They gather indoors and think
Thank heavens for zoom
We hope you and your families are all staying healthy and as safe as possible during this uncertain time. Like many others, we in the Liau Lab are doing our part to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by working from home and practicing social distancing. With a pandemic loose, it’s imperative that we all follow the recommendations of our public health officials.
And yet it’s also important to do what we can to stay positive and connected in this time of crisis. In that spirit, we’d like to present this blog post as a glimpse into the little joys of day-to-day quarantine life. Without further ado:
S T A Y H O M E
an acrostic poem & visual journey
S — Socializing VIRTUALLY
To stay in touch with others and safeguard our mental health, we’ve been meeting up each week over Zoom to chat and socialize over coffee. Many thanks to Ally for taking the initiative to coordinate these virtual coffee hours!
We may not be essential, but caffeine sure is.
T — TASTY CREATIONS
If there’s one thing that brings our lab together, it’s a love for food, and we have some amazing chefs. Take a look at some of the dishes we’ve made over the past few weeks:
Matzah lasagna made by Allison for Passover. We wouldn’t pass over this dish!
Ramen and scallion pancakes made by Cindy. The dishes are arranged like a water molecule.
Lentils from Pallavi. Have you tried cooking in an Instant Pot?
Potatoes from Pallavi, cooked to goldenrod deliciousness.
A hearty mac and cheese dinner made by Ceejay.
Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing made by Nick.
French toast made by Cindy. Look at those swirls!
Pizza made by Cindy. Looks like the toppings have undergone phase separation.
Dalgona coffee made by Hui Si. Beautiful and trendy, just the way we like it in the Liau Lab.
A — ANIMAL FRIENDS
More time at home means more time to spend with our furry pals! Rebecca shared some adorable pictures of her dog, Molly, enjoying her time at home:
Molly posing under a table.
Even dogs can Zoom!
In the midst of the pandemic, we were excited to welcome Emma to the lab as our newest graduate student! Well, excited mostly because now we have access to cute pictures of her adorable cat, Linus. After all, grad students are temporary, but cat pictures are forever.
Welcome to the Liau Lab, Emma and Linus!
Linus posing just for you.
Y — YEARNING FOR THE OUTSIDE WORLD
now the hooman never leaves
take me on walks tho
Same, Molly, same.
H — Honing the ancient craft of breadmaking
Given the recent nationwide uptick in baking, it’s no surprise that some of our very own lab members have decided to try their hands at making bread. The Liau Lab’s bread and butter, so to speak, are E. coli and human cancer cell lines, so it’s a pretty big deal to see our lab venture into working with yeast.
Ally’s sourdough starter. Does culturing yeast fill the void left by not doing TC?
Sourdough goodness courtesy of Ally. Look at those designs!
More sourdough courtesy of Emma. Notice the pattern in the bread. Like snowflakes or DIY masks, no two loaves are identical.
A fluffy loaf with that classic corgi look, courtesy of Shelby. Shout out to Ally for an emergency contactless delivery of yeast and flour.
O — ONGOING CHOCOLATE ADDICTION
As you all know, our lab really likes chocolate. Just because we’re not in lab, doesn’t mean that addiction went away…
You can tell that Allison baked this banana bread, because it’s clearly just a vehicle for chocolate.
They say to work from home effectively, you need to recreate your office environment. Enter Ally, who decided to recreate the the lab chocolate bowl at home.
M — MEMES
You know we like memes in the Liau Lab. Well, here’s one we concocted at the beginning of the year:
Get you a lab that can do it all.
Meanwhile, some of us are having a little too much fun with the Zoom custom backgrounds…
“This is fine.” Out of the mouths of babes.
E — ENGAGING WITH SCIENCE
They say that cooking is really just science at its heart. Well, Jiaming traded in his round-bottom flasks for some nonstick pots and has been culturing his own yogurt. Testing different brands of milk and carefully varying the freshness of his yogurt starters, he concludes that “they all produce tasty yogurt in different textures and flavors.” Can’t argue with a postdoc.
Homemade yogurt from the Li Test Kitchen. The nice thing about home cooking experiments is that the CCB safety officer will never know if you’re wearing safety glasses or not.
As a lab, we’re also trying to stay engaged with science a little closer to our research. As part of this, we’ve been having weekly journal clubs to cover recent developments and historically important papers in our research areas.
Here’s a view into our virtual lab meetings. Shout out to Shelby and Hui Si for an awesome journal club presentation!
And that’s all for now. We hope this brought some joy into your day, and thanks for reading! We wish you and your loved ones safety and security.
While we’re sad to be out of the lab for now, we know it’s for the best. We look forward to returning to our benches and hoods in the future so that we can bring more science to you all. Until then (or until our next update), take care!
We wait in a fractured world
For the next blog post