ole ole...to good weather days
I'm spending yet another afternoon in lab. Indoors. Seriously, how many hours do scientist and researchers while away in the lab just waiting for for invisible molecules to interact with other different, but just as invisible, molecules? Stripping a membrane takes an hour, blocking it another hour. Incubating it with a primary antibody takes two hours, and secondary Ab yet another hour. And those are just waiting times. And so many times, after you invest what feels like half your life doing an experiment, one step goes horrendously wrong, and you say byebye to your results. It can be frustrating completing an experiment, much less duplicates of multiple experiments. We should all be thankful for those good natured, fluorescent-light-loving scientists who spend their days and nights running experiments and killing animals for the good of mankind. One example is the italian expert that sacrificed his life identifying the SARS virus currently going around the world. My parents have always dissuaded me from doing microbiology, in fear of such an outcome. well, no matter what field of biology i pursue, i really hope that it brings some good to the world. I didn't choose to do bioengineering because of the government, i chose it for myself. Although i didn't really know what i was getting into, at the end of 3 years, i'm real glad that i chose to take this path. Bioengineering allows me to do basic biological research, and yet apply it to solving everyday needs. Stuff i'm interested in now: tissue engineered cardiovascular or liver tissue. I'm excited about the coming year. Let's see where it takes me. =)
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On a different note, i spent lunchtime in a corner of La Val's at northside with 40 strangers, brought together by the live Real Madrid - Man Utd game. (i'm sure half of you will stop reading this entry from here on =P) Although not a fan of either team, I was just curious to see if the hype surrounding the game could live up to expectations. It was pretty awesome. Awesome Real Madrid scored awesome goals. But what was more interesting, was watching the other watchers. It's pretty rare to find so many people in a pizza joint, sitting in front of a huge TV, watching not baseball, not basketball, not american football, but real english football. There were some who came in, glanced at the TV, then sat facing away, focused only on lunch. Those were the americans. Then there were those who brought throngs of friends and added to the atmosphere. Those were Spanish. Also, there were British (my ex-math TA!) and Brazilian and Indians. Pretty cool huh? It was like the I-house had moved to northside. =) It's always fun watching soccer with people. The "ooohs" and "aaahs" really do make a difference. If only i had someone to watch soccer with...*sigh* too bad fellow liverpool fans are a tad far away!