Guten Tag!

Ok, so I still haven't posted bout my previous trip to Scotland, but that's gonna have to wait. 'Cos this post is THE update (in the loosest sense) of where I am.

Right now I'm in Dresden, Germany! To make it easier for you, I'm right here:

So what am I doing there? Well I'm currently a research assistant at the Max-Planck- Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, aka Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. No, my disdain and suckitude at physics since secondary school was not a cleverly-concealed latent ability. Which, by the way, most of the research here is comprised of biophysicists that do research like kinetics of cell movement, protein shapes etc aka the physics of living systems.

It's just that I'm tied to a research group leader, Dr. Michael Hiller, who has links to this institute and another Max-Planck Institute, i.e Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. So for now I'm doing work here.

I just got here and work has already started piling up. Lots of new things to learn, considering that I'm shifting to a slightly different research area, which is more towards computational biology and comparative genomics (wait till I find a nice introductory video for it.). 

I'll update more stuff next time (*cough, ahem) such as how all this crazy stuff came together as well as my attachment/trip to UK, but for now here's a picture of the guesthouse (behind the institute) that I'm staying at for now.

p/s: The suitcase is mine and did not come with the room.

Tschüs!

pp/s: there are more photos in my Google+, though I'm not too sure if you can see them since I'm still kinda new to this.

Extreme!

Just a quick note to anyone skulking here that though I might be MIA from Malaysia, I'm still not dead. :)

Been really busy lately, getting things settled and there is not much time left I'll be here in Aberdeen! Still haven't gotten to really see this place much. Anyway I've got this long blog post on Aberdeen stuff, but it's still in the works.

Instead, lemme just tell you the most extreme weather I've ever encountered - today on 3rd April 2012 in Aberdeen!

So the last week has been unusually sunny, reaching almost 22 C (a record and unusual weather! gasped the locals).  The weather then turned back to cold and wet over the weekend, and today I woke up to around 0-1 C. No snow, just cold.

Then around noon it became really sunny, like probably around 9-10 am sunny in Malaysia, though still very cold. Such a paradox, I was sorta trembling near the stairs area (which has some open windows) and looked out to the sun shining.

Later around 4-5 pm I was in the lab and noticed that it was really cloudy, wind howling, and snowing! Seriously, that was my first time seeing actual snow. I ran to grab my phone, but alas the winds stopped and there was not much snow left - very fine and little to be captured on camera. :(

Anyway, I carried on around after 5 pm in the office and saw, guess what! The sun is out again. and shining brightly  probably like 6-7 pm sunny in Malaysia. And yet it was snowing just a moment ago!

Well I left the building around 6.40 pm and it was still bright and sunny outside, but yet still very chilly and strong winds. After a while, I felt some small specks on my hair, and looked around and lo, it was snowing! Really tiny though, just a few tiny specks on my coat that turned to water the moment I touched them. That was probably the biggest contrast I've experienced, touching specks of snow while standing under the evening sun!

Hopefully in my next post I will have worked up enough motivation and time to post the Aberdeen stuff. :P  And please, stop complaining about the weather in Malaysia! You ain't seen nothing till you go outside!

Fare thee well!

Just a quick note to inform everyone or anyone who still checks in here...

*crickets chirp*

I will be going off to Aberdeen for 3 months (25 Feb - 30 May) for an attachment project at the University of Aberdeen..

So uh.. see ya when I get back!

What I do (Part 1)

A lot of times people ask me what I study/research/degree. This can briefly be summed as follow

X: So what is your Master degree on?

Me: Molecular Biology.

X: Oh. Sounds fancy/interesting.

*awkward pause, where you can tell they clearly have no idea what I do and don't know how to proceed*

Me: *in attempt to sound friendly* It's kinda like Biotech, but Biotech is more like the business aspect. This is the basic research part.

X: Oh.

Actually, I wasn't really telling the entire truth, kinda like watered-down and measured-in-PPM kind of truth. From Wikipedia:

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity ... Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding and the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between the different types of DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated."

It's kinda like saying I'm doing Biology. Or Physics (hah!). It's just a general term for a field of study. While I do quite a several aspects of research, my main interest and focus is on molecular phylogenetics.

For now though, let's focus on understanding the concept of phylogeny.  Rather than throw lines of jargons at you, I was pointed to this excellent and well-produced video, which I think does a great job of highlighting the wonder of nature, the concept of phylogeny and why we study it.

  

More to come.. 

Pretty fly

If you're an avid radio listener, chances are you would have heard Keri Hilson's Pretty Girl Rock (which I would say sounds like it's inspired by the rather terrible Pretty Boy Swag by Soulja Boy).

But have you seen the video for it?

It's actually quite awesome, and not a typical "scantily-clad female prancing around with gaggles of males leering after her as if they've never seen an attractive female" music video.

I'm not a music pop culture expert; when I first watched it without reading the description I wasn't really sure what was different transitions were about. Then I quickly identified the similarities of two particular scenes to Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson and Creep by TLC. Intrigued, I checked out the video description and re-watched the video more carefully this time.

From the official video description:

Follow Keri Hilson through the decades in the video for her single "Pretty Girl Rock," directed by Joseph Kahn. Keri transforms herself into women who have paved the way for black female artists, including Josephine Baker, the first world-famous African-American entertainer; singer Dorothy Dandridge; disco queens Diana Ross and Donna Summers; dance music legend Janet Jackson; and R&B trio TLC.

The order of the artistes, as I've manage to dig around are:

1. Josephine Baker

2. Dorothy Dandrige

3. The Andrews Sister

4. Diana Ross

5. Donna Summers

6. Janet Jackson

7. TLC

As a homage video, I think it is very well-done and it really captures the essence and highlights the differences between each era/artiste. From the rather innocuous flirting of the first 3 artists to the synchronised swaying of Diana Ross and finally to the "tough gal" hip-hop dance of the TLC, I really marvelled at how things have changed and evolved in music and dance and the portrayal of female performers.

I was a little curious about Josephine Baker, so I dug around Youtube a bit and found this: Footage of Josephine Baker performing her infamous Banana Dance at the Folies Bergère in Paris, France c. 1927

If you have not seen the original Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson, the one portrayed by Keri here is admittedly, quite a watered-down version. But then it's a quite difficult task to recapture the power and awe of the original video by Janet herself, which if I'm not mistaken, probably set the standard for flawless synchronisation and complex choreography in music videos, and an excellent showcase of the raw energy and power of group dancing.

TLC was among the pioneer groups that made hip-hop more mainstream, and females as hip-hop performers in general. I'm not entirely certain about this part, but as hip-hop became more mainstream, I believe hip-hop as a dance also evolved to be accepted as a type of dance - it's a very in-your-face style, wide arm and leg movements, and very energetic. As an example, you can check out this hip-hop routine performed on SYTYCD.

All this stuff might not mean a lot to most folks, but I find it fascinating and interesting, and definitely gives you a slight sense of pause and a raised eyebrow and how things have changed.

Finally...

It took a longer time than expected, braved through many seemingly innocuous nay-sayers... but finally..

I just submitted my thesis!!!



Phew! Now it's just viva in around 2 months time. But taking a short break in the mean time. Yep, only a short break cos unfortunately still got lots of other stuff to do.

Gloom...

Today is probably the longest raining day I've ever encountered in UKM.

Started raining around 7.30 am this morning, and has been since the whole day. Alternating between a drizzle and medium downpour the whole day.

Had not seen a peek of the sun at all.

It's gonna be a cold (and lonely*) night.


*which is practically every night anyway.