Potayto ≠ Potahto!
These are not--I repeat NOT--the same thing.
Where on earth is this going, you ask? I'll get there.
Today marked my second powerpoint presentation, this time on the effects of nickel inhalation on mice as well as TGF-B. Again it was with the grad students (a little bigger group than I expected) AND with a projector and screen. Now that didn't change my presentation at all, but it sure raised my intimidation factor ten notches.
Last week during my cell culture presentation, Dr. Yu asked me why we use one of the genes, which was one I wasn't sure about (and was probably obvious when I gave a hurried and cursory explanation). I know it was part of Xiao Zhuo's project, but I wasn't ever absolutely sure why we used it. Against my own personal philosophy, I kind of just went along with it and never went back to really analyze its function.
Answering Dr. Yu's question, I had talked about the mechanism of the gene, but didn't really quite hit the nail on the head. He then asked Xiao Zhuo to explain, and then Dr. Yu reiterated it was to make the cells 'immotile.' I nodded my head and smiled, like I often do when I'm lost (but only in Taiwan, not America, I promise!) and then went back and scoured google for an hour after the presentation to clarify. I came up short and could not find anything as to why hTERT was being used with regards to immotility. I asked Xiao Zhuo again the next day and he tried his best to explain it, but I still didn't get it, and we were going into territory where his English wasn't developed, so I decided to just give up for awhile, and accept that I might know down the road somewhere in the future--or not.
Now fast forward one week to today. As I'm sitting in the conference room listening to the grad students present other academic papers, I notice Cherry (her English name, my other teacher and Zhuo's lab partner) has a slide up that talks about immortality of cells. Interesting, I thought. I'd like to see where this goes, providing I can follow (slides are in English, speech is in Chinese). As she gets to the point of immortal cells, I hear her say, 'blah blah blah xibao shi immotile de.' (That means 'the cells are immortal'.)
DING!!!
Xiao Zhuo and Dr. Yu weren't saying 'immotile'; they were saying 'IMMORTAL'. It all made sense, if you remember (which naturally I didn't) that the 'r' sound found in English is nonexistent in Chinese, so most pronounce it as 'ah' or eliminate it altogether. Finally, after days of agonizing over how and why whether a cell moves or not could possibly affect transfection, I found the answer--mainly, that it doesn't. After this realization, I completely spaced on the rest of Cherry's presentation, dwelling on the fact that I cracked a one-week mystery that was eating at me like no other.
I went last. It was my first real presentation on a real scientific academic paper. And I think I did pretty well if I do say so myself.
Where on earth is this going, you ask? I'll get there.
Today marked my second powerpoint presentation, this time on the effects of nickel inhalation on mice as well as TGF-B. Again it was with the grad students (a little bigger group than I expected) AND with a projector and screen. Now that didn't change my presentation at all, but it sure raised my intimidation factor ten notches.
Last week during my cell culture presentation, Dr. Yu asked me why we use one of the genes, which was one I wasn't sure about (and was probably obvious when I gave a hurried and cursory explanation). I know it was part of Xiao Zhuo's project, but I wasn't ever absolutely sure why we used it. Against my own personal philosophy, I kind of just went along with it and never went back to really analyze its function.
Answering Dr. Yu's question, I had talked about the mechanism of the gene, but didn't really quite hit the nail on the head. He then asked Xiao Zhuo to explain, and then Dr. Yu reiterated it was to make the cells 'immotile.' I nodded my head and smiled, like I often do when I'm lost (but only in Taiwan, not America, I promise!) and then went back and scoured google for an hour after the presentation to clarify. I came up short and could not find anything as to why hTERT was being used with regards to immotility. I asked Xiao Zhuo again the next day and he tried his best to explain it, but I still didn't get it, and we were going into territory where his English wasn't developed, so I decided to just give up for awhile, and accept that I might know down the road somewhere in the future--or not.
Now fast forward one week to today. As I'm sitting in the conference room listening to the grad students present other academic papers, I notice Cherry (her English name, my other teacher and Zhuo's lab partner) has a slide up that talks about immortality of cells. Interesting, I thought. I'd like to see where this goes, providing I can follow (slides are in English, speech is in Chinese). As she gets to the point of immortal cells, I hear her say, 'blah blah blah xibao shi immotile de.' (That means 'the cells are immortal'.)
DING!!!
Xiao Zhuo and Dr. Yu weren't saying 'immotile'; they were saying 'IMMORTAL'. It all made sense, if you remember (which naturally I didn't) that the 'r' sound found in English is nonexistent in Chinese, so most pronounce it as 'ah' or eliminate it altogether. Finally, after days of agonizing over how and why whether a cell moves or not could possibly affect transfection, I found the answer--mainly, that it doesn't. After this realization, I completely spaced on the rest of Cherry's presentation, dwelling on the fact that I cracked a one-week mystery that was eating at me like no other.
I went last. It was my first real presentation on a real scientific academic paper. And I think I did pretty well if I do say so myself.
posted by Shannon @ 9:02 PM
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