Dear God,

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Grant me the courage to change the things I can.
Grant me the discipline to read my journals, faithfully and dilligently.
Grant me the strength to persevere on when I struggle to read an article.
Grant me the wisdom to interpret the journals in the way I should.
Grant me the foresight when experiments need to be planned.
Grant me the ability to challenge the knowledge I have attained.
Grant me the intelligence in analyzing the data obtained.
Grant me the professionalism in handling and performing animal surgeries.
Grant me the patience when manipulating the slides using epi-fluorescence microscopy.
Grant me optimal concentration when looking down the confocal microscope.
Grant me absolute precision when sectioning tissues and performing immunohistochemistry.
Grant me accuracy when diluting antibodies and loading SDS-gels.
Grant me humility should an experiment yield successful results.
Grant me selflessness in sharing antibodies and scientific knowledge.
Grant me a sense of reasonableness and practicality when at work in the lab.
Help me to overcome the PCR re-drawal symptoms.
Help me to understand the things that I cannot understand.
And where there may be desperation, allow me to bring HOPE.
Where there may be sadness, allow me to bring JOY.

With Love,
Rachel

The last day at VY lab was marked with lunch at Crystal Jade. The lab colleagues reckon that I have an expensive taste, but isnt that the most basic characteristic of a princess. AFter a couple of hours, i was dubbed 'Saint Rachel after donating some hybond and Whatmann paper to the others. I'm so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to work together NY. The research and insights that he has exposed me to is greatly valuable. Confocal, transfection, IP, Westernblot, etc. Through this experience, i reckon that trypsinizing cells aint something I'd find exciting and I probably can run gels with my eyes closed now.

School has officially started with meetings with my supervisor everyday. But such discussions are necessary to have a clearer picture of what is to come. He brought me around the department introducing me to others. Lecturers and professors are if I may put it, full-time researchers and that teaching is just their side-line. We're have now been upgraded a level, we used to hang around the teaching laboratories in our undergraduate years but now as post-grads, we're hanging out in each other's laboratories and offices. So it goes, I've got an office space at the Taylor Wing of Lindo Ferguson, with the lab just next door. Though I'm with another department, the clique's pretty close by as well, just connected by a walkway. So there my week goes with microscope101, epi-fluorescence and confocal.

Btw, I showed a friend this video and she reckoned that i'm pretty geeky. Here's the PCR video that i shared with her. Scientists for better PCR - Courtesy of BioRad in an attempt to promote their 1000 Series thermocyclers.



Lyrics to the song:

There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.

Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.

PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.

(repeat chorus)

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Doesnt it just make you wonder how wonderful these scientists are? Academically and muscially inclined people indeed.

Simply amazing eh.