shame in academia

Time to put on your academic glasses!
Because this blog post is gonna be science-y.
This will be my take on Science Communication.
I think Scie. Comm is interesting.
Well, it LOOKS interesting.
More than my Environmental Economics stuff anyway.
So here's a short review of the latest scandal in science.

Has anyone heard of STAP Cells?
It stands for Stimulus-triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency.
STAP cells can basically become any cells that we want.
That's what we call "Pluripotency".
We make STAP cells by putting stress on normal cells.
Said stress can be…squeezing them or,
if you like something more extreme,
dumping them in acid. *ouch*

Isn't this great!?
We can turn normal cells into any cells we want.
And the best part is it's so easy.
Take some lemon juice (which is basically weak acid).
Dip some cells in it.
Viola! God-like Cells!

And we owe it all to a wonderful,
charming, cute scientist:
Obokata Haruko-chan.
And she's not just your ordinary scientist.
She wears an apron to work,
instead of a lab coat.
And her lab is covered in kawaii stickers!
Her work was published in one of the most
prestigious scientific journal in the world:
Nature.
She shot to fame in her home country Japan.
All was well,
and Miss Obokata became an instant hit!

But (there's ALWAYS a 'but'),
several claims came in from different scientists.
They've read about STAP cells in the journal.
STAP cells are great.
They tried to make some too!
But the replication of the experiment failed.
And this is where the biggest scandal/
scientific misconduct in the scientific community started.
With Miss Obokata right in the middle of it all.

The STAP cells paper was retracted from Nature in July,
having only been there for six months.
The scientific community criticised the lack of integrity
in Miss Okobata's work.
But she was the only one who received the blame.
Her supervisor and co-author of the paper,
Yoshiki Sasai,
was also criticised by the scientific community
for not properly fulfilling his duties as supervisor.
Unfortunately,
Mr Sasai was found to have taken his own life.
It's believed that the cause of his death,
was caused by the "shame" of being involved in this
"scandal of the decade".

Miss Obokata has agreed to repeat the experiments
in an attempt to prove to the world
that STAP cells really exist.
So far,
the organisation responsible (RIKEN)
has worked with Miss Obokata
on the experiment 22 times.
With no signs of STAP cells yet.
Perhaps the answer is quite clear now.
That there are no STAP cells.
Or rather, STAP cells have yet to be found.
And we've still got a fair way to go before the next breakthrough in science.

~The End~

I hate these sad endings.
And that wasn't really an scientific article.
It was more like "Dramas in Science".
There's still a bit to write about regarding this case.
But I'll leave that for next time.
Wouldn't wanna bore you.
If you DID manage to finish reading the whole article.
What do you think ?
Am I THAT bad at writing ?


Listening to Superheroes - The Script

Reading lots,

TK

and so it begins

Phew.
So far, its only Thursday and
I'm already beat.
So far it's been,
1 online quiz, 1 in-class quiz, 1 assignment and 1 presentation.
It's like Semester 1 all over again!
Except it's only Week 4.
Not looking forward to future assignments.
Also, I've only attended 3 lectures this week.
Skipped almost/more than half of them.
#SuchARebel
I can totally see this becoming a habit too!
I'm shedding my Fresher identity.
Just like how Taylor Swift is shedding her country origins.
If you haven't heard anything about Taylor lately,
you are a disgrace!

Aside from my assignments and being absolutely hooked to Taylor,
nothing much happened these past few weeks.
Unless you're interested in hearing about my assignments. 0_0
I wonder what other bloggers blog about?
I COULD blog about the work I've been doing at volunteering.
But that won't be fun.
After all,
my job basically comprises of stopping people and
telling them about a random science project….
To make matters worse,
said science project is about soils.
"Wow such fun…"
But I suppose research is supposed to be torture (PHDComics, 2011).
Oh dear,
I just wrote an APA-style citation.
But I've never used APA.
It's always been Harvard.
I really need a break, don't I?

Let's see if there's anything interesting in my phone.
I'm sure there's SOMETHING that isn't a picture of my assignment/notes.
#Filler
P.S. I've been having A LOT of coffee lately.
So much for trying to save.
I just realised the Vanilla Chai Latte they sell at the Guild Cafe is quite good.

Ohhh here's something that's remotely interesting.
Everyone,
this is Oliver.
He's a Moody Quad-Beak.
He's not an octopus,
nor is he a squid.
We don't know what he is.
He belongs to the genus Orthoceras,
which was said to be extinct.
But we found him in the North Pole,
frozen.
He's cute, I reckon.

On Wednesday,
my biology group and I have successfully
(to some extent) brought Oliver to life.
Now, he's a cute lil' purple Cephalopod
with a loving owner.
May he lead a happy life
and have lots of kids,
through PCR and advanced cloning processes.
You know…
Since he's the last of his kind.







And here's a picture of me trying to collect a soil sample.
I failed miserably.
There was root material everywhere.
Mycorrhizal-fungi, perhaps?
If that was true,
then EWWWWW.
I touched a fungus.
#EnvironmentalistAtHisBest

And now for a picture of a rock I bought.
Got it at the Rock Museum at Uni.
It was sooo cheap and pretty.
That's a piece of calcite.
The most stable polymorph of Calcium Carbonate.
It looks like a diamond, doesn't it?
I got it because its shape looks the most defined.
It's natural but it looks like it's been processed.
I even attached a little pick-up line to it.
"I'm a piece of carbon. Date me!"
+1 if you get it!



And just to end this extremely pointless,
random and boring blog post.
Here's a picture of the coffee I had yesterday.
Vanilla Chai Latte for the WIN !
Too bad it's soooo bloody expensive.
I guess I'll be sticking to Flat Whites.
Flat Whites are good too.
I don't like the white foam they have on Lattes.
Maybe I'll talk about my coffee-drinking habits next time.
We shall see.



Listening to Shake It Off - Taylor Swift

Jump into next wave,

TK

a day in the life of a .first-day-of-uni student

It's Friday,
and I've successfully made it through the first week of Uni.
Fun fun fun fun,
looking forward to the weekend.
But now I'm at the library.
Chilling.
#NerdLife

First day of Uni always feels great.
You feel/think you're gonna do a great job.
A new semester.
A new beginning.
You're gonna study hard.
But still have excellent work-life balance.
And first-days are perfect for just that.
The fact that you don't get any work on your first day
makes your work-life balance look excellent….
even though you've spent the whole day doing nothing.
Either doing nothing or doing something stupid.
One or the other.

This time,
I thought I'd do another one of those "A Day in the Life" posts.
WITH PICTURES !
(yayyyyyyy)
It was a fairly fun day for me.
Probably boring for all you readers out there.
But whatever !
#NerdLife

*DRINKING (WATER) GAME:
Every time you see a laptop/computer in any of the pictures,
take one sip of water.
If both appear in the same picture,
take two sips.
If you survive this challenge,
you'll probably need to use the toilet really bad.
But I commend you if you survive !


7.15am
Wakes up.
Mum had to wake me up
because my biological clock was still messed up.
It still is.


7.30am

Brekkie Time !
I had to choose between bread and cereal.
I went with bread.
Because if I had cereal,
with COLD milk,
I would freeze.
Plus,
I feel that a cup of coffee
for appropriate for the first day of uni !

*Shoutout to Miss Fashion for the awesome mug from Vietnam !


8.30am

Bus ride to Uni.
First day or not,
I always end up running to the bus stop.
And this time,
I was determined.
MUSN'T BE LATE
FOR FIRST LECTURE
OF THE SEMESTER !
The bus was surprisingly crowded.


9.00am

I barely made it.
I went into the crowded lecture theatre,
and just picked a seat in the front and sat there.
Too intimidating to go any further to the back.
So many strange, alien faces.
Our lecturer, who is Chinese,
gave us the first lecture.
We didn't get to meet our Unit Coordinator.
I found the lecture slightly boring.
And it was a little hard understanding him.
But he speaks quite well….
Until he starts rushing.


10.00am

Went round the campus looking for textbooks.
First to the Reid library,
then to the Secondhand Bookshop.
Trying to be thrifty and all.
Unfortunately,
Secondhand always fails me.
So I went over to the Co-op bookshop.
$80 for my Economics textbook.
And $130 for my Organisational Behaviour textbook.
GREAT !
Such great deals !
#SmellTheSarcasm


10.30am

Gave up on my book search completely.
And went to hang out with some friends.
Meet Miss Mum and Mr Dad and did....
nothing of any significance!
Miss Mum was very loud though.
And Mr Dad was swearing a lot.
And I was stuck in the middle.
Hmmm....
Sounds quite like a typical family to me...
#Creepy


11.45am

Stopped by at the Science Cafe to get lunch !
I don't actually go IN to the Cafe quite often,
despite being a regular at the Science Library.
Well, it can't be helped,
since they close at 3pm.
As if Perth going to bed at 5pm wasn't bad enough.

I settled for a Ham and Cheese Croissant.
My first "usual" at Uni cafes.
Got sick of said "usual" after a few weeks of
continuous consumption.
Needless to say,
it's not a "usual" anymore.


1.00pm

Walked ALL THE WAY to the South end of campus...
or was it North ?
Well, the Business end of the campus.
This semester I enrolled in
Organisation Behaviour (OB).
It's my first time doing a commerce-related unit.
So, things were pretty mind-boggling at first.
It still is...
But the whole lecture was dedicated to housekeeping.
I've heard rumors about the unit being super dry.
That lecture confirmed it!
In other words,
I'm looking forward to it...

Sadly, there won't be a picture for this time slot.
Because I was too busy snoozing.
It's a trend in that unit.


2.00pm

I met up with Mr Mum and Miss Mum to go hunting.
Tutorial classroom-hunting, I mean.
Why wait till your tutorial to get lost,
when you can just get lost on the first day of uni!
Miss Frozen tagged along as well.
So that was kinda interesting.
We ended up in weird places....


3.00pm

...like the Rock Museum.
Miss Mum didn't know about this place.
So her jaw dropped exponentially.
Miss Frozen was as well,
just not so much.
We stomped on the seismic detector-O-meter,
touched soils (my favourite part),
and looked at rocks.
Apparently, they were selling rocks too.
Shiny, colourful rocks.
Not the boring ones.
(If you're a Geologist, please don't kill me.)
Pretty damn cheap too!
I'm going back one day to get some.


4.00pm

We ended up at Reid Library, somehow...
And we chilled at the Reid Cafe.
Miss Mum and Mr Dad pretty much had a divorce.
It wasn't an ACTUAL divorce.
But it sounded a lot like one.
And as always,
the husband is the one leaving the wife...
Aside from marriage values being questioned,
nothing much happened that hour.


5.00pm

Time for me to get some work done!
Volunteer work, I mean.
ClimateWatch work, to be specific!
I spent 3 hours looking at roughly 150 sightings
of Australian magpies.
I found some rather interesting error in the dataset,
which made the work more interesting...
Unfortunately,
the error was actually caused by my carelessness.
One step closer to unemployment!


8.00pm

My eyes were twitching after staring at
TWO computer screens for THREE hours.
Silent bus ride home.
As usual.


8.30pm

I had my dinner.
And then my shower.
Nothing interesting here.
And you're definitely not getting a picture of me in the showers!

10.00pm

I get my daily dose of online cwap!
Reading random things online.
And watching pointless videos on YouTube.
It's a living necessity for me.
Good thing I had some strawberries to munch on.
Fruits and nonsensical social media go extremely well together!
Kinda like cereal and bananas.

12.00pm

I hit my sack.
Not literally.
I also pray that I won't oversleep the next morning.
Guess what,
I did.



Listening to Up All Night - Owl City

 

 

Back to Busy Uni Life,

TK

rev. it up

Has anyone ever heard of Rev. ?
It's a TV show about a rev.
And in case you don't know what a rev is,
perhaps you'll know what a reverend is.
Rev is similar to reverend in that they are the exact same thing.
What makes the two different is that "rev" is spelt with only 3 alphabets.










As you can guess,
the show has religious implications.
The story focuses on a man called Adam.
And why don't you have a guess about what his occupation is?
If your answer was "He's a reverend.",
well done! WRONG !
He's a vicar.

I won't spoil much,
but I will
I definitely recommend it!
I remember seeing DVDs of it on shelves when I was browsing through the ABC shop.
The simple concept of having a reverend as the main character
was (supposedly) more than enough to draw me towards it.
I saw it some time last year but was not foolish enough to purchase it.
Instead, I got it from the library.
#SmartShoppersShopSmart

With only 3 seasons (or series, not sure what to call it),
each episode has a (more or less) stand-alone story.
So you can pretty much start wherever you want.
The main theme of the show is to project
the struggles of being a reverend/priest/vicar.
Even more so in this 21st century,
where religion is sort of a dying race.
Episodes focus on contemporary church issues such as
(but not limited to)
church finance, parish size, muslim community, same-sex marriage etc.
For me,
it's interesting to see how these episodes/mini-plots play out,
because I never really get a chance to see these things happen in real life.
And even if I do,
I'm probably not shown the whole picture.

So I admit.
It's bloody fascinating to see things through the vicar's eyes.
Oh, and I think Adam's a good man.
He may swear and drink and smoke,
but he's good on the inside....
which is what made Season/Series 3 soooooooo good.
Overall,
I think the show's pretty accurate about the modern challenges that the church faces.
If I'm not mistaken,
even local vicars in England watch the show and agree.

So why don't you give this a go as well !?


Listening to Next Chance To Move On - Shihoko Hirata

Back to uni,

TK

mr. innovative

Hello Everyone.
How have you all been ?
(I mean it.
Please answer the aforementioned question.)
If you still refuse the answer the question, fine.
But I'll just go on and tell you how I've been.
I feel great !

So in a week,
I've managed to turn down a "wonderful business opportunity",
do some reading,
volunteer for a bit,
have fun,

polish my piano skills,
visit a beach (enjoy the pictures of them scattered throughout this blog post) ,
and BLOG !
The last part is really something.
I mean, how many of us actually end up blogging
when we tell ourselves to blog ?
But it's only a matter of time,
before uni starts,
and assignments team up with the dormant procrastinating gene in me.
But still,
I shall make it a habit to keep blogging bits and pieces.

Let's talk about this "wonderful business opportunity" first.
By "wonderful business opportunity",
I mean getting into the direct sales industry.
An easier way to put it is,
a job that requires you to constantly bug your friends/family to buy products from you.
Said products are probably cosmetic/health-related.
Some of you may have some experience with this.
Personally,

I don't really like it.
Scratch that.
I hate it.
Its terrible being asked by a friend to buy their products,
when you don't want to.
But you can't say "no".
After all,
they're your friends.
#ThatFeeling

And I don't see myself as much of a salesperson.
I have terrible communication skills,

even if I do say so myself.

And even worse persuasion skills.
At first, I was excited at the notion of having a "business of my own".
But the more I was told about it,
the more I thought it was a direct sales kinda job.
My brain went no-no.
Unfortunately,
I'm not sure how to ACTUALLY say "no".
I'd been invited to a presentation of the job with a friend of mine.
I was sure I was going to force myself to say "no".

I texted my "employer", whom I met at uni.
I asked what the name of the company was.
But she did not reply.
Hahaha. What a great way to not raise suspicion…
But, being the awesome stalker I am.
I found the name of the company.
Google-d tons,
and told myself it DEFINITELY doesn't appeal to me.

NO was definitely my answer.
But what about my friend ?
I didn't wanna drag my friend into this.
So I told her what I'd found online.
And fortunately,
we both played it smart.
We both (kindly) declined.
Since we both lacked "the proper communication and business skills".
So,
to Ms Social Worker,
thanks a bunch for staying with me through the whole presentation.
And thanks for making (hopefully) the right choice of not getting involved.
Also,
thanks Mr Dang,
for tagging along.
Your "moral encouragement" did "wonders".

After we declined and left the cafe,
a wave of relief just swept us all off our feet.
Needless to say,
we went and celebrated….

And while we're on the topic of jobs,
I've managed to land myself in some volunteering positions.
One of it is at my Uni.
I'll be working on a project that involves…
*drumroll please*
SOILS.
That wonders.
It's a citizen science program called MicroBlitz.
Normal citizens will submit soil samples of a certain location in WA.
I will process them,
(Definition of "process" still unknown)
And they will be analysed in a DNA-sequencing Lab
to study the types of microorganisms that exist in that soil.
Fascinating, huh ?
My "processing workshop" is next week,
and I am eager to begin !

Another job I volunteered for is with ANOTHER citizen science program,
called ClimateWatch.
Again,
normal citizens will submit sightings of certain animal/plant species,
detailing their behaviour.
What we do is,
we take all those sightings and
study the trend of its behaviours.
To see whether the timing of its behaviour is affected by climate change.
First-year Biology students work with ClimateWatch.
We are given a dataset to analyse,
and we'd write up a scientific report about it.
My group chose to NOT write about the animal/plant we were given,
but the reliability of those sightings.
(And after looking through 500+ sightings single-handedly,
I am very crossed with how SOME people can't even submit a proper sighting)
So now,
I am simply reprising that role of checking sightings,
for reliability.
Only this time,
I am working directly with the organisation.
And my reliability analysis WILL be taken into account
when updating the database.

And so there you have it,
a bit about my career right now.
Total monthly income: Still $0
But I hope I'll enjoy volunteering now.
I love volunteering in a scientific environment.
So I guess I can end this by saying:
"And I don't know how it gets better than this…"
Give yourself a pat in the back if you get the reference.
Looks like my second semester is/might/maybe
going to be a good one !


Listening to Last Night - The Vamps

Head first, Fearless.

TK

01.01

Minasan konichiwa !
That's "Hello Everyone" in Japanese.
Today, I'm going to write about the things I've accomplished this year.
Because if we all don't sit down and do that once in a while,
we'll turn into self-loathing people.
#InflateThatEgo

To my friends back home,
who have yet to begin Uni.
Maybe you can imagine yourself accomplishing all these nonsensical things
when you begin your adventure.
No offence to anyone, of course.
Ohhh wait,
look at the time.
I'm gonna have to dash now.
I've got a play to catch.
Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it ?

*One Day Later*
*Several moments of procrastination later*
*Several nude scenes and a bad ending later*

Now where was I ?
Oh yes,
trying to justify my Accomplishments List,
despite it making me look like I have an oversized ego.
Haha just kidding,
my ego's already the size of Australia.

Well, without further adieu,
let this incredibly boring, stupid, ego-inflating list !
(Please don't hate me)
(Please Like Me)
A list of things I've accomplished in my first semester of Uni:

1. Became familiar with the UWA Campus
2. Stayed at a university college
3. Attended a lecture
4. Seen a peacock(s) on a daily basis
5. Heard noises from a peacock fight
6. Learned Hiragana, Katakana and basic Kanji
7. Conversed with Japanese people
8. Sorted out my own timetable
9. Bought coffee from a school/uni cafe
10. Tried Chai Latte
11. Entered the University's Japanese Room (Mutsumi no Ma)
12. Participated in a citizen science project (ClimateWatch)
13. Wrote a scientific article that got published
14. Volunteered with children
15. Went swimming at a pool in Australia
16. Found several bus routes from home to Uni
17. Relaxed on a piece of rock cliff/shore thing
18. Tried eating at a 24/7 joint in Perth (Fast Eddy's)
19. Spend several dozens of hours on writing one article
20. Wrote a 2500-word essay
21. Wrote an essay on Indigenous Astronomy (fascinating stuff !)
22. Have a sleepover
23. Went to SciTech
24. Watched a planetarium show
25. Attended a Muslim Ramadhan Iftar Dinner
    
26. Created a LinkedIn profile
27. Actually submitted and applied for volunteer jobs
28. Ate a Bi bim bap
29. Ate mushrooms ! (MAN UP !)
30. Bought new shoes…. IN AUSTRALIA
31. Jumped around at a trampoline theme park (Bounce Inc.)
32. Took a bus all the way to Wanneroo
33. Tried a bunch of new playround equipment (Quite scary)
    
34. Ate my first quiche
35. Had a horror movie marathon
36. Watched Human Centipede I AND II
37. Had a conversation with my tutor about her phD thesis
38. Read actual scientific articles
39. Became deeply interested in a topic #soils
40. Met the (ex) Chief Scientist of WA
    
41. Platinum-ed Final Fantasy XIII
42. Went for a 3-hour walk
43. Tried playing a game of pool (and won…)
44. Got a haircut at an actual saloon (again…IN AUSTRALIA)
45. Attempted rock climbing
46. Twisted my glasses while rock climbing
47. Completed a short course in Agriculture
48. Peer review another person's work
49. Had friends over at my place
50. Picked up a(n) (unused) condom from the ground outside the
    
    
    cafe of the science library
51. Watched a theatre play
52. Seen people strip…in real life (IN THE PLAY, I mean)
53. Ate a cake from the Cheesecake Shop

I think that's all I can think of at the moment.

I know some of them sound really silly,

but nevertheless,

I'm quite happy with them.

Hoping for more adventures in my second semester of Uni !

Listening to We Are Done - The Madden Brothers

Chilling on a Sunday afternoon,

TK

soils

What a weird title for this post.
Soils !
That brown-blackish thing that's all around you.
The thing that plants grow on.
The thing that worms live in.
Soils…
The meaning of that title,
so deep.
You can barely understand it.
So what do I mean when I said "soils" ?
What I mean is simply, soils !
I love soils.
#MyStrangeAddiction

And you can blame it all on Uni.
THEY DID THIS TO ME.
But really,
this is the result of having a student go through a combination of
Biology, Earth Science, Communication and Japanese units
in his first semester of Uni.
And I HIGHLY doubt there'd be anyone else
who took those exact 4 combinations of units.
Ironically,
the Communication unit
(SCIE1103: Science, Society and Communication)
was the most influential of 'em all !

But I suppose the lot of you would not be able the understand.
The true beauty and power that is soils !
Here's a picture to help process all this.

A recent trip to my local planetarium
(WHICH WAS AWESOME)
has really got me thinking though…

Soils on Earth is fertile. 

But not on other planets.

The fertility of soils is almost one-of-a-kind on Earth.

Soils are also responsible for growing plants,

the primary producers.

Wouldn't it make sense to think that,

soils were sort of like a platform for the evolution of complex life ?

Life expanded from the ocean, onto land.

Animals relied on plants,

and plants relied on the soils they're on.

Can you comprehend the miraculous prowess of soils NOW !?
If not, refresh this tab and
start reading this all over again.

Have I told you about my sick obsession with soils ?
They made me wanna switch majors to Agriculture !
That's how loopy I am for them.
And when I look at it,
Agriculture might not be so bad after all.
I mean,
I might even enjoy it more than Environmental Science.
No surprise really.
Since I picked Environmental Science on a whim.
And also because the cover guy/girl for the major looked happy.
Unfortunately,
the cover guy/girl for the major this year is not-so-good-looking.
The background was awful as well…
On the other hand,
the cover guy/girl for Agriculture looked happy this year.
Yup !
Now you know how my mind works,
and how to decide on my Uni degrees.
I know, I know.
My priorities are messed up !
(All them Asians doing Commerce degrees though….)
#AsianIntuition

So far,
I think soils are quite impressive,
though most of the work I've done revolved around soil nutrients.
Which reminds me,
I might also have a sick obsession for Phosphorus as well.
But let's not go there.
Perhaps it's one of those moments,
where you find something insanely fascinating.
But as soon as you really get into the nitty-gritty stuff,
things aren't so "fascinating" anymore…
Like climate change !
I bet everyone is interested in that.
Well,
I dare you to enrol in EART1105: Dynamic Planet.
And then, tell me what you think about climate change.
In fact,
just knowing that I'll be taking a unit called "The Climate System"
in my second year makes me shiver.
I fell like fleeing from my lectures and just bury myself….
….IN SOILS !
Because I love them so.

Other than that,
I guess I should give my tutors for this semester
a little shout out !
I've had great people teach me this semester.
The scary my-tutor-is-evil/crap stories I keep hearing from others
definitely helped with making me more grateful.
I salute them !
I also stalk them on the Internet.
Lastly, I wish them Good Luck with their phD projects.
Now I just hope I get some decent tutors for next semester !

Also, my ego got mega-inflated,
thanks to me (and my group) being published in a
student-only online journal.
You can check it out here.
Ahhh yes,
life is sweet when you're in your first semester of Uni
and already have a scientific paper published…


P.S. I should really upload some photos, shouldn't I ?


Listening to Little Sines - Rhian Sheehan

Busy during holidays,

TK