Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Life of a Researcher - Chronicles Log 1

Who knows that I would come back as a motivated researcher to try his luck to get into graduate studies. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as it seemed as I was rejected in three applications for my graduate studies. Eventually, I had to take an alternative route to get back onto the path I want. I slowly moved from a service ambassador in my campus's Office of Alumni Relations back to Science faculty as a temp research assistant (RA). Ever since then, I've been running dry lab, creating almost impossible figures and entertaining an aged man of 82 by giving him "orgasms" (inside joke).

Moreover, I had a very rare opportunity appearing some time back that paved a route for me to turn from temp RA into a perm RA in another lab. The drawback is that I had to do something with little knowledge of it AND I had to try my best (more like I have to) to produce/refine a technique that hasn't been positive for the past two decades, so why me? The only thing that made so possible was a mere "I see potential in you; you look like a hard worker; you're still young you can work till very late". So was the principal investigator (PI) looking for God or still day dreaming. Nonetheless, it was a good chance for me to challenge myself to something I have not achieved before - cell culturing. I am willing to take that challenge but hopefully, people around me will not mind me not fulfilling expectations that they placed on me.

Today's the last day of work for the year of 2009 in NUS. Nothing much was happening today, but I tried to spend most of my time reading papers on cell culturing. Moreover, I've been so busy lately juggling two labs and my social life that I have quite little time for myself. But being in my current lab kept me thinking of a lot of stuff, which I'm very grateful of it. Sometimes we think of strange or funny stuff during our discussions. Synergistic trust and discussions are essential for a productive yet fun lab. In fact, I can also tell you why a girlfriend (GF) is important in our lives (especially guys) in a while. Apart from my work life, I hope to master a little bit of Perl module as well as understand a little more on immunology.

So why GF is important: - A GF is important as she, as a woman, will provide moral support for you in whatever you do. Surprisingly, she can also give you ideas, regardless of whether it is random or not, for your research. Intellectual ideas are definitely good in producing good papers, but sometimes simple ideas can also prove to be better than any sophisticated method. A GF can also train your discipline and tolerance in accepting nonsensical arguments. In any office, politics are inevitable; similar to a lab, politics roam the vicinity. There are many times that you have more important things to do than to entertain an obstinate person who does not practice flexibility. You'd probably spend more time trying to convince him than to ignore him. So if you can tackle your GF, obstinate people are just dirt - ignoring them is just like you being there alone.

There is also one more reason why GFs are good, they are like growth factors. They help you grow in many aspects. Maturity is one of them, patience is another. But too many GFs are not good; we're like receptors, and each ligand gives a different response. But when too many ligands come together, they exhibit competitive binding. In cells, if to many complicated signals appear, the cell can undergo apoptsis to prevent further damage. I don't think you would want that to happen to you. So faithfulness is also essential to produce one particular response, which is happiness. The secretion of this 'ligand' varies from time to time. Don't disregard this 'ligand'; disregarding it is like disregarding insulin to an insulin receptor. Without it, diabetes can occur. So pay attention to it, if it gets too much, use inhibitors; if there's too little, stimulate your source. So GFs are good. Of course, you have to choose the right one. Not all 'ligands' give good responses. Some may induce cytokine mediated apotosis, some may induce cytokine mediated Janus-family kinase and STAT.

So choose your GFs properly, take some time to know your candidate before committing to one. Don't just get one just because your friends have one or because it is a fad, it's rubbish. Don't do it just because your parent tell you to unless you're tied down to an arrange marriage. Always know what you want, not what people say you ought to have. Because it will then not be what you yearn for but only feeding other people's curiosity on whether you two match.

I think I said too much already and I have yet to complete reading my papers. So I think I'll stop right here and finish up the paper that I'm reading now. Until next time.

The Mixed Boy

1 Comments:

Anonymous Network Camera said...

thanks for share!!!

4:37 PM  

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