I just came back from my (almost) annual trip to Michigan State University in East Lansing. I flew to Detroit and stayed overnight at the airport hotel, then took the bus the next day. It is much more convenient to fly into Lansing (the state capital) but I could not find connections that worked this time.
I collaborate with Keith Promislow in the Math Department there. He is a long time friend and colleague. This year, we worked on new models for energy gradient flows of surfaces. These have applications in materials science and microbiology. We had an incremental success with previous models (curve motion in 2D) and started something more involved with axisymmetric surfaces in 3D.
I took the opportunity to touch base with researchers in the Plant Laboratory. I am in a joint project with them that will start in December, looking at the behaviour of cuscuta, a parasitic plant. The project will (hopefully) identify the genes responsible for the ability of the parasite to detect its host. I am the data analysis guy in the project, that is funded by HFSP (Human Frontiers Science Program). Our job will be classifying the behaviour of growing cuscuta plants from time series photography. On a tour of the lab, I got to see the end stages of infection of cuscuta eating a tomato plant. They are growing this one for seeds.
I have a routine there when not working. I rent a bicycle at the campus bicycle shop, host G&T nights once a week, and go to the local Art Festival to look for new tie dye shirts. I also do some paper mache crafting in my long stay hotel room, with supplies from the local Hobby Lobby.
There is a parking garage on the bike route to the nearest big grocery store (Meijer) that they seem to have forgotten to add the walls to:
There are some back "yards" that make me envious:
Odds are I will go back again next year...
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