Research????

I have to admit that I did not make up my mind to do a PhD due to immense interest or self-commitment to do research, a typical reason given by people doing PhD. My decision was rather driven by the fact that I simply want to pursue a higher academic degree and that I was uncertain of my next step in life.

However, after being here in this lab for 3 weeks, my mindset is somehow altered. I seriously admire the extensive knowledge and stringent attitude of my supervisors towards science. This inspires me to want to become someone like them in the future. Also, the immense research atmosphere in the lab and the dedication and proactiveness of my fellow labmates are equally exalting. I hope that I will be as competent as they are one day.

On the other hand, I am pondering over the fruition that may come in return. The saying “hard work pays” is never, or not always, the dogma of scientific research. With hard work and a brilliant mind, you can unfold tardily the big picture of something, but it might not be sufficient to make significant scientific breakthrough. Undeniably, on top of brain and effort, one needs some luck sometimes to discover something.

Barry Marshall won the Nobel Prize for his unintentional discovery of Helicobacter pylori, and this would not have been possible if the incubator did not went faulty and if that did not happen during the Easter holiday. Christian de Duve, another Nobel laureate, earned the prize due to his accidental discovery of lysosome, when his laboratory centrifuge broke down and he had to use a table-top centrifuge instead.

Anyway, it might be at a too early stage for me to consider this now while I haven’t really started doing research. For the moment, I just hope that the inspirations and stimulations that I gained in the past 3 weeks will stay around to keep me moving forward. :-)

天晓得

一口气把“家好月圆”的最后七集给看完了。

和上一季的“溏心风暴”一样， 这出戏有许多的经典对白。 

印象中最深刻的，是在Jo包在钻牛角尖的是后， 荷妈问的一个问题：

“天离地有多高？东离西有多远？ 

在样的悲恸时刻，荷妈问了一个让人丈八金刚摸不着头脑的问题，但实际上确实充满哲理的问题。

这个问题的答案是 “天晓得？？？”

也就是”不知道“，对， 就是不知道， 非常简单的不知道。 

很多时候， 当事情没有依照我们的意愿发展，有或者完全超乎我们的掌控，我们就乱了方寸， 觉得一切都是命定的，自己一定是要完蛋的了。于是，拼命往牛角尖钻，可能因此平百错失解决问题的机会， 又或者让自己遭受不必要的心灵煎熬。

但是，下一秒会发生的事情， 本来就是“天晓得”的，而且日常生活中有太多我们根本无法预期的事情。面对着这许多的“天晓得”的事情，如果我们无法豁达地面对，那岂不是庸人自扰吗？

 最近看书，看到一句禅语，值得大家去思考的：

“你若了解， 世间事如是；你若不了解， 世间事亦如是。” 

My lab....

 I have no idea if my lab is truly and internationally competent research lab, but it is indeed an "international" lab: 

My 2 supervisors: 1 British and 1 Polland (They're a couple)

4 Postdocs: 1 British, 1 italian, 1 China, 1 Croatia (Another one's coming, he can either be a French, a Chinese or a Brazilian). 

6 PhD students: 2 British, 1 Polland, 1 Hungary, 1 Malaysian and 1 Mix (Holland + British, he can speaks Spain as well)

1 Research assistant: Portugal 

I still can recall vividly the first impression i had about the lab when I came for interview: Everyone was working seriously on their bench, and I barely observed any conversation between people in the lab. I could somehow foresee how my life gonna be in this lab, which was kinda depressing and discouraging. 

After two weeks working in the lab, my previous view on the lab was proved to be a misimpression. Everyone's in the lab is so helpful and friendly, and the lab is much more lively than I have ever imagined. There's always someone to teach and lead me patiently, treating me like an undergrad student rather a PhD student. ^^"

And not forgetting to mention my supervisors who are really nice and patient. You can see them sitting beside a student and explaining things, which doesn't fit at all with my impression of how a supervisor behaves. There was one day when my supervisor explained something to me quite briefly as she was in a hurry to leave. Who knows, on the next day, she approached me and said that she wanted to explain more thoroughly. Phiew... what a bless.... :-)

Hopefully all these are not illusion and everyone continues to be nice to me...hehe.... XD

Freshie Week....^^

It’s the end of the very first week of my PhD life. I haven’t got anything done that really has something to do with my research project, but I would describe this week as being an overwhelming, inspiring and intellectually challenging one.

First day:
I was welcome by my supervisor’s brief introduction of the lab and his demands on his students. He placed great emphasis on the international level of scientific research and disciplines that he’s running in our lab. That really pressured me as I wonder if I could live up to that. But on the other hand, I was kinda excited when he told me that the lab is importing some latest technologies and I would be the one to master them.

Second day:
We had our regular journal club today. I have got the paper discussed in advance and read through it for a few times, but seriously, it didn’t make much sense to me. However, there had been immense discussion among my group members and I was really amazed by their competency, their ability to analyze and wide scope of knowledge.

Third day:
We had a lab meeting today where one of the postdoc presented her research work. Again, I witnessed how my supervisors and the other lab mates scrutinized critically each and every single piece of experimental results. Till then, I felt so defeated because I was nothing like any of them and I really wondered if I could be as competent as them.

Forth day:
My supervisor told me a “joke” today when I asked him how to apply for permission to work in the lab during weekends and non-working hours (which is a procedural thingy). This was his response: “Oh, just ignore that, you need only to apply for writing permission for not coming into lab during non-working hours.”

Fifth day:
Someone in the lab led me in doing some cloning experiments and the techniques used was so much more advanced than what I used to learn in the textbook. That really gave me a feeling of being at the forefront of scientific discovery and it’s awesomely overwhelming. And thanks to the long experiments, I missed my train to Hull by 3 minutes and had an 1.5hr-extra-journey. -.-

So, that’s it for my very first week….^^