jun - dec 2002

[210602] These pictures were taken almost exactly a year ago during my attachment to PL lab in IMCB under their Summer Research Programme.

early morning in lab:



four Moorhuhn2 addicts - this is where I picked up e game:



[160702] went to Tokyo & Nikko National Park right after my honours exams in May 2002. stuff about e trip's [to be done].

[311002] what I made for my sis for her 22nd bday on Tue 22nd Oct 2002: she cut e birthday cake at 22:22:22pm =) made it in school & carried it over to Arts fac in a big fat black garbage bag that attracted plenty of stares from people on e internal shuttle bus!!



[201102] W.H.Y. crabs/prawns/lobsters turn red when cooked: their shells contain two pigments, blue (crustacyanin) & yellow, which together give e shell a greenish color. both pigments are proteins with e same carotenoid prosthetic group, astaxanthin. interaction of e crustacyanin protein with e red carotenoid causes it to appear blue due to some chemistry that I don't understand =) cooking e crab/prawn/lobster denatures e protein, releasing e red astaxanthin....only if some similar 'indicator' could be incorporated into all sorts of food to make it easier to determine if e food has been thoroughly cooked, much like e way we use pH indicator dyes & autoclave tape in labs?

- inspiration from reading Ann Rev Biochem 1997 vol 67:1-18 just before lunch

[311202] e URA Parks & Waterbodies & Rustic Coasts Plan subject group - experiment with S'pore civil society. picture taken at House No. 1, Tanjong Chek Jawa during our field visit to Changi Village, Pulau Ubin, Coney Island & Punggol:



[311202] after clearing up most of e evidence of our secret Christmas party (boss was overseas) *grin*



[ filed under: 9_lives_2002 + labrat + nature1 + thewonderingstraycat ]

high on science

....creativity in science, as in the arts, cannot be organised. It arises spontaeneously from individual talent. Well-run laboratories can foster it, but hierarchical organisation, infelxible, bureaucratic rules, and mountains of futile paperwork can kill it. Discoveries cannot be planned; they pop up, like Puck, in unexpected corners.

....scientists are always wrong, yet they always go on. What makes them continue? Often it is addiction to puzzle-solving and ambition to be recognised by their peers.

....the technology needed to fill the mind with untruth, with a resistance to new learning and to anything that might conduce to improvement has been known for 5000 years or more and is known as "education."

- from 'High On Science', in I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists, and Humanity by Max F. Perutz

[ filed under: labrat + thewonderingstraycat + 9_lives_2002 ]