Introduction
Oh haha, I thought this was necesary cos I haven't post anything for ages. I remember the last time I posted was before the busy part of PW starts, so I can blame PW for taking so much of my time that I couldn't blog anymore. But anyways, I have accumulated a lot of things to post about.

Holidays
Some people out there just stay at home throughout the holidays and do nothing. I used to do that, but I found out that actually doing something useful can be quite enjoyable too! :D I haven't wasted my time on my attachment programme after all. I would say, so far, I've been enjoying my holidays and having a fruitfu time. I'm not resting, I'm learning, and I might start next year tired, but it's all worth it for a H3. Yes.

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
is a great place, lol. :D I can still remember the first time I went to biopolis for attachment. I was expecting something very seh. However, I found that biopolis is a very human place! They slack around quite a bit and enjoy having lunch outside biopolis a lot. There are nice food nearby. But that's not the point. I feel that I'm so lucky to have a chance to get attached to this wonderful institute that let me try out such an interesting project and giving me a 'stipend' of $30 a day, lol. Get paid and acquire good knowledge :D Is nice!. I really learnt a lot there, and these experiences could not be gained in VJ. I'm like... enjoying my attachment there, cos science research is really fun! :D

My Project
is a hard one indeed. In fact it is imba. My mentor presented me 5 choices and I just chose the one that I'm most interested in, that is, culturing rat liver cells in 2D and 3D methods. How did it turn out? I just found out that this kind of project is done by PhD students!!! I had to work overtime for so many of my days that I got used to it by now. But I'm quite glad that I got the hardest project cause it gives me room to prove myself. Even my co-mentor says hat I'm handling the project quite well. Oh, I have a mentor who does administrative stuff, and a co-mentor who trains and teaches me to do the project. Both of them got their PhD, lol. I feel so fortunate to work with these imba people. I really have to thank them when my project ends. I really enjoy doing my project a lot, though my cells die like so easily. They are so fragile, some physical disturbance like bubble bursting can kill them all, lol. Must treat life with care, ya know :D! But I think, I also like the part when I do my assays, they're so fun and colourful. All my 3 types of assays have colours :D. Fun coloured experiments indeed.

My IBN Friends
I really have to isolate this part rom the rest. Reminiscing the past, I can still remember that week when my new friends came my student room. Especially the third week, when Theodore came and shared room with Ada, Derek and me. Oh apparently, Ada and Derek are my dear friend Moses' classmates! Speak about coincidence! These friends are really good people, easily sociable and all. They know how to treat people. We can socialise and entertain each other when experiments get boring (do happen sometimes though). We go pantry in big groups and talk and eat together. These friends are rare, people who are so nice, and share the same passion as me in science. Is like wow, I'm making friends who are just like me, really wonderful people really. Really like science research too, like me. Ada even had exactly the same ambition as me, that is really stunning. I want to be a Medical Researcher or a Surgeon, and someone can actually share the same 2 ambitions, lol. I would miss my lab days a lot when the school reopens, really, a lot. I really enjoyed myself even when I have to sacrifice my holidays to do a H3.

Joke of the... Watch your Language in Biochemistry
The Sciences are very jargon oriented and this can cause problems when over-excited scientists carry on conversations in the real world... you know, the ones without the pipettes and shakers and chemical bottles. Thefollowing are three true stories.

Politically Corrects

Two young scientists, a student and a post-doc, had left the lab afteranother succesful day. As they rode the local transit on their way home, they began a rather animated discussion about the day's results and more specifically about the success that one had with her gel retardation or mobility shift assays. On and on they went about the "retards" doing this and the "retards" doing that when a woman across the aisle from them finally turned in disgust and said: "The word is mentally handicapped and it's not very nice to call them retards." The two scientist were shocked by this sudden outburst and the woman got off of the train before the two could correct her on the subject to which they were referring.

The Cutting Edge
In a protein lab, it is common for people to set up their proteins as a fusion with other domains which are easily purified through their affinity to ligands attached to resin beads. One of the most common of these domains is the glutathione S-transferase protein or GST. Typically, thereis a small linker region between the protein of interest and the fusion parner and this amino acid sequence contains recognition sequences for proteases. After months in the lab, having limited success with her proteolysis reactions, a young female grad student finally had her patience and perseverence pay off when she destained yet another gel and saw that her protein had indeed been cut by the protease. In her joy, the young woman ran out into the hallway, proclaiming proudly to all: "I've got cleavage. I've got cleavage. Come over here. Look at my cleavage."

A Graphic Plot
In another lab, on another day, yet another young, female graduate student was working on a poster for presentation at an upcoming meeting. She had been using fluorescence to study the binding of a protein to its ligand andhad spent quite a bit of time getting just the right distribution of datapoints for her graph. After several days in front of the fluorimeter and hours in front of the computer, plotting her data, she sat back in satisfaction at her accomplishments. Seeing one of the guys from her lab passing in the hallway, she called out to him in a loud voice, "Hey come look at my figure. Are these outstanding curves or what?" They were nice curves and she had a really nice figure.

(Maybe only my labmates would understand these...)