classmates had on - he wanted a pair. That was until today - now he wants a pair of these:
but he needs a pay raise as these cost $540 not $5.40 or $54.00 but $540 and guess who is wearing them? Click on the picture above to see the whole story :-)