The Journal of Dr. Hawley Griffin - Entry 3

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The Journal of Dr. Hawley Griffin - Entry #3
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Dr. H. Griffin
Dr. H. Griffin 
@DrHGriffin 2 years ago
February 6th, 1895
West Sussex
Dr. Jekyll arrived today. He was initially not what I had first envisioned. The University report provided no visual description of Jekyll. He was surprisingly young and thin, gangling if I may use the term, with wavy brown hair and a perpetual air of peppermint, or spearmint. He asked if we could discuss the proposal in my drawing room. Making tea for us both, I especially had a hard time wading through my various discarded notes scattered on the floor. Jekyll seemed rather unfazed by this clutter, occasionally looking at them in curiosity, but putting them down when he found nothing of interest. 
He then went on to explain the Society, an establishment he had decided to create with a close friend of his, a man named Lanyon. Jekyll explained that he had been recommended to my research by one of my college colleagues, Kemp. How could I have been associated with someone so untrustworthy with knowledge of my experiments? Jekyll was unnaturally fascinated with my research, and had been wondering about how my experiments could be applied to the exhibition. 
“Why would I want my research at this exhibition of your’s?” I asked fervently.
“I do know that you are quite secretive with your research, Dr. Griffin, but I believe that you would be an invaluable asset to this exhibition and for the rest of the Society. (Or some other synonymous form of his poor choice of words) There is no monetary requirement to join the Society; all living and transport cost are managed by Lanyon. The only payment required is a piece at the exhibition.” 
I wondered at this for a few minutes. Obviously Jekyll knew of my monetary strains, having to experiment on rats that were infesting my own home. 
“So, what is your response?”
Before I could reply, I noticed a slight discrepancy in the area above Jekyll’s head, near the mantelpiece where Jekyll sat patiently. The antique tabletop clock moved slightly. Rat #3 was on the mantelpiece. 
“Uh, yes, I’ll go. Thank you for coming.” I replied, too distracted to reply properly. 
I managed to get Jekyll out quickly before Rat #3 could journey further across the mantelpiece and inevitably jump on Jekyll’s head. Before leaving, he inquired as to when I would arrive in London; I explained that I would arrive in two days time, and request that all my research be transported straight to the Society. To my immediate surprise, Jekyll agreed; explaining that an associate of his, a handyman named Hyde will deal with the necessaries. 
As soon as I saw Jekyll leave in a carriage, I ran straight for the living room, and grabbed the still unsearchable Rat #3. I will travel to London tomorrow, and hopefully this so-called Society will be worth my precious time.
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Hyde without a Jekyll • 2 years ago • edited
(OHHHH!! I'm really liking this!!! The unfolding of his backstory and I love all the little references to the original book and TGS! Not to mention the rats!! So many people don't appreciate a good rat these days! They're very lovely to experiment on and make far less noise than birds do. Plus the lobes of their brains are larger [of course depending on the bird] and the corpus callosum is much larger which makes slicing, studying it so much easier! Much appreciation with the rats from this fan! :D )
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Setae  Hyde without a Jekyll • 2 years ago
(You're the neurology student, arent you? I thought I remembered there being one in the comments. I kinda envy you, I've never gotten to study brains. Though I think of myself as an appreciater of rats. They're just the best lab animals. Both in terms of practicallity and they're also the most friendly and easygoing.)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Setae • 2 years ago
(I dabble in the neuroscience world to be honest. >///< 
I volunteer at a local lab with a professor [and grad students] who study European Starlings. I normally just do the grunt work of washing dishes, cutting brains, mounting sections, and cleaning up after the college kids.
While most of the brains I work with are those of birds with tiny corpus callosums thus allowing them to fall apart into 2 pieces when I'm trying to mount them on microscope slides [the jerks>:P ], I have done some practice with rat brains in the past. The lab next door works with rats so I do get to see the fuzzy white little drug-addicted guys somewhat regularly <3 [they're really cute!] but I can none the less appreciate a good rat brain. I've gotta say by far we are not the weirdest lab in the building for working with birds as some research groups have several safes filled with gmo crickets. Not to mention the pink geckos living within the walls, but I digress. I guess my point is that rat brains are far easier to work with than bird's and they make great company! )
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Setae  Hyde without a Jekyll • 2 years ago
(Sorry for the late reply! 
XD Gah, I'm super jealous of you! All this sounds so cool! And I've learned something new about rat and European starling brains. Yay. Though I'm sorry for your plight with the corpus callusums. (Poor rats though, can I ask what they're addicted to? And, ahm, what are they looking for in the bird brains?) Are you a planning on a career with neurology or a related field? Or do you just have an awesome science hobby?)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Setae • 2 years ago
(Don't worry about it! Sometimes these things happen! XD
It's a lot of fun and I get to hang out and ask the grad students college questions and such! And luckily I've gotten good enough at reading the brain to tell how it fits together [for the most part XP ] so the corpus callusum plight seems to have a remedy.
In the way of what the rats are addicted to, I'm honestly not sure as that's not my lab. I were to guess maybe opium or pot or something? But I do know they are mellow as all get out when ever I'm in there.
Unlike the rats I know all about the birds! :D So specifically what the lab is looking for is this chemical called Dopamine that's tied to pleasure. [Quick crash course on Dopamine: So you're brain rewards you with Dopamine whenever you do something good. Let's say you're hungry and when you eat you're brain will release a flood of Dopamine into interact with your Neurons and make you feel good about it. This also applies to smoking and some addictive drugs which force the release of Dopamine in your brain. My boss/Grad student thinks that Dopamine plays a key role in practically everything.] Specifically what they're doing now is seeing that when the birds are in different seasons of their reproduction cycle if the amount of Dopamine that the brain releases is different for the different calls. So in mating season the males will sing a song to attract females, and in child rearing season their children will have a different call than the mating call. We're seeing if the brains of the Starlings release different amounts of dopamine with the different calls. For example in mating season we hypothesize that there will be more Dopamine released to the prerecorded male's mating calls than to the children distress calls. Another example is we're hypothesizing that there will be more Dopamine to the prerecorded children distress calls during child rearing season than with the mating calls. I hope this makes sense and there's a ton more behind it but that's just the 2 minute crash course version of the data their collecting and what they're researching.
I was at one time looking at going into neuroscience as my major and potential career but after exploring that route I decided to stick with Mechanical Engineering. I do enjoy the lab work a ton but the memorization and the subject is just not for me. I do keep helping out at the lab though cause those guys are crazy and a ton of fun! Plus I do enjoy my work with them mightily. :D )
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Setae  Hyde without a Jekyll • 2 years ago
(Good to hear :)
Heh, stoner rats. (I'm a 15 yo boy :P)
Iiihh, science! I'm really tempted to ask you a bit more about methods and stuff, but I dont want to bore you. Still, it sounds super interesting! Will you get to know the results?
Dude, Mechanical Engineering. Respect. That's also gotta be really useful in todays job market, right? Though, doesn't it involve a lot more *shudders* math? 
That's quite understandable :D)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Setae • 2 years ago • edited
( XD The stoner rats are the cutest with their little wires and chemical detectors sticking out the top of their heads! Kind of looks like they have science top hats on! XD I did a bit of research on the rats and it looks like [and I could be wrong and these could be different rats] that they're used to model occlusive strokes. (I'm 17 so you're fine! Actually when I was 15 I started working at the lab. Serious if you just look around your city, find a lab that interests you, and call them saying "Hi! I'm interested in your work and I'll come in and volunteer for free." They'll hire you in a heart beat. It looks great on college and scholarship applications and it gets you some great experience!)
Oh please do ask!! I really enjoy talking about these sorts of things and I've usually got a comical story or two behind each bit of information! Plus the methods and prep work is a lot of what I do for the lab. I normally make the electrodes that detect the dopamine, slice and mount the brain sections onto microscope slides for viewing, sometimes I do data logging or the dishes. Just depends on what the college kids were slacking off on. XD Now I should clarify that I don't participate in the collection of the birds or the surgeries or the data collection due to liability issues but I've heard a lot about them from my boss. As for the results they just started coming in! :D We finally got the process to work quite efficiently and my boss is doing at least one surgery ever week! Much to the dismay of the night staff who get to listen to bird screams! ...Until I started working this job I didn't know a bird could scream. XD I don't know what it means yet but I'm sure once there's enough my boss will publish his master's paper on it.
Aw! Thanks! >///< I do hope it's useful in the job market as that's what I want to do and as long as things are needing to be made I'm sure business will do just fine! As for math, HELL YES! I'm currently doing Linear Algebra over at the college and let me tell you, by the end of this course I'm never going to want to see another matrix for as long as I live! If you don't mind me asking, what subject(s) are you interested in?
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Setae  Hyde without a Jekyll • 2 years ago
(Aaww, I want draw rats now. Occlusive strokes. Google tells me that's got something to do with clots in the blood vessels in the brain. Nasty consequenses on the nervous system. Poor rodent fellas. 
(15? God lord you started early. I was busy being an idiot apathetic teenager at that point. I have no idea if any labs in my vicinity hire like that. I wish had investigated. But when school ends, hopefully I am going to be working in somekind of lab anyway now. Or atleast become aquinted with how to work in one.)
:D You already answered some. I was curious what they used to detect the dopamine. Electrodes? How does that work with tiny neurotransmitters? I know you said you don't collect the brains, but do you know how long after the birds have heard the calls they cut the brains out?
Is that what happens during surgery? (If so, ah, do I want to know why the birds are screaming?) How big is a starling brain? :P Bigger than a rat's?
If you have any funny stories, I'm all ears! (Well, eyes, and may soon fall asleep, so heads up, a reply will probably come a bit later)
Heh, that sounds like a very wholesome thing to wanna do. And like a pretty safe job market. 
You have my deepest respect for being able to go through with it. I've been sick of math for many years. I feel ya man. 
Subjects? Mainly Biology -animals. Chemistry's also grown on me a lot over the years.
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