FACSS 2005 (2)
Oct 10th 2005WallabyGeneral & nerd alert
First full day of conference stuff. Highlight of the morning was Max Diem’s talk on infrared imaging of cells (skin and cervical); mostly spectral stuff about the need to target individual cells and where the spectral variance actually comes from, but some stuff on how to collect and prepare cells that’s relevant to a side project I’ve been considering for a while. More biomedical imaging stuff also; if I don’t find something that’s more purely “chemistry” I could definitely do worse than to wind up doing that sort of thing. But not on bone. I’m done with bone. For one thing, it’d be rude to compete with my advisor!
Quick but nice lunch in a hotel restaurant; turns out today’s Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, so most everything was closed. (Happy Thanksgiving to any Canadian readers. Sorry we invaded on your holiday!) I tried the traditional “sugar pie”, which is apparently a butter tart crossed with pumpkin pie for texture… mmm. Another kumquat in dessert; what’s the obsession with kumquats here? They can’t be a local Canadian specialty, but they were all over the menu last night and again today. A little stroll around the Old City and a few pictures; it’s a bit cold and windy (and wet) to roam too far. A sad change from last year in Portland. 
Afternoon was split between “novel instrumentation for Raman” (including a back-to-back pair of talks on techniques sub-surface imaging through opaque/scattering media) and one talk from Cargill on images of meat cooking. Yes, right before dinner. Apparently someone there got a shiny new IR microscope and didn’t really quite know what to use it for; so far they’ve established that (1) water is important and (2) there are major changes in protein secondary structure as meat cooks. Which is why juicy meat is more tender, and why meat gets firmer when it’s cooked. Ground-breaking. 40 years ago.
Another fancy dinner, this time courtesy of the boss — Saint-Amour. Butternut cream soup and sea scallops. And now back to the hotel, and probably bed. Whee!