Loving a bit of WWF on the back of this 50p coin!
An awesome snowman in Regent’s park when it snowed earlier this year!
What wakes me up every morning, the warmth softly envelopes moi in its golden photons..
Ah, ought to explore London more, fabulous!
Celebration of diversity with a message conveyed through the coloufuliciousness of cette flag.
Introspection time… Zzzzz
Total nerdy post alert.
How often do you shake a sea urchin until it releases eggs or sperm? I wonder if you can tell a sea urchin’s sex from judging by its cover? But that certainly wasn’t the case when we vigorously shook sea urchins until they spored… or for some impatient ones.. Injecting KCl certainely forced some gametes out!
Well, it was a female! After about ten minutes of nudging, our little sea urchin finally produced some orange coloured products… From which we were ever so delighted to deduce that our sea urchin was an egg producing individual. Safely positioned on top of a beaker of sea water, the eggs fell like some sort of fairy dust towards the bottom of the glassware.
… Skipping some boring procedures..
After adding sperm to the eggs, you can observe and marvel at the process of fertilisation in action! Even more exciting, this picture captures mitosis at its late stages of cytokinesis where the fertilised egg splits in two after prophase, metaphase and anaphase.
Isn’t life magical?! 
Totally creepy using ageing booth android app to add wrinkles to mini me. Not bad app for entertainment if you can bear the thought of being old!
Just learnt from human genetics lecture notes that parthenogenesis is probably impossible due to imprinting in human genes. And no, it is not in anyway related to the imprinting of werewolves like Jacob Black in the teenage vampire love story twilight! Imprinting is quite distinct from sex linkage, but the phenotype of the genes is affected by whether the gene is from the mother or the father. I wonder what is the most complex animal that parthenogenesis can occur in, maybe turkey… Deducted upon a google research, wouldn’t take my word for it… But don’t be surprised when one day your female pet gives birth to a baby without any male contact. Actually now thinking back I remember reading an article about a shark giving birth… Here it is! :
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/01/120106-virgin-birth-shark-dubai-science/
I really like this word parthenogenesis, it is the word of the day, possibly week as well. So if virgin births were actually possible, Beyonce’s song would be super accurate. Who knows, maybe it will be true in the future thanks to geneticists. Although in my opinion, things are fine just the way they are, given the men are sensible individuals who do not go around ‘collecting a Jar of Hearts’!
Miso happy Valentine’s day is drawing close, have you decided what to do yet? I’m sure for some people the day that they dread is Valentine’s day, especially if they have decided that being single is a life style that suits them better. On the other hand if that’s the life style they chose, then they might want to opt for another Japanese inspired tasting menu, dump’em over dumplings 
Yes, you maki miso happy is a special valentine’s day menu by the restaurant where I work at.
I have been advised before to restrain my emotions and think in a levelheaded manner especially when confronted by surprises. How dull would someone’s feeling’s be if they managed to numb their feelings entirely, all sacrificed for being ‘calm and collected’? I think no matter what, excitement is an exhilarating experience one should enjoy and treasure. In particular when we are struck with surprises of unexpected turn of events… But keeping in mind that although this feeling is great, we must continue to work hard to achieve and maintain what we have gained. If you are so much excited by a piece of news, it must mean a lot to you, you care about it. Things that we care about do not float by too often, once you find it, you should cling on to it no matter what
January is coming to and end already, only 11 month left of 2012. Time management is essential this year, but I think relaxation is an essential part that must be scheduled in as well, maki you happy.
Chill with this little gem:
1 year = 8765.81277 hours
1 year = 525948.7662 minutes
1 year = 31556925.97 seconds
I have always had to watch some cheesy Chinese Kungfu films when I was younger because of dad’s keen interest in Chinese Kungfu culture. Tai Chi is a marvalous branch of Chinese marshall arts, I believe in the philosophy of being one with water. If you can’t fight it, be one with it, go with the waves, swim through tides. Inevitably, it is the truth that you can’t change the physical phenomenons around us. The only thing we can do is cope with it.
Too many wrongs certainly don’t make a right, but if you are willing to learn, you can avoid the wrongs again! … It’s hard to live a normal life at university, harder to even to depict what is normal at such a cultural rich city and university with a diversified bunch of nerds ;D.
Happy New Year! 2012- Bring on Olympics in London, hopefully summer internship, 3rd year shinanigans and what ever life throws at us!
P.s. Could not have wished for a better photograph.
Rainbows are visions but only illusions, rainbows have nothing to hide.
Seeds of rainbow.
Au sujet de télé réalité, il faut que nous discuterons les émissions différentes. A mon avis, il y a deux types d’émissions de la télé réalité. Le contraste entre les émissions qui seront à réaliser vos rêves et d’encourager d’autres jeunes à rêver et les émissions qui encouragent la paresse est clair.
En premier lieu, les émissions comme par exemple « Britain’s Got Talent » sont divertissants, inspirant et humoristique. C’est un endroit où les gens vraiment talentueux sont capables de montrer au monde ce qu’ils peuvent faire. Aussi, ils ont même la chance de gagner de l’argent ainsi que de s’acquitter de leurs actes devant la reine.
D’un autre côté, je déteste les émissions comme « Loft Story » ou « Big Brother ». En ce moment, à l’université, nous avons simplement eu le temps pour nos propres drames, et encore moins de regarder un groupe de personnes vivant dans une maison confinée. De plus, les émissions comme ça peut-être encourager le voyeurisme. Il n’y a aucune créativité, aucune esthétique. Ayant dit ça, ils font beaucoup d’argent à essayer d’obtenir de téléspectateurs participés, en leur demandant qui ils veulent porter un regarder sur la télé…
En guise de conclusion, je ne voudrais pas de regarder la plupart de la télé réalité parce qu’il y a déjà assez de drame se passe autour de nos vies. Même si nous ne pouvons pas dire que toutes les télé réalité sont une perte de temps.
Have just finished the 6th season of sex and the city. What a brilliant series that was, just when my life is drama-less, this season have included some of the most interesting episodes of the series.
Can not help but wondering what our lives will be like in 15 years when we are 35 years old. Some people say that the pinnacle age for us is 21, but I think that 30 is going to be the most important age for both men an women alike. It is the age where we can measure how our lives are getting on for real. University feels just like another wait before entering into the real world, not that I’m complaining, because the life of student living in London is just fabulous. We are at the ‘wondering’ stage of our lives where nothing is certain. It’s true that nothing has to be certain in life, but it is especially true when you are at university. If you ask an particular student what they are studying and what they would like to do in the future, more than half will say that they’re not sure and the other half have their hopes high in not wasting their time learning and cramming all new concepts from their course by wanting to pursue an academic career.
Life is a juggle at university, or is it a juggle all the way till the end? Soon or not so soon, many of us will be juggling our work with friend with babies… It was a relief to see the Manhattan girls finally settling down with someone they love. Steve Jobs did a speech at Stanford university where he told people to find what they love and don’t settle. However, I hope to find what I love very soon in all aspects of my life, so that I will never let them go because I love them so much. It is true love. For example Charlotte becomes a Jew for her husband, and despite all his bad habits that she encountered when they finally moved in together after a disastrous wedding, they found ways to compromise and love each other just the way they are.
Awesomeness.
Arnold Young, (aka the Ph.Diddy) is a biotech Ph.D candidate. Arnold was an A+ student, and is now ready to take over the world of science! He soon discovers how life in the lab is filled with drive and devotion, frustrations and fulfillment, hard work, late hours, repeated experiments, peer review and a strive for respect and recognition. How will the ups and downs of life in the lab shape our Ph.Diddy on his journey to have his first scientific paper published?
Acknowledgements: This video is inspired by all the dedicated everyday-heroes-of-science. Invitrogen recognizes your passion and admires your perseverance!
Check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/invitrogen
Download: transcript
I was the black belt of my class, marked out as an achiever. First day on the job, enter the gene-weaver.
My future colleagues look up from the PCR machine, checking me out man. The Ph.Diddy’s on the scene.
So I claim my pipette and pimp it up to halt the theivin’. Get the thermocycler going, my samples cool chilling.
Yeah, I shoot my tips like I’ve been here all my life. Wait for instrument time with my free pizza slice.
I run my first Western blot. Man, this lab scene is easy. But wait up, hold a minute. I’m feeling kinda queasy.
Is that Trizol I can smell? Oh, my head’s in a spin! ‘ve gone and dropped my freakin’ sample in the biohaz bin.
He’s a super fly grad. Life plans to shape the future, that’s right!
Sees his name in lights and a centre spread in Nature. All right!
I’m always splitting cells, always working late. I’ve cleared the biohazard bin so much I herniate.
Got samples botched, samples lost, samples dropped on the floor. Messy benches, empty buffers, lab politics galore.
My PI’s buggin’. Man he sounds like my father. Western blot once again, but development shows nada.
I’m doin’ my time in the cell culture hood – at the weekend bro. It’s the only time I could!
Then suddenly my data is starting to make sense. Even Western blot bands start to make an appearance.
So I repeat once again all the steps I need to follow. But every culture well… turned yellow.
He’s a super fly grad. Life plans to shape the future, that’s right!
Sees his name in lights and a centre spread in Nature. All right!
I’m talkin’ ’bout the ooh, ooh…
Serum and media get swiped with no apology. And all my cells are showing abnormal morphology.
So now my PI’s freaking, “Find something you can prove!” But contamination aggravation knocks me off my groove.
So I stay late once again as the lab detainee. Yeah, its 9 pm but the thermocycler’s free
I don’t understand! What’s happened now? That’s it. Yeah, time to give up. I’m throwing in the towel.
Ooh, ooh, supergrad. I’m talkin’ ’bout the ooh, ooh… Super bad lab grad, yeah!
Ooh, ooh, supergrad. I’m talkin’ ’bout the ooh, ooh… Super bad lab grad, yeah!
My transfection worked – confirmed with Pol II chIP – mutagenesis determined the TF targeted.
I’m not going down! I can still do BioChem! My genes will express, I’m gonna beat it out of them.
And yeah, I must have results that no one can undress. And quickly move my paper from in prep to in press.
I’m finally finished writing the discussion, whilst my PI once again, “tweaks” my introduction.
So, here we go, yo. Here’s the scenario: Peer review’s due to hit. When exactly? I don’t know.
My paper will be published. My research is legit. OK it’s not quite Nature but, I think I nailed it!
He’s a super fly grad. Life plans to shape the future, that’s right!
Sees his name in lights and a centre spread in Nature. All right!
He’s a super fly grad. Life plans to shape the future, that’s right!
Sees his name in lights and a centre spread in Nature. All right!
Ooh, ooh, supergrad. I’m talkin’ ’bout the ooh, ooh… Super bad lab grad, yeah!
