It has been a while since the last update… well, just come across a funny website which can be useful in some ways. Is My Thesis Hot or Not? By reading a number of titles from other people’s work, you will start to appreciate what works in your own setting and what does not.
This is not a new idea, but look at this funny experiment done at Harvard. I just can’t stop wondering how much we are missing when we are staring at our experiments with our own preconception… Most People Are Not Observant – Watch more Funny Videos
From Smithsonian.com The test hens responded more quickly to the tidbitting males that had the normal or stationary wattles, less quickly to the one with the extra floppy wattle (….) and slowest to the male lacking wattles. After the hen’s attention was gained, though, she reacted about the same to each of the four animated […]
goes to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, Jack W. Szostak. “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase” link to Nobel prize.org link to the press release
Some interesting work here, the full winner list is available from their website: PEACE PRIZE Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or […]
Dr. William Mak, a good friend and a great role model, has been devoting his career to improving the biotechnology education for primary and secondary students and teachers over the years. He has established the Hong Kong Biotechnology Education Resource center with Sik Sik Yuen Ho Yu College and built a university-level research laboratory to […]
Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. from wired magazine.
We have briefly touched the subject of stem cell research in the last journal club. The challenge of developing “stem cell” as a useful therapy is three fold: Turning the clock of a differentiated cell back to the very beginning. Guiding the resulting dedifferentiated “stem cells” or any kinds of “stem cells” to develop into […]
The other day we talked about the historical moment when Matt Meselson and Frank Stahl elucidated the semi-conservative mechanism of DNA replication. We briefly discussed the challenges that they faced at that time as a graduate student and a postdoc, which I think would give us insights to face our own challenges. I am still […]