The First Twilight Book

I started the first twilight book before Christmas, and I finally finished it yesterday. The week before Christmas I was just at home while Matthew was working, so that's pretty much all I did was read my book. Then when we went back home there was no time to read it, there was so many family to see, and things to do. I really enjoyed the book. I decided to start reading them after I got put into the Young Women's because that's all those girls talk about. I seemed to be the only one who hadn't read them. I am super excited to see what happens in the 2nd one, which Matthew got me for Christmas.

Spider Silk from Goats Milk?????

Matthew and I both work in the Lewis Lab where they are doing a project with spider silk. I only wash the dishes for the lab, but Matthew actually gets his hands dirty and works in the research and works with the goats. He has been able to help in the process of the birth of the baby goats. He has really enjoyed it. To make the story short they are making spider silk out of goats milk. But here is an article that I found on uwyo.edu that talks more about the project for all who are interested.



Untangling spider silk's structural mysteries
THE 6,000 LB OF GOAT MILK sitting in Randolph V. Lewis' laboratory freezer at the University of Wyoming takes up a lot of space. But it's only one part of the biochemistry professor's effort to understand spider silk and replicate its remarkable properties.
Of course, the caprine concoction is no ordinary goat milk. It comes from Montreal-based Nexia Biotechnologies, a company that made headlines a few years ago when it announced it had created genetically modified goats that produce milk laden with spider silk proteins. And understanding the chemistry and biophysics behind spider silk's remarkable properties has been at the heart of Lewis' research for nearly two decades (Chem. Rev. 2006, 106, 3762).
Courtesy of Randy Lewis
Polypeptide Zipper Antiparallel strands of helices made up of GGX repeats come together like a zipper.
To begin with, spiders don't make just one type of silk, Lewis noted. The ingenious arachnids produce silk in up to six varieties of varying strength and elasticity. Of these, Lewis said, dragline silk has attracted the most commercial interest.
Spun by orb-web-weaving spiders for their web's framework and for the spiders to catch themselves during a fall, dragline silk is about as strong as the bulletproof polymer Kevlar. Unlike Kevlar, however, dragline silk is also extremely elastic, which is why it takes 10 times more energy to break dragline silk than it does to break Kevlar.
Spider silk is made almost entirely of protein, so from a molecular standpoint, what is it that makes dragline silk so strong and also so elastic?
Thanks to fiber diffraction studies, scientists have long known that spider silk proteins possess crystalline regions of β-sheets. "The problem is that almost all the information we get is on those crystalline regions," Lewis explained. Although those β-sheets are important, they don't tell the whole story. The protein structure that gives spider silk its amazing elasticity is still something of a mystery.
Courtesy of Randy Lewis
Protein Nanospring Repeating β-turns take the shape of a springy β-spiral.
Because spider silk is insoluble in all but a few organic solvents, scientists can't use traditional protein characterization methods, such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, to suss out its structure. So Lewis' team decided to see what they could learn from examining the silk protein's amino acid sequence.
Lewis pointed out that one of dragline silk's proteins contains stretches of polyalanine of up to seven residues alternating with repeating sequences of three residues: two glycines (GG) and a third amino acid (X) that is either tyrosine, leucine, or glutamine.
On the basis of computer modeling, Lewis thinks this repeating GGX motif forms a helical arrangement in which each triplet makes a complete turn in the helix. In that structure, all the X residues extend outward from one side of the helix. The models also show that if two antiparallel strands of this helix come together, their X residues can interdigitate like a zipper. "We believe this is a key factor in terms of tensile strength," Lewis said.
The modeling studies have also led Lewis' group to propose that dragline silk's elasticity comes from a pentapeptide motif of glycine-proline-glycine (GPG) and two other amino acids (XX). This GPGXX sequence is thought to form a β-turn, and multiple β-turns from GPGXX take the shape of a springy β-spiral. "Looking at the structure," Lewis said, "you can imagine that if you pull, that spiral stretches."
Comparing the sequences of a variety of natural spider silks, Lewis noted that proteins lacking this GPGXX elastic segment can't be stretched beyond 5% of their original length. If a silk protein has nine of the elastic segments, however, its elasticity is 20 to 30%. And if the protein has 60 GPGXX repeats, its elasticity is more than 200%.
To test these computational models experimentally, Lewis' group, including postdoc Florence Teulé and undergraduate Alyssa Cooper, has made 18 different variations on the dragline silk protein. They tweak amino acids to see which factors are the most important in terms of strength and elasticity in spun fibers.

The Buffalo round-up

Matthew works for the state vet lab. Today I got to go on the a trip to Medicine Bow with him and his boss to get some buffalo. The vet lab is doing a research project on the buffalo. We got the buffalo from the Q Ranch. They have about 450 head of buffalo on the ranch and we were just getting about 14 of them. We ended up only rounding up 7 of them, and the rest of them got away. Buffalo are quite a job to round up and stay where you want them too, because they would jump right through the fences. But we had a great day spending it together, and it was great to go to work with Matthew for the day.

Spring Semester 2009

Today was the start of Spring semester. It kind of feels weird to be back in school and getting in the routine of waking up before 9 every morning. Over Christmas break we were spoiled with be able to sleep in. Now its back to work we go. Today I only had 2 classes and a job to go to, but Matthew had five classes and working. I am so thankful for a hard working husband, he truly is amazing. I am excited for the new classes for this semester, but there is going to be no slacking off. Its not going to be an easy semester, and I am sure Matthew could say the same. He does get to take a lot of animal science classes, which he does enjoy so that will be great. We are both very thankful for the opportunity to continue our education.

Ginger Beer was a hit with Stetson

For Christmas our friend Richard Walker got us a pack of Ginger Beer, he use to drink it on his mission in Australia. Its kind of like their root beer but it has ginger in it and its non- alcoholic.. We invited Michael, Emily and Stetson over for Ginger Beer and Cheesecake last night, and Stetson loved the Beer. We first had it in a hot chocolate mug, and he thought it was hot so he sat there and blew on it. So we decided to give him the whole bottle, and he was so funny about it. He just guzzeld it down. Thanks Richard for the Ginger Beer it made a great FHE for us last night.

Our Christmas (Loaded with pictures)

Doesn't it just feel great to be back home from Christmas Vacation and be in your own house. Its amazing to get to go back home to see all the family for a few weeks, but I love the feeling of being in my home. We had a festive Christmas and a great New Years with too too much food. We left Laramie the 2oth of December and heading back to the Basin. We were welcomed home by all the Asays, and the Bullingers. Sunday morning we went to Burlington to church with my parents then that night we hit up a Christmas choir concert in Lovell. The Lovell Stake choir did a beautiful job. Christmas eve was fun, during the day I headed over to my families house and the whole Bullinger family was sledding for the day. I only got on for a few minutes, and I was still hurting afterwards. Christmas eve, The Asays have a traditon of Neokies ( an Argentine special) that Stan's dad brought back from his mission. It was delious. Matthew and I were able to be Santa's little helpers that night. We had christmas at the Asays, had an amazing dinner then headed to the Bullingers. We had another great christmas there. We were for sure spoiled this year. Over the break we were able to see lots of our friends and family. Matthew went ice fishing with a bunch of his buddies, and a couple of our friends got engaged over the break. Richard and Katie we are so excited for you, good luck with all the planning. Matthew was able to get tons of experience in the vet department over the break. He helped his uncle Dave one day preg test cows. And did all sorts of work on the Asay farm. OH Man we had our share of sickness. Matthew and I both got the terrible flu, oh it takes all the energy out of you. Now we are both getting over colds. For new years we ate way too much, We had a little party at the Asay's then we played Blanco with all the Bullingers and shot of fireworks. Over all we had a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Stetson

Yesterday was our little nephew Stetson's 2nd birthday and we got to join in on the celebration. We first went swimming at the rec. Stetson loves the water, Matthew and I were so surprise how fearless he is. He would go up and down the kids slide all by himself, even backwards. We then headed to Pizza Hut for a pizza party. ( Thanks Michael and Emily for the pizza it was great). Then Joel and Sarah and their kids came over for icecream and cake. Emily and Michael made a cute cake with Boots off of Dora the Explorer which Stetson loves. We really do enjoy having Michael and Emily & Stetson living close by so we can spend tons of time with them. Stetson is so much fun to be around, he's a great kid, and such a cutie.