The Inner Life of A Cell

This made cell biology alot more interesting!



For higher resolution, go:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

Enjoy!

A Clogged Sink... and more

Yeah, I just finished helping my dad attempt to solve a clogged up sink that is terribly designed -- which is currently still clogged.

For the past 2 months, most of the hours of my life was devoted to the lab. I'm not complaining, because I do find it interesting, fun, and exciting. Not forgetting frustration, impatience, and disappointments -- loads of it. And I must admit, a presently faint and budding hope of being able to publish a paper before I graduate. Of course, exciting only when the project does move on, inter-mingled with small doses of triump and celebration when troubleshoots are successfully solved, and when the agar plates do have colonies growing.

Unfortunately, I do find myself spending lesser and lesser time at home. Lab hours, the frequent dinners and birthdays spent with friends (of which I'm thankful, as it shows that people still regard me as a friend), piano lessons and pool trainings all occupy much of my time. Of course, the occasional family dinners during certain weekends and birthdays are still intentionally organised and treasured. But day to day, only mum and dad's at home between 5-11pm.

There is a sense of guilt at times, when I sit down and realize (like now) that home is slowly becoming like a hotel. Check in for the night, and temporarily check out for the day. Of course, minimal room service provided. So, the clogged sink actually provided an oppotunity for me to do something together with my dad. Wierd huh... but else, sometimes it's just hard to find a common topic to talk about. It is sad too.

But talking about the clogged sink. If I were to own a house in the future, I'll just get a plumber. Or maybe not, 'cos I guess I have not experienced how it feels to pay out of my own pocket something I know I can reasonably fix on my own.

Cleaning the incubator (that had E.coli spilt all over, and a conspicuous looking 1litre flask with a shattered hole and my name written over it) was indeed a big challenge. Dismantling the entire machine was probably my most recent encounter of doing something very much technical. Coupled with some really microscopic and tightly screwed in screws, my blood was boiling in a matter of minutes. I destroyed 3 alan/allen keys in the process of loosening those screws. But with some summoning of determination, creativity and a certain degree of quick-mindedness, I managed to get the job done.

I have to admit, these traits of looking for alternative methods to get a job done, finding unharmful short-cuts, and the determination to finish tasks that look impossible were inculcated during army days as a CQMS. Dealing with logistics and lots of manual labour, sometimes you just have to think of alternative methods on the spot when a certain something so happen is lacking. Especially when you're out in the field, and resources are limited. And, my trusty storemen never fail to come up with whacky ideas, creative methods and surprisingly simple ways of getting various jobs done. Despite their limited years of education or bad history with the law, I really admire and respect them for some of their ideologies and the hardships they have to endure. I must say, army has opened my eyes and provided me a window to see and encounter people and situations that I would never even get close to.

I have recently begun to appreciate Celtic and World Folk music. I never knew it is pronouced as "Cal-Tic" music till of late. Perhaps the tranquility, mysticism and imagination it invokes makes is kind of enchanting. Think misty mountains, rippling streams, dancing faeries, craggy vikings and bewildering forests. Also the medieval tunes likened to castles, dungeons, jesters, carnivals... ... Ah, I would love to explore Scandinavia one day.

So, about the clogged sink. Despite dismantling everything and clearing the unexpectedly imaginary clogged drainage pipe, the sink still remained clogged. Pretty bewildering. For me, I think I would extend an invitation to the plumber.

My dad however, thinks otherwise.

The Unfair Exchange

Before the Love of God can be manifested, the Wrath and Holiness of God had to be shown.

Someone had to pay the price of sin, and He chose Jesus.

"For He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
2 Corinthians 5:21

How then... can we not be thankful?

Singing YOUR Beautiful Song

A pretty old song we sang.. In the church I attended previously.
Wow, really good old memories!

what kind of life?

Today, I tried to go down to the lab earlier so I can run the gel early, in order to have time for a second double digestion followed by another gel electrophoresis. Then, I can transform my dearest piece of work into pet bacteria cells, and wait for results to appear tomorrow!

Unfortunately, the lab ran out of DNA ladder so I couldnt run the gel, till late morning. Which meant, I wasted quite some time... getting up early and all, and I have to extend the dateline. grrrr...

Recently, this whole lab experience has been prompting me to give further serious thoughts about my future. Frankly, I am enjoying my time in the lab. Perhaps it's the personality thing. But I have read, heard and infered, that life after a PhD would more or less mean trading most of your life for the lab. To put it nicely, it's for the furtherance of science. To put it awfully, it's selling most of your social life. Well, I don't know at the moment, but I did request to my PI that I would like to do a UROPs (Undergrad. Research Project) for the next 2 semesters under him, and this would contribute 8 modular credits to my overall graduation requirement.

A couple of benches away from me, I have a friend who's currently pursuing her PhD. She just came back from a 1 month Europe getaway, and she so kindly showed me her photos. Hmmm, I really wish to go free and easy travelling with a couple of friends. Anywhere... where the weather is un-Singaporish will do. After all, it's the company that makes most of the difference. (the weather does play a part too) And I've got to save enough money for that too.

Not enough money... how to go?

about PIs

Yesterday, a friend of mine doing her honours in NZ sent me an article about a career in science. A portion of it contained a small discussion about Principal Investigators (PIs). And since I've just recently gotten to work with a PI, I thought it to be very relevant, and hilarious. This comic strip was taken from the article published in Nature. Really interesting...

Courtesy of http://dentcartoons.blogspot.com/

laborious work

Today's Day 2 of my attachment with one of the Professor in NUS.

What I'm basically taksed to do is Recombinant DNA work, where the PI (Principal Investigator) has tasked me to make a vector containing a special gene and Green Fluorescent Protein gene. His work is on the immune system, particularly on cancer genes and how the body's immune system fights off tumour cells. He's really so kind as to demonstrate and explain step by step to me the required techniques. I'm currently starting off real slow now. So basically, I have ALOT of free time. Yesterday, the only thing I did was to mix the vector with Restriction Enzymes. Thats all. Today, I set up and ran the gel, and extracted the DNA from the bands. I think by t0morrow I would have seen most of the required techniques and protocols being demonstrated, dephosphorylation and ligation, and I'll be left to carry on more or less on my own. The project shouldn't last too long, hopefully, if things go well. When I get the desired product, I'll learn how to do DNA sequencing and PCR. Then he would task me on some other project.

Currently, his lab has 1 full time staff, 3 honours students and 1 undergrad research project member. Really thank God that I got to work in a lab where everyone is all so friendly and helpful. Heard from a few of my friends about their not-so-nice experiences with PIs.

The PI himself is from Switzerland, and he's such a down-to-earth, humble, friendly professor. Can see that he really enjoys teaching and explaining stuff to us undergrads, and the occasional chats, despite all his meetings and other things he needs to do. The honours students and the full time staff also willingly explain to me what they are doing.

The really good thing about attachments is that there isn't a need to write reports. I just hope I can acquire as much lab knowledge and practical techniques this break, and discover if I'm really into research. So far, it has started really well and I enjoy what I'm doing, but I suppose it's still way too early to judge now. Perhaps I'm a little crazy, trading off my holidays for this, but I think it'll be worth it.

Guess what I found in the lab toilet? A research paper on top of the toilet bowl closet.

Updates!

It's really been a long while since I last updated on whats going on. To say that nothing has been going on is certainly not true. But perhaps the events seem insignificant to me, at least insignificant to share. That isn't good I suppose. When blessings and moments in life are taken for granted, everything will seem insignificant.

Pathetic

Yes... Pathetic. Today I took my first IPPT and I failed! I couldn't pull the required amount of 'ups', despite my occasional sessions at the bar at the bottom of my block and not forgetting the last week of frequent gym visits. Yes, last minute work doesn't work.
Then the run was a flop. The threadmill is definitely not a good gauge! So... 3 more weeks of intense exercise regime before I go claim at least $100 from SAF.

My lifestyle at the moment is also rather pathetic. I'm feeling like one of those big fluffy dogs, that spend most of their time imitating a rug beside a cosy fireplace in front of the TV. No, I have not developed into a TV addict, but I have been waking up later and later. That's not good. Time to change!

Desiring Busy-ness

I'm not sure if it's just me. When I'm all busy and living life with nothing but a snorkel and an occasional gasp of air, a million agendas of what-I-would-do-if-I'm-free floods my wish list. Then when I'm totally freed and having all the time in the world, I become bored. =_=''

As the saying goes: An idle mind is the devil's workshop. I have to agree with this.

As such, Thank God I managed to obtain an attachment with one of the professors in NUS, starting this Monday. He's working on Natural Killer cells in the immune system and he needs a new vector, so I'm given the task to create it. This whole attachment thing has gotten me quite excited. It's my first go at research, and I'm dying to find out how's it like. Then there's all that new molecular biology techniques that I'll be learning, and that's interesting! Isn't it? The downside is that there's no renumeration.

Suspense

Results for the last semester will be out this Friday. Will the CAP go up or down? Seems like this question is all that matters. Yes. After all, isn't that why we all go to school for. No one, at least not in this generation, can truthfully say that he goes to school to primarily enrich himself.

Recently, a couple of forum letters in the Straits Times have been regarding the June holidays: If it's for, as its name suggest, holiday. Or, a time to plough doubly hard in assessment books, remedial classes and 'parents work'. It's truely a pathetic plight. The pressure for the nation to attain world class standards at an international level has effects that radiate all the way down to the primary level. Perhaps this pressure is also increasing in every developed nation. It's sad. Survival has come to a point where the crucial nurturing and developing years are ruined. Everyone parent wants success in his child's life. But excesses can lead to detrimental psychological effects. And it doesn't help when teachers and principals thirst for success in life too. It's all a cycle. To be the best principal, best employee. Young lives get pressure cooked all around. Grades, CCAs, Best acheiver awards, School rankings. I really feel very sorry for this era. While I'm thankful that I'm out of that stage in life, I really feel sorry for the young people I still have contact with.

While it's true that this pressure is very unlikely to be lessened throughout one's lifetime, adults have greater capability of managing it compared to children. If it's possible, spare them for a little while more till they are older.

Sunday

When life becomes turbulent, what can we hold on to?
This was last Sunday's sermon, and it truely reminded me of the fundamental things of living a Christian life that I have often forgotten.

When turbulence hits... fear, worry and anger enters. But because of the destiny of every believer in Jesus as promised by the eternally faithful God, we can face turbulence with boldness and courage, for all that is on earth is temporal. Since God is eternal, and it is a duty of every Christian to honour God, shouldn't the things we do on earth (and not just in heaven) be ultimately done for His glory and honour?

It has encouraged me greatly, as it reminded me once again of what are the things that really matters. Temporal things do not last, eternal ones do.
As I recieve my results this Friday, may I have acceptance of it whatever it may be, and give God the glory for it, as I have given my best effort for Him this semester.

"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." James 4:14