Hello world. As I stand here about twenty feet from the summit, a sense of accomplishment washes over me. It's an undertaking few have conquered. Still, at the same time I feel a sense of dread. I made it here, but what about the trip on the way down? Supplies are lower than expected, the crew is tired, and the nights have been getting longer and longer. There's a small chance we might not even have enough oxygen for the next two days, I haven't had the chance to do the math. Why are we even up here? What hubris drove us to try to conquer this majesty of nature? What were we looking for? Looking out across the broken and jagged Himalayas, I feel contemplative. It's about 6:34 am, and the darkness is starting to lift. Wind is strong, but no snowfall. We dug ourselves a little crevasse to shield ourselves from the wind, and we're on the east side of the mountain. 2 more minutes till sunrise. It was a difficult trip up. It was lonely and sad and cold and...
20.109 was super fun, despite corona!!! I felt like I learned more about what biological engineering was and got an insight into what research in this field entails. Being able to work with new and innovative research techniques was really fun and rewarding. I felt like I learned the biology behind many commonly used lab techniques and was able to add to my toolbox of skills for my professional career. Mod 1: Long hours in the lab and constantly being last in class with Emily was a struggle but manageable because of the great faculty!! I really liked being able to both learn the theory and actually doing the science. It was also cool to see the science we were learning in 7.05 overlapping with what we were doing in 20.109, especially the protein purification section of the module. (My fav module) Mod 2: R is my frenemy, however, I lowkey appreciate its ability. I was able to actually know what RNA sequencing really was. Though run code on R was super frustrating, finally being ...
Coming up with a research article that both I and my lab partner found interesting was a mission (Miami slang for "exasperation especially referring to matters of time"). I, having decided that being an Ob-Gyn is my ultimate career goal, cared to identify only research related to female reproductive health. My lab partner, who has aspirations outside of clinical work, had many more up-and-coming proposals and we tried to meet each other halfway. We spent many hours on zoom. We read more papers than I ever thought I could read. We were frequently heartbroken to find our research idea had already been taken, by some man in the 1980s. She shared this meme with me which perfectly expressed our emotions. We felt we knew nothing. It was hard to settle down but we did after we decided to stop reading literature because the well was too deep and we were never going to reach the bottom. I guess people dedicate their whole PhDs to studying the field and we spent two weeks. 🎶Fra...
Comments
Post a Comment