Experiments and CHL Poster.
Next week's schedule:Monday: Genetics exam 10am, then lessons as usual until 6pm, EFR till 10pm. Paper due.
Tuesday: Lessons 10am - 3pm, lab from 3pm till late.
Wednesday: Lessons 10am - 12pm, lab till 4pm, then lessons again till 6pm. EFR till 10pm.
Thursday: Lab 9am - 1pm, lessons till 3pm, then lab again till late.
Friday: Camping in lab the whole day.
I have a lot of experiments to do... I need to confirm the results that I have been getting, because I am confident that what I have been getting is true. Got myself a cell line today (so now I have more things to maintain), made a cell block, froze some mouse brain (which I have no idea how to dissect until Brian came to my rescue) - so that next week I can get the western blots running and produce the first set of data by Friday.
I am excited about my research. I want to spend more time downtown...
Well but history is cool too. I have been spending the past 2 days trying to put together a paper comparing Kepler and modern empiricism. Initially I wanted to write about reductionism (kind of inspired by Henry Schaefer) - but found it a little difficult to put forward a solid case for a short paper because of the heterogenous nature of reductionism. It is complicated stuff :P
What's the point of doing simple things that pose no challenge though? It'll be a waste of life, and a waste of taxpayer's money :P
Ohh let me tell you what I think of the Chairman's Honours List poster this year, from the point of view of a trainee historian heavily influenced by biology and medicine.
(I am not posting the image - common sense tells me that I am not supposed to. If you don't have the picture with you then just imagine first, and check out standard A*Star propaganda sometime in the very near future.)
A*Star's bias towards the biomedical sciences is reflected in 2 very obvious ways.
1. The arrangement of the photos: Those are not just circles. They resemble the double helix of DNA - I believe that is the first impression you should get too. The guy who designed this definitely had that in mind.
2. Look at the background: it is an image of Fusionopolis. However, nowhere in the poster states Fusionopolis - but we have a sign which says 'Biopolis' right in front. Well, if you are not an A*Starian, just by seeing the poster won't you think that Biopolis is the two magnificant buildings in the background?
There is one more symbol that might be a little forced - look at how individual photos and descriptions are structured. They look exactly like budding yeast - saccharomyces cerevisiae - when they are budding. It might be unintentional, but if we assume it to be intentional, it can be metaphorically read as: 'these young people are our budding scientists'. Though do they have to use a model organism to illustrate the point?
The use of these symbols are not coincidental. It reflects the general attitude of the agency that produced it. Imagine, if it is EDB that produced this, or if it is SAF that produced this - do you think you will see circles arranged in this way? What would you expect to see?
That's what a history major does all the time - finding patterns from primary sources, putting them together in the form of a story and draw a valid conclusion. Another myth exploded: history is not just mugging. Basically nothing is just mugging. A-levels gave us a wrong world-view (or Weltanshauung - 'an intellectual construction ... that makes you feel secure' - Sigmund Freud).
People ask me why don't I want to find something easier (like econs) to double major in. Haha what's the point of getting formal instruction on something that is easy (or consisting of mugging only)? Why can't I learn it myself - when I need it?
So it is very unlikely for me to make it into next year's CHL (I made it this year because last year was just too slack). If I do, well, I will have to thank God for that :P
Labels: Life, Studies and Career
