Trying to write my honors thesis when all I want to do is sit out in the sun. Damn California weather.
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Human Knowledge
I'm reposting this from Federico Pistono. I'd seen the first half before, illustrating what exactly a Ph.D means, but I really like the message at the end of this one. Over the next 6 years, I'll try to keep it in mind.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Posters
I can't really spare much focus for a post right now, because I'm trying to finish up a scientific poster for the MCB honors poster session on Friday. Re-organizing my thoughts about what I've been doing for the past year and putting it back in context is a bit tough. It's looking pretty good right now, but I have to send it to my PI (who is out of town) and hope I have enough time to make the corrections that I know she will suggest. The poster, of course, needs to be printed, which means that I need to be done with it by tomorrow night at the latest. Oh man, where'd the time go?
Sunday, November 7, 2010
*Chomp*
4 out of 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum. What about the other one?
7 out of 8 mice recommend sticking your nose between my fingers while exploring and then curling up in my hand. What about the other one?
The other one recommends biting my thumb. Twice. Either the taste of blood + latex is addictive or he was just vindictive.
I suppose that's my fault for holding him too loosely as while trying to apply something to his paw. But I'm too soft-hearted and would rather err on the side of being bitten than hurting the mouse. Ah well, that's a price I will continue to pay (every now and then - this was my first bite all semester).
7 out of 8 mice recommend sticking your nose between my fingers while exploring and then curling up in my hand. What about the other one?
The other one recommends biting my thumb. Twice. Either the taste of blood + latex is addictive or he was just vindictive.
I suppose that's my fault for holding him too loosely as while trying to apply something to his paw. But I'm too soft-hearted and would rather err on the side of being bitten than hurting the mouse. Ah well, that's a price I will continue to pay (every now and then - this was my first bite all semester).
Googling "mouse bite" gave me this picture of a viper and its deadly little killer. You go, mouse!
(Story here: Telegraph)
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
This is my 150th post, so I want to talk about something meaningful. I just finished reading a book I started sometime in the middle of spring semester. I got about halfway before my mom borrowed it to read. I brought it on the flight to India knowing I would have plenty of time to read, but I ended up sleeping for a large portion of that time.
At any rate, I finally picked it up again yesterday, and I want to tell you
about it because it affected me strongly. It's called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
.
In it, Rebecca Skloot (who signed my book!) tells the story of the woman behind HeLa cells, as well as her descendants and family. HeLa cell lines all originated from a cervical cancer tissue sample taken from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks. As the first human cells found to be immortal (able to survive infinite divisions rather than stopping at 50 like normal cells), they were - and still are - used in research on pretty much everything. They are the lab mice of the cellular biology field. They could be cultured easily, and are (relatively) genetically identical. Experiments can be done with the knowledge that other researchers would be able to replicate the results (which is necessary to get rid of bias in science) because they can use the same cells.
Yet Henrietta Lacks never knew what was being done with her cells, and her family was never informed. What they were told was made difficult to understand by their lack of education. Nobody bothered to explain exactly what cells were, and how Henrietta herself was not being tortured by all the things being done to the cells. Researchers took blood samples to study the genetics of the cells, and the family thought they were being tested for cancer. When no results were forthcoming, they lived in constant fear that they would develop the same type of cancer and die. Entrepreneurs cultured and sold HeLa cells, but not a cent went to the Lacks family, which was left with no knowledge of this business, still living in poverty.
The story is eye opening. The only cells I have worked with are Chinese Hamster ovarian (CHO) cells, but it made me realize that when working with anything human, you really have to think about the patients. The purpose and possible good that could come from you research may be obvious to you, but to someone who has not dived as deeply into the subject as you have, it can be terrifying.
Biology has advanced to the point that scientists have to narrow down their focus and specialize in order to discover anything new (or so we usually think). This means that understanding most breaking news in the scientific world requires a grasp of a wealth of previous knowledge. So we get a little lazy and stop trying to explain all of our results.
Even I was caught up in this. Science has too many subtleties for the general public, I thought. People want absolutes, and every one of the "maybe"s that is part of the essence of science decreases their belief that science works, I thought. What could I do to alleviate that? There's not really much hope. But that's not true and what is is not all their fault. Science has come to be seen as something elite, something that is not relevant to normal people's lives. Compared to the decades of the Space Race, it's become unimportant. But scientists are partially to blame for not reaching out to make themselves understood.
I honestly think that this book should be required reading for any students interested in going into a biological field. Whether it's research or medicine that that fills up your time in your imagined future, this book will remind you to not forget that even while working for the greater good, you need to give a little time to the smaller good.
At any rate, I finally picked it up again yesterday, and I want to tell you
about it because it affected me strongly. It's called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
In it, Rebecca Skloot (who signed my book!) tells the story of the woman behind HeLa cells, as well as her descendants and family. HeLa cell lines all originated from a cervical cancer tissue sample taken from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks. As the first human cells found to be immortal (able to survive infinite divisions rather than stopping at 50 like normal cells), they were - and still are - used in research on pretty much everything. They are the lab mice of the cellular biology field. They could be cultured easily, and are (relatively) genetically identical. Experiments can be done with the knowledge that other researchers would be able to replicate the results (which is necessary to get rid of bias in science) because they can use the same cells.
Yet Henrietta Lacks never knew what was being done with her cells, and her family was never informed. What they were told was made difficult to understand by their lack of education. Nobody bothered to explain exactly what cells were, and how Henrietta herself was not being tortured by all the things being done to the cells. Researchers took blood samples to study the genetics of the cells, and the family thought they were being tested for cancer. When no results were forthcoming, they lived in constant fear that they would develop the same type of cancer and die. Entrepreneurs cultured and sold HeLa cells, but not a cent went to the Lacks family, which was left with no knowledge of this business, still living in poverty.
The story is eye opening. The only cells I have worked with are Chinese Hamster ovarian (CHO) cells, but it made me realize that when working with anything human, you really have to think about the patients. The purpose and possible good that could come from you research may be obvious to you, but to someone who has not dived as deeply into the subject as you have, it can be terrifying.
Biology has advanced to the point that scientists have to narrow down their focus and specialize in order to discover anything new (or so we usually think). This means that understanding most breaking news in the scientific world requires a grasp of a wealth of previous knowledge. So we get a little lazy and stop trying to explain all of our results.
Even I was caught up in this. Science has too many subtleties for the general public, I thought. People want absolutes, and every one of the "maybe"s that is part of the essence of science decreases their belief that science works, I thought. What could I do to alleviate that? There's not really much hope. But that's not true and what is is not all their fault. Science has come to be seen as something elite, something that is not relevant to normal people's lives. Compared to the decades of the Space Race, it's become unimportant. But scientists are partially to blame for not reaching out to make themselves understood.
I honestly think that this book should be required reading for any students interested in going into a biological field. Whether it's research or medicine that that fills up your time in your imagined future, this book will remind you to not forget that even while working for the greater good, you need to give a little time to the smaller good.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
People Who Know More Than You
Okay, so the Maker Faire story is taking a while. I was only there for 5 hours or so and there was still a ton of stuff to write about, and I'm being slightly lazy.
In the meanwhile, let me fill the gap by talking about presentations, since one of those is the reason I was in Berkeley the last few days. Basically, I had to make a little presentation in lab meeting on Wednesday about what I've been doing. A little background about the project and the techniques, a quick recounting of my various failed attempts, and the display/explanation of the data from the one trial in which things did work, followed up by a short list of where to go from here.
I'm not usually nervous about presentations, but this one had me worrying a little bit. I've realized that it's quite nerve-wracking to give a presentation to people who know the subject better than you. Hell, the main paper involved was written by my PI. Who knows it better than she does?
Two days before, I was still figuring out thresholds for comparing the experimental and control data, turning my huge tables in Excel (240 rows x DW columns is no joke) into pretty graphs, and figuring out the best way to show off my awesome-looking results.
Negative control on the top left - no response. With the thing I'm testing - huge response. Inhibiting the thing I'm testing - no response again. Woooo, the assay works!
That lasted up until the evening before the meeting. Now it was time to start on my Powerpoint.
...
...
Yeah, a little late, but I actually don't procrastinate unless I know (unconsciously) I can make the deadline without too much stress. And this is something I've been working on for a whole semester, so I've got a pretty good understanding of it. Making the outline and the Powerpoint itself didn't take long.
The thing was, though, I'd seen some of the grad students in the lab presenting at lab meetings as well (one was practicing for her quals). They got asked a lot of tough questions. When I started, it was background, and nobody asked any questions. They all knew the stuff back and forth (I did mix up an important part, but my post-doc mentor was the only who caught it, and he waited until afterward to tell me). So I thought I was off the hook.
As soon as I got to my results, though, it was like a frenzy of (rather friendly) sharks. Most of the questions I got were on my data. How did I analyze it? Did I do this particular statistical analysis? Did I compare those two things? etc. Oh man. There were plenty of things I still had to do, so I couldn't answer everything, but apparently I still did a pretty good job.
So even though I'm not usually nervous about presentations, I've got to say: Whew. I'm glad that's over. For now.
In the meanwhile, let me fill the gap by talking about presentations, since one of those is the reason I was in Berkeley the last few days. Basically, I had to make a little presentation in lab meeting on Wednesday about what I've been doing. A little background about the project and the techniques, a quick recounting of my various failed attempts, and the display/explanation of the data from the one trial in which things did work, followed up by a short list of where to go from here.
I'm not usually nervous about presentations, but this one had me worrying a little bit. I've realized that it's quite nerve-wracking to give a presentation to people who know the subject better than you. Hell, the main paper involved was written by my PI. Who knows it better than she does?
Two days before, I was still figuring out thresholds for comparing the experimental and control data, turning my huge tables in Excel (240 rows x DW columns is no joke) into pretty graphs, and figuring out the best way to show off my awesome-looking results.
That lasted up until the evening before the meeting. Now it was time to start on my Powerpoint.
...
...
Yeah, a little late, but I actually don't procrastinate unless I know (unconsciously) I can make the deadline without too much stress. And this is something I've been working on for a whole semester, so I've got a pretty good understanding of it. Making the outline and the Powerpoint itself didn't take long.
The thing was, though, I'd seen some of the grad students in the lab presenting at lab meetings as well (one was practicing for her quals). They got asked a lot of tough questions. When I started, it was background, and nobody asked any questions. They all knew the stuff back and forth (I did mix up an important part, but my post-doc mentor was the only who caught it, and he waited until afterward to tell me). So I thought I was off the hook.
As soon as I got to my results, though, it was like a frenzy of (rather friendly) sharks. Most of the questions I got were on my data. How did I analyze it? Did I do this particular statistical analysis? Did I compare those two things? etc. Oh man. There were plenty of things I still had to do, so I couldn't answer everything, but apparently I still did a pretty good job.
So even though I'm not usually nervous about presentations, I've got to say: Whew. I'm glad that's over. For now.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Research Position!
Today, I am happy. Not just because my essay is done (thought that is contributing).
I (almost definitely) have a place in the neurobiology lab that I really wanted to work in! Starting next semester, of course. It’s exciting, though, because the lab researches some often overlooked stuff. The professor is really nice, and the lab is small, so I’ll actually get a chance to talk to her.
Second semester junior year…better late than never!
I (almost definitely) have a place in the neurobiology lab that I really wanted to work in! Starting next semester, of course. It’s exciting, though, because the lab researches some often overlooked stuff. The professor is really nice, and the lab is small, so I’ll actually get a chance to talk to her.
Second semester junior year…better late than never!
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