God Bless You, Wikipedia
If it were possible to marry a URL, Wikipedia would be my betrothed. It has saved me in chemistry classes, biology classes, the occasional poli sci class, and now, in all things molecular bio -and stem cell-related. Descriptions, pictures, and links to outside websites should I choose--it doesn't get better than that.
Well, today's lab experience was an improvement over yesterday's. I was much steadier with pipetting, and I also happened to understand the theoy of this part better than yesterday's. In addition to trying to understand every step (as opposed to just being a mindless robot, because then where does that get you), I am in the process of researching particular genetic functions that are related my grad students' projects. Wow, thank god for sticking through 6 weeks of genetics, even if it was with a W. And thank you, Nesbitt, for being an absolute Nazi with AIDS. I would be so screwed right now if I hadn't had those classes. It would have been another world if I had already taken MoBio, but I really didn't know what I'd be doing here (and I didn't have the prereqs), so c'est la vie.
I went back in to change the medium at about 10 pm, and all went relatively smoothly. No major hazardous spills, and my technique is (albeit slowly) getting better. Tomorrow a PhD student will be presenting a seminar on IgA (Immunoglobin A), which I will be sitting in on with the other grad students and post-docs. I'm curious to hear what specifically this seminar is focusing on. All these are topics that are new to me, so providing I'm not immediately lost, I should in theory be able to learn something new every time.
In other news, President Chen Shui-Bian was here Monday, apparently consulting a small team of researchers for something or another, of which Dr. Yu is a part. Fantasic, the mentor I am working for is a scientific advisor to the president of the ROC and I can't do cell cultures. I learned from Philip that day that the president apparently currently has an 18% approval rating, and that it was only higher when there was an assassination attempt before the last elecion. (I guess it's similar to our 9-11 in some ways; when there's a national crisis, everyone shows solidarity). I guess now that he's alive and well, everyone hates him. Supposedly he's extremely corrupt, and his son-in-law who is merely in his early 30s is director of all hospitals and medicine or something like that, and he doesn't possess the necessary experience.
Unqualified people with connections having power over knowledgeable and qualified people who don't play suck-up? Well I never.
Well, today's lab experience was an improvement over yesterday's. I was much steadier with pipetting, and I also happened to understand the theoy of this part better than yesterday's. In addition to trying to understand every step (as opposed to just being a mindless robot, because then where does that get you), I am in the process of researching particular genetic functions that are related my grad students' projects. Wow, thank god for sticking through 6 weeks of genetics, even if it was with a W. And thank you, Nesbitt, for being an absolute Nazi with AIDS. I would be so screwed right now if I hadn't had those classes. It would have been another world if I had already taken MoBio, but I really didn't know what I'd be doing here (and I didn't have the prereqs), so c'est la vie.
I went back in to change the medium at about 10 pm, and all went relatively smoothly. No major hazardous spills, and my technique is (albeit slowly) getting better. Tomorrow a PhD student will be presenting a seminar on IgA (Immunoglobin A), which I will be sitting in on with the other grad students and post-docs. I'm curious to hear what specifically this seminar is focusing on. All these are topics that are new to me, so providing I'm not immediately lost, I should in theory be able to learn something new every time.
In other news, President Chen Shui-Bian was here Monday, apparently consulting a small team of researchers for something or another, of which Dr. Yu is a part. Fantasic, the mentor I am working for is a scientific advisor to the president of the ROC and I can't do cell cultures. I learned from Philip that day that the president apparently currently has an 18% approval rating, and that it was only higher when there was an assassination attempt before the last elecion. (I guess it's similar to our 9-11 in some ways; when there's a national crisis, everyone shows solidarity). I guess now that he's alive and well, everyone hates him. Supposedly he's extremely corrupt, and his son-in-law who is merely in his early 30s is director of all hospitals and medicine or something like that, and he doesn't possess the necessary experience.
Unqualified people with connections having power over knowledgeable and qualified people who don't play suck-up? Well I never.
posted by Shannon @ 6:51 PM
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