Real Magic

Nnrgh - I can't sleep. Winding down time with a bit of a conundrum - I'm not eloquent on the subject, but here's the way it seems.

My fear is thus: If one assumes there is a "god", for want of a better term, then all I have spent the last 3 years learning about is pointless.

Why? If one assumes there is a "god", then all the glorious feats of science and biology that I am confronted with, baffled with, and amazed by are nothing but simple creations to him. It's not this apparent simplicity that upsets me, more the "magic". It' s all here by magic. Our hugely complex physiology is all there by magic, the brain... magic... he did it. Oh... How dull.

Here comes the revelation (I'm sure it's been said before a million times, a million ways, but it's a personal realisation that has got me thinking properly for the first time about this subject). Maybe it is "magic", but, magic that functions in a way we can describe - science. It is incredible, but explainable. Where does this leave God? There's no reason why there shouldn't be a God. Science can explain a lot extremely well (the expression patterns of Engrailed in the Drosophila parasegments to take a poignant example), but surely a point will be reached where we just cannot explain some things - they'll be outside our field of understanding? Is such a wangling in of God into scientific understanding just an "easy way out" for the religious? I'm no longer sure that it is. Many scientist are religious, and they are certainly not "deluded fools" as Dawkins would have you believe.

Why God? this is my main problem now. I've leaped over the "Science and God are mutually exclusive" boundary (that, incidentally, Dawkins still seems to be stuck behind), but why bother with believing in something so unbelievable, why bother with "Church" (though of course, by church I mean any sort of religious ritual)? I'm working through these parts slowly... but it's an interesting journey. This "real magic" point really has excited me, but I'm still nowhere near anything but agnostic.

Any (constructive - no knee-jerks) ideas are welcomed.

Experimental Design

Experimental design questions. They've not mentioned them all term, but a few turned up on our sample exam paper (and a few is a significant amount when you have to write 3 essays out of only 6 titles - just read about what interests you indeed! Pfff!), and I haven't got a clue about how to answer them. I went along to Sidney today for a chat with some other people doing this module (which apparently is not being run next year - it seems we are the 1st, and last to do the making babies module), and we spoke about a few ideas for some practice questions. Unfortunately, they have all done experimental projects (in fact, I think only 2 out of the 11 people doing Mod4 did theory projects, me included), and so as a result they know loads about experimental procedures. Apparently grafting experiments cannot be done in Zebrafish as they're not robust enough - do it in chicks instead. These questions seem a little biased towards those who did experimental projects. Now I find out!

Anyway - that's what's bugging me at the moment, and is the reason I can't sleep... maybe writing it down will have helped. Goodnight!

currently listening, Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius. Ahhhh.. better.

I'm glad to see that this blog is No.1 on a Google search for "mitten man". I was worried it actually meant something!


currently listening, The Cure - Bloodflowers. Probably not the most relaxing thing for trying to get to sleep, but a really good album none-the-less

Somatic Recombination

"If only my brain could be somatically recombined - then I'd know all my stuff" Alex

Squash.

Hello again! T'is me, Tomthevet. Who'd have expected such a face on here, this blog of sorts... The work continues... who'd have thought that 'n'all!? I've taken to saying "Right!" in an important directing sort of a way, to try to motivate myself into getting up out of the tea-chair and into the work-chair. T'is tough. I've kinda reached the stage where I've been revising for so long that I don't know what I do and don't know. It's about as confusing as a confusing thing on confusing pills walking on confused stilts in the worlds shortest confused person championships.

I played squash with Andrew this morning. We went down to the court at about 8.30am, and played for just over an hour. It was good fun, nice to be able to get out some pent-up aggression and adrenaline on a little-black ball. I feel quite calm now (though I have just woken up from a wee nap). En plus, I must work on fetal growth. What does insulin really do?

21!!

I am now 21. My brain cells are 21. My essence is 21. How old! And so, I am now a MAN. I have to be MANLY and OLD and MATURE. Apparently. According to these "age-based stereotypes". Well, hear this peeps, I'm probably gonna stay the same. For a few years more anyway :).

I had a good day. It is exam term, but I managed to avoid work for pretty much the whole day. We all went for a picnic in the sun at lunchtime to mark the day, and will certainly have an uber party after the exams have finished. Unfortunately the Englings had their 1st exam the following day, so there were stressy-exam vibes, but that's the way it is. It was good to have everyone there in the sunshine. Plus there are more cakes in Braeside kitchen now than any human could eat.

You may have noticed the massive 3D "21" in the right corner of this post. Alex gave me my presents in sculpture form - Suffice to say I was somewhat impressed, though it didn't last too long - I got many exciting things (including an Aston Martin!!). Vicky and Erika gave me cool presents too, including a "Magic Sheep" and a "Growing Pet Hatch 'Em", both of which involve growing and will feature on this blog in the coming days. Oh, and socks... I ALWAYS need socks.

Looking up

Things are looking up slightly. It was really sunny today, and I slept in so was actually awake all day - it's definitely the best way to get the most out of revision. Also, Marillion are doing a signing-session in the HMV in Cambridge on the day of their gig. Hurrah!! 5pm. Don't let me forget. ANYONE.

I went to a Chalk-talk yesterday lunchtime, my 2nd talk/lecture thing all term, and also my second in a week. It's only when you start revising that you realise how much you hate some things, and how interesting other things are. The talk was really interesting and linked a few lectures we'd had in Mod 9, which will be pretty helpful in an essay.

Nnnrgh - work. It keeps on coming. On the plus side I have two pigeon hole packages. Oooo

2001 A Space Odyssey

Just watched "2001 A Space Odyssey" in Tom's room. It's Kubrick so Iona's doing it for her exams, but Iona's literature and visual culture paper is a good excuse for us to still get to watch a few films in exam term. It's very good. Very slow, tense and beautiful, but slightly un-understandable (are you supposed to?) and is full of strange references to the human body (sperm, uterine lining, egg, fetus, CNS etc).

Olfactory Ensheathing Cells.

Yesterday was spent mostly in the midst of an extensive amount of Neural Degeneration. Why won't CNS neurones regenerate when PNS ones will, and what can we do to stop this? And, I read about some very interesting cell types, the olfactory-ensheathing-cell. The injured CNS provides an inhibitory environment to axon regeneration, but the OECs may be able to ensheath the axons and provide a permissive environment for axon growth by integrating with astrocytes in the brain. It's all quite exciting. In mouse studies they've helped axons regenerate across a cut spinal cord and led to some functional improvement. Clinical trials have started so watch this space for developments.

Plans

In other news, a last-minute "I can't be bothered to cook" turned into an exodus to Nando's last night, though, as it was closed, we ended up at Wagamama. They've just opened one in Cambridge, and it's really nice. Classic Wagamama food, but a nice view over Emma college too! It was nice to escape the work for 2 hours, and plan what exciting things we're going to do after the exams.

• Go to London
• Go punting to Granchester (of course!)
• Possibly a 3-legged shared gallon challenge. :)

It's my birthday on Wednesday! How exciting.

Tom

Exams.

I haven't blogged for a while - my apologies! The work has got huge, and a massive apathy-fear-thing kinda took over. BUT, I've made a revision plan now and I have more of a concept of how long I've got before the exams. Hopefully I can follow it through and remember the stuff I did first in just under 2 weeks time (this time in 2 weeks I'll be in my 2nd exam). I've got diagrams of signalling in gastrulation on my wall, so, fingers crossed it'll stick.

In other news, it has pretty much rained solidly for about 3 weeks (look out for headines of "Wettest May Ever"), which I suppose is good for the sake of the reservoirs, though less so for us. Yesterday was sunny though, so the world has been re-happied.

Pff... here goes another day.

Dev Bio Saviour.

I'm posting this for anyone who may happen to study developmental biology at any point. It will seem daunting, it will seem nigh-on impossible, with genes rushing about all over the place. I hope this post will help you. I hope it'll end up on google, like most of my pages do and will direct you to this book in your time of need. PDN dev bio, Cambridge... here you go...

Instant Notes, Developmental Biology

you may think pfff instant notes, what an undetailed waste of time. Nope. This book will clarify everything - in fact, I'm regretting ever going to lectures. Instead I should have just read this book time and time again. It's really brilliant.

Jenga

"A slipped disc is just God playing Jenga with your spine." Me

Knowedge (sic)

"Knowing that you know what you know is almost as important as knowing what you know." Me

Chutzpah (KHʊt'spə) - what a word. Look it up.

Busybusy

Have somehow not blogged for 2 or 3 days, despite this being exam term. I have been pretty busy the last 2 days with this and that, and trying to cram work into every moment in between doing stuff, eating or drinking tea/coffee. Plus it's been bloody freezing (as mentioned in my previous post) and it's going to be the same all week. How depressing!

Sunday night was Open Mic Night (photos). Alex was pretty nervous all day but calmed down while the guy before us was playing, while I did the complete reverse. Hehe. We played "Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Proof" by I Am Kloot, and "The Fear" by Travis. It went pretty well, and Sam (who was running the CAMS (Clare Alternative Music Society night) apparently enjoyed CYHSY even though he's a great fan of theirs, and the 1st year medic I met at the Medic's dinner who said "Proof" was her favourite song on the I am Kloot album also seemed to enjoy our rendition. Hurrah! It was good fun!

Yesterday was a pretty full day, so much so that I did no work! OOer. I'll have to have a purge today. Mary came round for coffee in the morning and we sat in the kitchen chatting to her from 10am until gone noon. I then rang Rahul (who was still in bed) at almost 1pm to get him up and out to snooker, and we went to WT's for a few hours. We played 5 games, drank 4 pints (in total, not each) and he pipped me to the post 3-2 on the last black. Nnnrgh. For some reason we got a free pitcher of beer when we got the table, so, not to turn down a bargain, we happily obliged. "It's a little early" I said. "It's never too early" she replied... Fair enough!

We then went to our 1st "Improver's" dancing class in the evening, which was pretty hard. We'd missed last weeks lesson, so we had to catch up the Rumba and the "hestitation" in the quick-step, which was really hard to get our heads around. Still, good fun though, and we got take-away icecream on the way home (at 10pm - hooray for La Margherita). Then, we had coffee in the kitchen with Iona, and I discovered Horlicks... a strange malty concoction that should probably be avoided at all costs, but somehow tasted slightly pleasant. Don't think I'll be drinking it again though. I also somehow got on to the topic of "gene knockouts" and tried to explain the "cre-lox" system for knocking out genes in specific tissues... I wasn't wholly successful, but that was mostly due to my poor explanatory skills. I left in where devils fear to tread... should have gone for something more simple like mRNAi or oligonucleotides. Nevermind!

Adieu,

Tom

Am in the computer room printing - the pleasant and healthy whirr of the colony printer stack behind me, and finally, some warmth. Braeside has been freezing over the last few days. The weather has taken a decided turn for the worst, and the heating has been turned off. I've been wearing a stupid number of layers for May! If it's gonna be cold, why won't it rain! We need the water.

I went to the Clare MedSoc Dinner last night, as all medics are essentially honourary vets, we allow them to name their Soc after themselves. Bless'em. It was pretty good fun, I sat next to a first year and a 2nd year medic, and chatted to them about... well... stuff, as you do, and enjoyed the 4 course lavish meal with "free drinks" as supplied by the fellows. Which was really good! I guess there aren't many places you could go and get a 4 course meal with pre-dinner champagne, wine on-tap, and port afterwards for the measly price of £20 really!

Happy Birthday Blog

Five days ago, it was this blog's 2nd birthday! I guess this exciting redesign can be a part of the birthday celebrations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMTHEVET.BLOGSPOT.COM

addendum...

It has been brought to my attention by a Mr Greg that my pictured monkey is, infact, agnathic, being neither prognathic or in the possession of any jaw bones. However, the original quote (referring to one "Tomthevet") stands as "A prognathic mitten-man", for reasons unknown (excepting a slight overstudying of primate-skulls).

I hope that has cleared up some confusion.

Tom (A prognathic mitten man)
and "Chimpy" (An agnathic knitted-chimp).

p.s. This is Post No. 250! Wow.

Stem Cells, Cafes and Facebook

Today... Alex's dissertation was collected - her supervisor hasn't really filled in much so she's a little confused as to what exactly is wanted, but hopefully she'll see him soon and get a better idea. I was quite impressed with it personally. I'm trying to bash my way through a lecture on stem cells which is less than riveting and filled with beautiful pointless sentences like "VEGF maintains Flk-1 and PECAM1+ sheets from day 1.5". Wow. I can honestly say I'm impressed. I'm going to run downstairs now and tell everyone in the kitchen what a wonderful insight into the world of developmental biology I'm having. This was supposed to be interesting. nrrrgh.

In other news, it's been freezing today! Alex and me went to Cafe Rouge for dinner and we nearly froze on the way down there. The food was amazing though. I had beef bourgignon (mmmmm) and Alex had chicken in white wine sauce. I then had creme broule (whatever else!) and Alex had a chocolate crepe (so French, so tasty!) and then coffees and things. Was really cool.

Am also playing snooker with rahul on Monday... no doubt I'll thrash him again like last time. I'm enjoying his facebook status at the moment "Rahul is facing four weeks of unadulterated lie-ins." Mine is "Tom is unable to understand why no-one likes Marillion".

Other highlights include "Lizzi is terrified. Google "lizzi edwards" with the speech marks and the first ELEVEN results are actually her... shit." Mmm... someone's bragging a tad! "Vicky is lacking in judgement after compressing her head" - I assume after the tiny child's crown she wore to the bop, and "Greg is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it".

I really don't want to so this stem cell rubbish. Can you tell??

Tom

currently listening, Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto No. 1.

Banners!

As you can probably seen, my blog has just risen about 900 points in the beauty and general eye-pleasing imageyness scale™ . Allow me to demonstrate:

0 (black screen)
10 (Cambridge bioanth website)
100 (My old blog)
1000 (My new blog)

I found out how to randomise banner images (see this link) and made some pretty pictures involving PG-tips monkey. Yes, not only am I advertising an admittedly quite poor tea company, I'm also showing off my monkey - who is damned cool. And also, the random "prognathic mitten-man" makes ever so slightly more sense when there's a knitted (like mittens) monkey (usually prognathic, though this one less so) on the front page in numerous situations vaguely relevant to my life. Expect many more as the exams get nearer and as I venture further afield with the monkey. There are 4 so far... press F5 or click here to refresh the page and see them all.

Hope you enjoy!

Tom

Weebl and Bob

What day is it now? Thursday google desktop tells me - how convenient! Ah, weebl and bob... CSI edition...

Weebl: "Lo boberto consuarlez"
Bob: "Lo Justice shades"
Weebl: "It look like this baker has been shot"
Bob: "twelve times in the face"
Weebl: "a real *puts on shades*... baker's dozen"
The Who: "Yeeeaaaah (+ guitars)" key intro.
Bob: "but a baker's dozen is thirteen!"
Weebl: "unlucky... for some"
The Who: "Yeeeaaaah (+ guitars)"
Bob: "where that music coming from!?"

Just so good. Watch it

Sunshine!!

The sunshine is beautiful. I sat outside with Iona, Tom and Louisa for about 4 hours on Monday, revising as best we could in the glorious sunshine. Even in April, sitting directly in the sun is tough - we found ourselves shuffling around with the tree's shadow. Alex and Vicky auditioned for 5 1/2 hours over two days, and had a lot of auditionees - we'll have to wait for the results to see who gets selected! They're due a week of sleep pretty soon!

In other news, we went to formal last night, in celebration of Ella's birthday much past, but missed. The food was awful, but we all had good fun. Ella was properly chuffed with her presents (A space hopper, a murder mystery, a purse, some earrings, some chocolates and 2 DVDs - we split off into boys and girls for her shopping, guess who got what...). I've put some photos on flickr.