In my department this year, someone has decided to hold a “deck the doors” contest. Basically, you sign up for a door, deck it out, and whoever has the best door gets pizza. I’m actually not a HUGE fan of this. This is partially because my lab is not very Christmas oriented, and thus it’s blown up into a huge issue. It’s also partially because the organizer of the contest has gone around hounding everyone to make SURE they decorate their doors.
Anyway. My lab manager has decided to do her own door (for various reasons). She wants to win, and give the pizza to charity, which I happen to think is a damn good idea. We don’t need extra pizza on our butts at Christmas, but there are a lot of hungry people out there who do. Our lab studies dopamine (in case you hadn’t already guessed), so she wants to make a dopamine wreath, along with some dopamine carols to put on the door. I also want her to wrap the door for extra festive. We’re geeks, I know.
The problem is this. I don’t like her dopamine carol. I just…don’t like it…and so she challenged me to make up my OWN. And you know what, IT IS ON, Lab Manager, IT IS ON! Besides, I think it would be a really good thing if she won and donated the pizza. So I WANT her to have the best carol. And I personally think it’d be even BETTER to have more than one carol, right? A whole book of carols! Then we’d definitely win!
Here are some of MY suggestions:
These are mine
To the tune of “Jingle Bells”
Dashing through the lab,
to measure dopamine
rats and mice abound
it’s a crazy scene
Nucleus accumbens
ventral tegmental, too
there’s so much to stim and punch
There’s always more to do!
Oh! Dopamine, dopamine, our fav’rite molecule
It’s so fly, it gets you high
This monoamine rules (yeah!)
Dopamine, dopamine, our fav’rite molecule
It’s so fly, it gets you high
This monoamine rules!
And my other one, to “Carol of the Bells”
Hark how the cells
You small brain cells
All fire away
Night or by day
Dopamine’s here
bringing good cheer
receptors, all
heed DA’s call
Signalling right
All things you like
Drugs, food, and sex
Beer and Tex-Mex
They stimulate
receptors wait
wait for the spike
transmission tonight
See the signalling
all neurons firing
stims of good cheer
Dopamine’s here
D1, D2, D3, dopamine
D1, D2, D3, dopamine
On, on it sends
on without end
changing the tone
of your neurons…
This one is hers:
to the tune of ‘Oh Christmas Tree’
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, Arvid Carlsson did discover
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, Arvid Carlsson did discover
Your structure is so very nice, we study you in rats and mice
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, Arvid Carlsson did discover
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, from L-DOPA to Norepi
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, from L-DOPA to Norepi
Your propensity for the DAT, takes you right out of the synapse
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, from L-DOPA to Norepi
We test you with voltammetry, and also use HPLC
Oh Dopamine, Oh Dopamine, Arvid Carlsson did discover
And now, I am opening it up to all of YOU! I want some help! We need more carols! It’s in the interest of pizza for the homeless. And you know you want to waste your time with some geeky goodness. We’d love to hear your submissions! The contest is December 19th, so please comment before then!
