Back to School Sales

I'm heading off to grad school in a month, and I'm wondering if I need a new laptop. My current one is getting low (for me) on hard drive space, and it's almost 4 years old. But I take care of it, and it's still working great. For my current patterns of activity, it's fast enough with its 2gb RAM (though Vista is constantly using some large percentage of it).

The question is, will I need something more for crunching data or visualizing protein structure, or whatever I'm going to be doing? If I do need need more power and a slightly more future-proof computer, back-to-school sales are the best time to buy laptops, and it would be another year before such chances come around again. My dad keeps saying that I should get a new laptop before this one breaks down, rather than waiting until I need one immediately. The situation has changed a bit though, since I won that 10" netbook last winter. If this computer dies, I still have something I can use for simple tasks. It even has the files I'm working with synced via Dropbox.

So perhaps I'll wait. The HP Envy 14 I customized on the site is making me quite envious, but it's also making my credit card cringe. In a year, the price of a quad-core Sandy Bridge processor will have come down, I'll have even more RAM than I know what to do with, switchable graphics will be easy to find on more computers, and the beautiful high-res display the Envy used to have will be back in stock.

Or...they might just discontinue the line. One or the other. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Holy plagiarism, Batman!

I know students cheat, but I don't think any of my friends have ever paid someone to write essays for them. I'd heard rumors of such behavior way back in high school when we were all applying to college, but they seemed like isolated incidents. So how did this come to be so widespread without my knowledge?

Maybe it's because people who made it into Berkeley are just so smart they don't need to cheat.

Nope. I've seen many examples even here of writing that makes my brain ache, and not because of ingenious complexity. There are plenty of people who are unable to form a coherent sentence. To be fair, English is not a native language for some. Yet there are still plenty who mangle other languages with that hard, unsubtle American accent, who have grown up speaking English all their lives. You'd think they would know the language by now.

But why then, haven't I seen it?

Maybe it's just that the majority of my friends are in the biosciences and there are fewer papers assigned. So maybe I don't see it as much as I would if I were, say, a history major.

Maybe it's because I don't cheat and people see that and figure I'm not the person to tell about these amazing services.

Maybe it's because Berkeley is a public university, and the people here are less likely to be able to afford that $2000 per paper.

I don't know the reason. But as for those who (think they) need the service that badly, can't anybody tell from the quality of their other writing that somebody else wrote this paper? In many of the classes where I've had to write papers, our finals included in-class writing assignments. But as a lot of the comments on the article point out, the structure of academic councils and such is not set up in a way that encourages teachers to enforce the rules. It's just too damn complicated to try and prove that a student was not capable of writing something he or she handed in.

Where are you going now, American educational system? Off to test the Coriolis effect, perhaps?

Sleep

So I'm taking Psych 133, on the psychology of sleep.

Right now, I'm working on a project for that very class.

If you have 5 minutes to spare, help me out by taking our survey on sleep myths.

Brainzzzz

Last Thursday, I had my first lab for my Mammalian Neuroanatomy class. We got some human brains to look at, touch and play with a little, and then sheep brains to begin the dissection. Well, it was mostly preparation because it was the first day. We cut off the dura mater (the outer meninge, or membrane, that covers the brain/spinal cord), and took a peek at the pineal gland (in olden days, the purported seat of the soul) before returning the brains.

The term dura mater literally means "tough mother", and it really is a tough mother of a membrane. The pia mater, the innermost of the three layers, is soft and sticks to the brain. The arachnoid mater is a spider-webby network of membrane in between the two, through which cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows. But the dura (from what I could tell through my gloves) feels a bit like tightly woven cloth, and is not very stretchy.

See that stuff peeled off to the side and labeled "1"? That's the dura mater. That's really how thick it is.

The dura dives into the gap between the two hemispheres of the cerebrum with a clever little move called the falx cerebri ("4" in the above picture). In the human brain, the separation goes quite deep, but even the millimetric depth of falx cerebri in the sheep brain made it extremely difficult to cut (it was hard to get the scissors under it without poking into the brain tissue).

All in all, it was a pretty cool lab, except for the pungent odor of formaldehyde. We didn't realize just how thoroughly we had to wash our brains to get rid of it before we began, and fumes from the remaining formaldehyde stung our eyes whenever we leaned in for an extended period of time. That of course meant three out of every four minutes, because our tasks involved things like identifying tiny little cranial nerves and cutting off the dura mater while sparing as many of those tiny little cranial nerves as possible.

Don't worry though, my dearies. That was only because we didn't prepare well enough. Next time, the brainwashing will be complete! Muahahaha!

Saving the World

I usually try to post at least every couple days, but I've been AWOL for a little while. Let me tell you the reason. Within a week's time, I'm going to be leaving for India. I'm going there of course to visit family, but I have a second reason as well.

We have a minor at Berkeley called Global Poverty & Practice. It's not like most minors. You do take your 4-5 classes, but that's not enough. You have to do a practice. Something in real life. You're supposed to go out into the world and help alleviate poverty (or at least learn about it first-hand so that you can do the real work soon in the future with knowledge of what kinds of things are going on). They encourage you to go abroad, and that's just what I'm doing.

The students in the minor are involved in a diverse range of projects, from self-led to student-run to NGO-directed. From creating crops for sustenance farming to helping medical teams service remote villages to fighting disease in urban slums. And me? I'm going to be working in education. My practice project is going to be improving science education in a couple of rural schools by making it more interactive.

Sometimes when I hear myself talk about it in comparison to all these other things people are doing, I wonder if it seems like my project is much too narrowly focused. But, to paraphrase and contextualize the Pareto principle, 80% of the problems come from 20% of the causes. You just have to pick the right 20% to fix. There was a study done in rural China that showed how the presence of a science lab in a school, even after controlling for financial differences and student self-selection, was correlated with students attending school for 1.8 more years. If a little science lab can encourage some interest and keep students in school, isn't it worth having?

At any rate, I've been working on finding/modifying/writing lab protocols, lessons, and questions for some of the simple experiments I've picked. I'll go into more detail later, but I should also let you know: I'm planning on creating a new blog for me to talk about my project while I'm there. I won't abandon this one of course, but all posts to do with that experience will probably go there (and possibly be duplicated here). More info will come when I've decided what exactly to do. Ciao for now!

My Future

I've been looking at grad schools this week. Which ones have the best neuroscience graduate programs, what do I need for their application, what's the curriculum and rotation schedule like, etc. There's some obvious ones, like UCSD, UCSF, UCLA, UC Berkeley...but I don't really know much about those outside sunny California. Except Columbia.

I really, really want to go to Columbia. What I like is that their program is very interdisciplinary, but still well established. And they have Professor Eric Kandel! He literally wrote the (8 lb.) book!

The Kandel book, as it is called, despite the presence of two other authors on the cover.

Still, there's one other thing that I've been thinking about. I was tipped off about this program last spring, when someone came into my History of India class and spoke about it. Since then, I've heard of it from multiple other sources, and done some research for myself. One of my roommates is also going to be doing it beginning next (school) year. It's called TeachForAmerica.

The program selects the best and brightest undergraduates to teach in schools in underserved areas for two years. And it's highly competitive. This year, it got some 35,000 applicants and accepted about 4,000 to train and send off into the education world. Something like 10% of the Harvard graduating class applies to this program. What are the chances I will get in?

If by some chance I do make the cut, I have to think about how I will deal with grad school. Grad school is definitely my goal - I want to do research. This is something I've been working for since high school, and it's really my dream. But I've had a charmed life. I've been extremely lucky. I want to spread some of that to kids who haven't had what I grew up with, to help make their lives better and open up all of the opportunities waiting for them in the future. This is also something I really want to do.

The ideal situation would be getting into a graduate program that will allow me to defer for two years, get that teaching experience, and then return to studying the brain. TeachForAmerica is a well-known program, and they have arrangements with many schools to allow such deferrals. Neuroscience, however, is a pretty specific field, and I haven't seen any of those on the list on the website. So it falls to me. I need to call up each of the graduate schools that ends up on my semi-final list and see which ones would allow me to take 2 years before I begin. If none of my top schools will allow it, or if I don't get in to TFA? Then I guess I'll go straight to grad school and find another way to get kids interested in learning. Don't worry, I've got a few ideas on what to do in such a situation...

Put A Sock On It: How Seals Follow Fish

How do you think seals catch fish?

Well, let’s guess. Humans rely greatly on vision to catch prey. Sharks can smell blood in the water from a mile away. Or since they’re in water, it could be taste.

How would anybody find this out?

A couple of scientists from Germany blindfolded seals and had them follow and find a small toy submarine. The blindfold ruled out tracking by vision, and the plastic of the submarine meant that no fishy smells could come into play.

Even when the submarine turned a corner before the seal was released, the seal followed the path of the sub exactly. If they had been listening, they would have gone straight to the sub.

The yellow curve is the path of the submarine, the red curve the path of the seal. The green (straight) line is the expected path of the seal if it were using sight or sound. The picture in the paper was much better, but I am rather proud of my seal despite its slight turtle-like appearance.

So what’s left is touch. That’s right, touch. The highly sensitive whiskers of seals can follow the trail of turbulence left in the water by a swimming fish. Covering a seal's whiskers with a sock prevents the animal from being able to find the sub (or fish).

It's difficult to think of seeing your world in touch, but many animals rely on senses other than vision. I wonder how it would feel to echolocate...

---

Original paper:
Dehnhardt, G. et al. Hydrodynamic Trail-Following in Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina). Science 293, 102-104(2001).

Irregularity

Posting every day is currently a fail.

I’m busy, but I could do better.

For instance, after the Bollywood dance class, I didn’t have to spend an hour talking to my friend.

And then after helping out with the Hustle lesson, I didn’t have to stay for the Salsa workshop.

And after coming home, I didn’t have to watch the Olympics (roommate consensus: figure skating men have nice glutes) while trying to do Japanese homework.

 

Jeremy Abbott, though the US champion (he even beat Evan Lysacek on the US stage), didn't do so well in the short program.

Lost - The Season Begins!

Naw, I don't watch Lost. I tried, when my roommate tried to get me hooked. I almost got through the entire first season, but it just didn't hold my attention. But this post isn't about the show, it's about the last couple days

Yesterday, my roommates and I systematically searched the fridge for some lost (new) Brie cheese that nobody had eaten. The search was fruitless (apples and pomegranates not included).

Today I lost my keys sometime as I was dashing to my classes between 9 am and 12 pm, and only realized it at 5 when I left the lab. I retraced all my steps, went to the lost and found in each of the buildings that was still open. No luck.

In the lab, before my epiphany of keylessness, I lost a pen to the microscope table. I knocked it toward myself and it disappeared into a crevice at the table’s edge. When I told one of the grad students, she said, “Oh, it’s gone then. You’re never going to get that back.”

But then I obtained a pen from the office supplies cabinet. I accidentally dropped it on the ground near the microscope table, and this time, as if to make up for the loss of one of my favorite pens, the table offered me the twin of the one I had just dropped. I looked down there again later when I scoured the area for my keys, and found their triplet sibling.

So I suppose there was some “found” in my day.

The last thing I lost today, though, was my temper. It was a long and frustrating day for multiple reasons, not the least of which was that I haven’t had quite enough sleep the past couple nights. I know my mom was just trying to help, so I’m sorry Amma.

I think I found my (still-fragile) composure again, though. Konstantine by Something Corporate is the song I always turn to when I need comforting. The lyrics aren’t really that happy, but I think it’s the heartbeat bass beat that does it.

Spring Semester Has Sprung

I am back in Berzerkely!

Winter break has finally come to a close. For once, I wasn’t bored by the end, I suppose since I had multiple adventures – Tahoe, Avatar, Wicked (!), actually meeting up with friends and extended family...

But now, it’s over. The semester starts Tuesday. I always take classes I like, so I’m looking forward to it.

First, though, I have books to buy, Japanese to review, and some work to finish.

Now Is The Winter of My Content

I’m on winter break! I am done with finals, as of this morning.

I turned in my paper, did my little part in our mock House hearing as part of a coalition consisting of uninsured heads of households and single mothers on Medicaid, listened to 3 hours of people speaking for their roles, and was finally finished!

A large part of the rest of my day has consisted of playing these three games on Orisinal.

Almost Done!

My Bio of Cancer final this afternoon was not nearly as difficult as I thought. Actually, it was extremely similar to the two practice exams we were given. Well, I went through those carefully, so I was prepared.

All I have left is this paper! I wrote half of it yesterday morning, and I need to finish it before 8 am tomorrow. I’m kind of tired now, but maybe writing this’ll be a warm up.

Finals

I thought I was staying relatively focused today, but looking back at how much work I actually did...maybe not.

Oh well, I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore, I think I can finish everything I need to do in time.

Except, there’s probably going to be more to do for Biology of Cancer than I’m realizing.

This poster (made by Cell Signaling Technologies) came with my book. It shows all the known signal transduction pathways involved in human cancer. Captions don't count in my 75 words, right?

My in-depth outline for my paper is already 4 pages (out of 5-7) though! I just need to fill it in.

A "Major" Decision

I was talking to a friend about my major and career goals (research, not medicine), and how I ended up with them because I like solving puzzles. It reminded me of a thought that’s popped up a couple times lately.

If I hadn’t fallen in love with biology, I would probably be a computer science major. The thought seems odd. But the more I think about it, the more I believe it to be true.

A New Semester

If I start apologizing for not posting regularly (although I have no readers), that's going to start my every post from now on. So I'll apologize now - sorry - and move on. I still don't quite know what I'm trying to do with this blog, but for the moment, it's just a place to post random thoughts. Whatever it is, it's my place, and I have no readers anyways, so I get to keep my freedom.

A new semester has started though, so I don't really have all that much time to write any more. My writing tends to happen in short bursts anyways. I have to be in the mood, and when I am, I can pour out a couple sets of feelings for my thoughts at the time and for the time I haven't been writing. So I'll probably end up writing 2-3 rambles at once and then spacing out the posts.

So let's begin the new semester by talking about it. I'm a biology major. Molecular and Cell Biology (or MCB, as it's known here), in fact. I have no worries about that giving me away considering that half the undergrad population seems to consist of MCB majors (and considering that pretty much nobody actually reads this).

So this semester, I'm only actually taking one MCB major requirement, a class on the Biology of Human Cancer. It's pretty interesting, and at least in the beginning, it's been overlapping a bit with my General Human Anatomy class, which is nice. The latter class is huge, some 700+ people, not a requirement for me. I, along with the majority of the class, took it for the teacher, Professor Marian Diamond. She's amazing.

Unfortunately, she's not teaching the class this year (only offered in fall) because she tore her rotator cuff muscles. Ouch. I hope she heals quickly, but I'm still going to continue with the class this semester rather than waiting. I don't know if it will fit into my schedule next year, and besides, the topic is interesting on its own too (I'm not pre-med though! at least not yet).

Next up is an Intro to Health Policy class that works as one of the electives for my Global Poverty & Practice minor (which I will be declaring this week). I was afraid that, being somewhat political, it might be a bit dry for me, but I've found it pretty interesting so far. It's probably because of the current battle for universal, affordable healthcare.

Lastly, I have two classes that were supposed to be mutually exclusive. Well, they aren't technically, but I'm on the waitlist for Elementary Japanese and Intro Linguistics is my backup. Yet I've been finding both interesting and wondering whether I might just take the backup as well (P/NP of course). That would leave me with 19 units yet again, and a whole bunch of stress. But...they're interesting! And I'm only going to have more MCB classes in the future, not less. Anyways, I'll wait until I'm in or out of Japanese to decide that.

But 19 units. That's a lot of work. I know, I've been through it. Pretty much every semester except last spring. On a possibly unrelated note, my registration times were early up until right after the semester when I took the minimum units, despite the fact that I still have a lot more than average overall. So who knows, maybe it'll get me an early Telebears again...

Writing Essays

I'm freaking out a little bit. I have a 10-page paper due tomorrow night, and as of now, I have written a total of 1.5 pages. That's good, that's 1.5 pages up from last night. Usually I don't procrastinate this much. By this point, I would at least have a full outline, 3 pages or so done, and an idea of where I'm going. The problem is that I'm trying to juggle a (thankfully no longer full-time) internship, an online class that usually has homework due every single day (for which I am writing this paper), and a biochemistry class that packs a whole semester into 1/2 the time (for which I had a huge midterm just two days ago). Still, crap! How am I going to do this?!

Edit: Okay, evening of the same day. Now I still only have 3.5 pages done, but I'm feeling a lot better about this. I think it's partly because I've outlined it, but mostly because I didn't bother worrying about a thesis statement or topic sentences.

This is the way you're supposed to do things, I suppose, but I normally have some sort of thesis to begin with. I will almost always go back and change it, because I'll inevitably develop a better argument as I write, but I usually need something to point me in some direction at the beginning.

Nevertheless, I don't have one now. Perhaps I didn't need it because the prompt is both very structured and very open. It's structured in the sense that there are specific topics I need to talk about, but open-ended because it is somewhat a report and relies on my applying parts of those topics to my own observations. Wait, hmm...I guess that's kind of how a lot of essays are anyways (applying what you've learned), so maybe a guiding theme would have been useful.

Either way, it's too late now, and I'll just have to analyze the topics, then analyze my analyses so I can figure out what my point is.

Work all day, play all night. Hey!

Okay, so here's my lovely schedule for the summer:

Monday - take train from home to nearby MRU, work 9-5 in internship, which largely involves staring at a computer screen and playing with modelling proteins, and reading papers every now and then. Take train home, eat dinner, pack, return to college.

Tuesday - Biochemistry class, followed by lunch, and at least every other week, it seems, take (a different) train or carpool with fellow interns to MRU where there is more work to be done.

Wednesday - Same as Tuesday, but with the bonus of being able to grab lunch with my favorite former roommate :D.

Thursday - Either a lecture or a midterm every other week (no, literally, this is a summer class...) but no discussion. Return to MRU because Thursdays are the only days that nobody else is missing and therefore the days when we must have meetings/presentations. Yes, presentations, always on the same days as my midterms. But Thursday night, I usually get to go home.

Friday - Work 9-5 (or 4), go home, play Wii Tennis. This Friday, go see HP6 (yes, I'm totally excited!!).

This all is in addition to an online class that relates to reframing organizations and professional development and some other such things. For which I have 10-page paper due this week, same as the midterm that is worth 1/3 of my grade. I thought this was supposed to be summer...