Second Semester

Yay, a new post! Sorry about not posting anything for a while. The end of the semester/Christmas/beginning of the semester kind of threw me off. All I have to say about my long winter break is that I am glad it is over and I’m back in school. I love to be busy, especially busy with biochemistry!


This semester I am taking two classes and a few seminars (I am sitting in on a class trying to learn Java too). The two classes that I am taking are physical biochemistry and a structural biochemistry course. The two seminars I am taking are the Biochemistry (departmental) seminar and SBB (Structural Biochemistry and Biophysics). Speaking of SBB, I have decided to affiliate with SBB since my dissertation research will likely be in, well, structural biology and biophysics! All this really means is that the Department of Biochemistry will award me my degree and I will get a certificate from SBB.


Also, I am currently in my third and final (thank goodness) rotation. In the beginning of March I will have to choose a lab that I want to join. The rotation that I am in now does NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) of macromolecules (big molecules or proteins to the layperson). In there I am learning magic (a.k.a linear algebra and complex math; i.e. imaginary numbers) so I can do some computer programming for the lab. All I can say is math is SO COOL! Without math we would all still be naked, running around Africa (When watching the monkeys in Washington DC, seems like we’d be better off naked in Africa).


The weather here has been erratic. In January, we were enjoying sunshine and 60s. However, the last two weeks have been cold and rainy/slushy and even snowy (albeit, nothing like what my brother, Shane, has got up in northern VA).
Mostly it has been cold and rainy; cold enough it should be snowing but its not.


Its entirely to late so I shell leave you with my ‘quote of the post:’


“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.“
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English philosopher and mathematician.