Over the Halloween weekend:
A friend was running this life/death assay on (some mammalian) cells. Cells which are dead will stain red; live ones will stain green. Then what she got was two sets of cells - one group staining both red and green, and the other doesn't stain at all.
We called the first set the living dead, and the second the ghosts.
Later she found out that she didn't add enough of the fluorescent dye.
5 years of research blood, sweat, toil and tears (literally) distilled into a 150-page document (and 4 publications), 35 minutes of powerpoint presentation, and 1 hour of intense grilling by 5 experts in the field. The hope is that you will convince them enough to accept you into joining their ranks and sign the thesis approval form at the end of it all.
With this, the time has come for me to move on to the next stage of my academic career. It has been an enjoyable experience, from 1st year to admission to candidacy to ABD to final defense.
I am a little disappointed "that the heavens didn't part with trumpet-playing angels descending to announce this monumental occasion". And it had been unseasonably cold this past week.
Anyway, so long and thanks for the Ph.D.! (I like this written piece by Ronald T. Azuma). If only I knew what I know now 5 years ago...hindsight is always 20/20, but the walk down this path has enriched my life greatly somewhat.
One chapter closes, and I look forward to the next one which is about to start soon. I can finally embark on a research career. As my advisor said: "Grad school is just a nursery for budding researchers. You ain't seen anything yet."
Adapted from J. Engr Education, 2008, 97(3), 301 - 302.
Consider this:
It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristeriate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our must lukized sneziaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Be sure to use your best handwriting.
1. What is traxoline?
2. Where is traxoline montilled?
3. How is traxoline quaselled?
4. Why is it important to know about traxoline?
- Judith Lanier
Now, anyone who is decently competent in English can answer the questions above without having any idea what the terms mean. But this judgement neglects the important point that a significant amount of grammatical and syntatic knowledge is being tested here. One could not solve these problems without understanding the differences between subjects and objects, how to identify verb tenses and endings, the role and implication of helping verbs etc.
There is a strong analogy between (the above) example and the use of mathematics in science. The mathematics in itself is about grammatical and syntactic relationships, and permits the drawing of complex conclusions about the placeholders (variables) without having any idea what those placeholders stand for.
...We not only expect students in science and engineering to be able to understand mathematics (syntax); we expect them to combine this knowledge with knowledge of what the math is talking about in a tightly integrated way to see the meaning of the symbols. This is different from straight math and can even lead to differences in the way equations are interpreted.
The Differences Between Meanings in Physics and Math: A ShibbolethOne of your colleagues is measuring the temperature of a plate of metal placed above an outlet pipe that emits cool air. The result can be well described in Cartesian coordinates by the equation
T(x,y)=k((x2+y2)
where k is a constant.
If you were asked to give the following function, what would you write?
T(r,q)=?
The above is a problem whose answer tends to distinguish engineers and physicists from mathematicians. An engineer or physicist who works regularly with polar coordinates is likely to give the response T(r,q) = kr2, a result obtained by assuming the variables are related by the familiar polar to Cartesian relation r2 = x2 + y2. A more mathematical colleague is likely to respond, T(r,q) = k(r2 + q2). The function is defined mathematically by saying, “Add the squares of the two variables and multiply by k.”
The engineer will object. “You can’t add r2 and q2! They have different units.” The mathematician might reply, “No problem. I see what you mean. You just have to change the name so that each symbol represents a unique functional dependence. For example, you could write T(x, y) = S(r,q) = kr2.” Unfortunately, your more concrete friend (imagine a chemical engineer at this point) is still unlikely to be satisfied. “You can’t write the temperature equals the entropy! That will confuse everything.”
Many engineers, physicists, and mathematicians are surprised by this story. Each side believes that its way of using equations is the “obvious way” and that surely even a mathematician (or an engineer) would agree. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Each group strongly prefers its own interpretation of how to write an equation.
These two examples dramatically illustrate that in science and engineering, we tend to look at mathematics in a different way from the way mathematicians do. The mental resources that are associated (and even compiled) by the two groups are dramatically different...using math in science requires the blending of distinct local coherences: our understanding of the rules of mathematics and our sense and intuitions of the physical world.
You are given two choices:
1. A full time industry R&D position in a Fortune 100 firm which pays you very well (we are talking about being in a pay bracket at least at the 90th percentile of personal income in US), all the more so given today's tough deteriorating ecnomic conditions and in an area you are keen on plunging into or;
2. A postdoc in a well-respected lab whose PI was recently acknowledged by the US federal government for the scientific work coming out of there. The project(s) I am offered is challenging enough that will expand my scientific repertoire, and previous group members have had considerable success in finding excellent teaching positions (e.g. Imperial college, UIUC, UT-Austin to name a few).
Received a lot of conflicting opinions amongst my friends whom I consulted for their advice.
7 years ago, I remember stepping out of my "Transport Economics" class (at 9 am in the morning) and hearing fellow students in the hallway urging us to go watch cable TV. Apparently something big had happened in NYC and DC. I spent pretty much the rest of the day glued to the huge TV set the university had put up in the Memorial Union, and called home to assure my folks that I was safe and secure.
Tuesday, Sept 11, 2001. To the victims and survivors:
It is important to commemorate this day not only to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, but also to honor those who continue to live with this tragedy.
This past week for two nights in a row I dreamt about my 1st gf. The details are fuzzy, but it is awful to wake up and to start the day in a lousy mood.
A quick check on this blog told me why. I am amazed by the ability of my subconscious mind to remember dates anniversaries.
Two years later, I still stand by the title of this entry.
A neverending story
Now and then, I may meet an interesting new girl, and being single and desperate, I take the opportunity to get to know her better. It’s tiring; trying to know someone new always is. And as we grow older, so do the people we meet (unless you are a cradle snatcher), and there’s more to find out. And then there is the usual background research to be done.
Primary school. Secondary school. Junior college. University. Major. Favourite colour. Favourite book. Favourite animal. Favourite number. Favourite song. Favourite movie. Favourite flower. Unfulfilled dream. Biggest regret.
You labour at it, so that you may reap the rewards later in case things work out. But one after another, they fall by the roadside, and even though you stay as friends, when her birthday comes around again, you can no longer recall what her favourite cartoon character is, or what she likes to eat at a restaurant.
I no longer ask, because I no longer care to find out. No more hedging of bets, just to clog up my brain with more useless tidbits of information I won’t be able to recall when the occasion arises. But for you; I can never forget.
Jin Shan Primary School. River Valley High School. Raffles Junior College. University of Melbourne. Medicine. Red. To Kill a Mockingbird (one of them). Dog. Five. Right Here Waiting. Serendipity. Lilies (or at least it used to be). To be a singer. Not getting together with me.
It’s almost ten years since we set eyes upon each other in that classroom, almost nine years since we traded rubber bands with straws between our lips, eight years since you looked through the fourth-storey window and watch me kick a ball, and I saw you stand and sing on stage in that most memorable of Talentimes, and we got ‘married’ in civics and moral education class, seven years since I heard you cry your heart out on the phone, and we stepped through the gates of the same college, five years since you laughed at my clean-shaven head, four years since I bade you farewell at Changi, and you first got attached, almost three years since I did, one year since I broke up, and four months since you did.
A decade of memories.
There have been many times in those years when I have wondered about us, and where we will be in another decade’s time. Whether the meandering journeys we have taken since those heady secondary school days were meant to test us, and whether fate will bring us together again some day. Or as you once put it, whether we will return to square one after everything that we have been through together. If, we will ever end up together.
I already know the answer.
Happy Birthday.
A labmate wore this T-shirt with the following printed in front to the office. 
The engineers in my group: "What the heck is mjT???"
Tonya Coffey and her students reported "an experimental study of the Diet Coke and Mentos reaction (made famous in a 2006 Mythbusters episode), and consider(ed) many aspects of the reaction, including the ingredients in the candy and soda, the roughness of the candy, the temperature of the soda, and the duration of the reaction." (Am. J. Phys., 2008, 76(6), 551 - 557)
Basically,
1. The Mythbusters correctly identified potassium benzoate and aspartame as key ingredients in the Diet Coke–Mentos reaction. (Static water) Contact angle measurements were used to show that these ingredients reduce the work required for bubble formation, allowing carbon dioxide to rapidly escape from the soda. The small amount of caffeine in Diet Coke is unlikely to contribute significantly to the reaction.
2. The Mythbusters also correctly identified the roughness of the samples as one of the main causes of the reaction. The importance of sample roughness was shown by comparing SEM and AFM images of the samples to the explosive power of the reaction. Increased surface roughness implies a higher surface area to volume ratio, meaning that more growth sites should be present on per unit volume.
3. Samples which encounter less viscous drag and hence fall more quickly through the soda will cause a more explosive reaction. Also, for the same amount of mass lost, the eruption will be more dramatic when the reaction takes place over a shorter time.
4. Finally, hotter beverages result in a more explosive reaction. (A direct illustration of Henry's law and Le Chatelier's Principle)
This was shown in the movie 21. I got the answer wrong, and had a vigorous debate with a friend who was watching the show with me. It turned out she had taken a Math class on this in her undergrad. Bugger. She kept repeating - "conditional probability!".
Suppose you're on a game show and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. The car and the goats were placed randomly behind the doors before the show. The rules of the game show are as follows: After you have chosen a door, the door remains closed for the time being. The game show host, Monty Hall, who knows what is behind the doors, now has to open one of the two remaining doors, and the door he opens must have a goat behind it. If both remaining doors have goats behind them, he chooses one randomly. After Monty Hall opens a door with a goat, he will ask you to decide whether you want to stay with your first choice or to switch to the last remaining door. Imagine that you chose Door 1 and the host opens Door 3, which has a goat. He then asks you "Do you want to switch to Door Number 2?" Is it to your advantage to change your choice?
From the MSN conversation with A, who prefers to call herself HG:
HG: sigh, and I kinda like this other guy... but since I've graduated, probably won't see him much anymore. Lately been wondering if I should ask him out
tk says:
fuck him lah
HG says:
er
tk says:
yupz
HG says:
not so fast bah hahaha
tk says:
haha
HG says:
I don't even know if he has a gf or not... he never talks about his love life. hahahah. And I'm kinda not the person to ask. Hmm, this is going to be difficult. haha
tk says:
Doesn't matter right. Just go for it. Fuck the other girl, if she exists
HG says: >_< I just want the guy. hahah. I don't think he's attached though. Nobody else has heard of a gf
tk says: Not fuck the other girl literally
HG says: lol. I know.
tk says: But ask her to scram. lol
HG says: hahahhahahahah
tk says: fuck in these cases, have multiple meanings
HG says: Wonderful word. hahah
tk says: Yup. One of the most wonderful words in the English language.
HG says: lol. Versatile too!
tk says: Exactly
A friend was moving house today. He and his wife had boxes of stuffs and many were heavy, although the honor (of being the heaviest) went to the living room's sofa. We needed additional manpower, so we drove out to this strip mall area where there were many amigos (or 老墨) available for hire. We spoke to two guys and did one of these 'chicken-and-duck-talk' bargaining before agreeing on a price amenable to both sides. All payments were to be in cash.
It was an interesting experience, to say the least. The police knew the place well but no raids (as far as I know) were conducted to round these folks up for deportation. There is a demand for their services. We wouldn't know where to hire help otherwise. This is the kind of jobs that few (if any) Americans are willing to do. Some locals blame them for depressing the wages of American manual laborers. Sounds a lot like the arguments back home in Singapore.
It is a global phenomenon, a product of globalisation.
I went to the movies last evening with two ladies from Singapore (and three other friends whose presence I we largely ignored).
While heading home after the show:
tk: Why are we walking so slowly?
girl A: We are strolling.
girl B: We are ambulating.
Sometime later, and still on the way home we ended up talking about this head at one of A*star's institutes:
girl B: She's a micro-manager who wants her PIs to present their research to her (and everyone else) at weekly group meetings. She's infamous as this neurotic/psycho bitch who goes nuclear if you attempt to answer back when she's shouting at you. It doesn't matter whether you are a senior post-doc/junior faculty-level researcher or someone fresh out from college. She will just scream at you regardless of whether there are other people in the room. It's kinda humiliating if your position is a senior one and there are college interns or people fresh out of JCs waiting for their school term to start watching you get run over by her. The whole atmosphere in the room would be very tense and silent except for her shrieks; you could almost certainly hear a pin drop. At one of those sessions, I realized that I had neckache after that. I was so afraid of even relaxing my neck muscles; everyone else froze too.
Greetings from the Tar Heel State! 
One of the most pressing issues facing mankind now. Also aptly the background theme of many presentations.
I am surprised this was only reported on WSJ recently. I thought it is an open secret.
...Karaoke in East Asia is serious, and its practitioners are far more earnest in their art than a group of giggling Americans belting out "Sloop John B" might seem.
For the unseasoned American doing business in East Asia, there is occasionally a darker and somewhat confusing side to a night of karaoke. First-time travelers could be in for a shock when they find themselves in a private room in a karaoke club -- common in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China -- being asked to choose from a lineup of young women brought in to serve them. A visitor's first thought might be that the women are sex workers. They are young, often dressed in revealing clothes and ready to finger-feed customers fruit or whatever else they may be eating. In some low-end clubs, the women may indeed be sex workers, but foreign business travelers are unlikely to be taken to these places. At most places business guests end up, the women are simply club hostesses whose presence conveys luxury.
This guy rocks! Three of his classic jokes:
a. Some helium gas drifts into a bar. The bartender says, 'We don't serve noble gases here.' Pause. The helium doesn't react.
b. Says the bartender to a superconductor that walks in: 'We don't serve superconductors here.' The superconductor then leaves the bar, putting up no resistance.
c. Women have passed through my life like exotic particles through a cloud chamber, leaving only vapor trails for me to study for clues to their nature.
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Logical/Mathematical You like to work with numbers and ask questions. You learn best by classifying information, engaging in abstract thinking and looking for common basic principles. People like you include mathematicians, biologists, medical technicians, geologists, engineers, physicists, researchers and other scientists.
|
An email to the graduate student body was sent out last week, giving us the names of the incoming class of 2008 and the previous institutions they attended (similar to this). There is this person from one of the Singapore universities. She is obviously PRC (I don't think Singaporean Chinese have names spelled like hers, but I could be wrong), and a google-search of her name + university showed that she had topped her undergraduate class recently.
I wonder if she is one of those foreign MOE scholars who broke/is breaking bonds to come to the US for graduate study. I intend to find out when she arrives on campus in the fall.
Now you know why there is so much ill-will and resentment by the Singaporean students towards foreign undergrads in NUS/NTU/SMU when it comes to this topic of foreign MOE scholars (leeching off the goodwill and generosity of the Singaporean tax-paying public).
