20.109(F18) Class blog

The research proposal presentation project was a difficult process to think creatively and propose something novel since there's already a ton of research on many areas in science. It really makes you think outside the box and propose something new/different. Researching into how we would do it was also challenging since we're not very familiar with the field/equipment/methods. The biggest part of presenting is to seem confident that what you're proposing is a good idea/could potentially work. This experience also teach a lot about working as a team on a project and presenting together rather than journal clubs which was on our own. I enjoyed the feeling of it being over and am looking forward to the end of the semester!!

So Much So Fast Module 3 would be easier they said. Module 2 was the hardest part of the class they said. Module 3 was a lot of fun, but I will be honest, I didn’t expect that it was going to be quite the rush that it ended up being. When we got done with Module 2 it seemed like there was so much time left in the semester, but that turned out not to be the case. In no time at all we were selecting ideas, reading papers, and designing slides (and also making batteries). Coming up with a novel idea was definitely a challenge under those tight time constraints. With so many encroaching deadlines, and papers to read, no matter how early we started working on our assignments, it always felt like a scramble. While the speed at which we produced our research proposal was at times distressing, it was also a lot of fun. Having never done much work with neuroscience I had a great opportunity to learn about Alzheimer’s Disease from Jade and Kayla, both of whom are in...

How do people like Professor Belcher come up with original ideas that actually work? Between her ideas of making batteries using phage and modifying scanning electron microscopes, there aren't very many ideas left for the rest of us. It's absurdly difficult to come up with an original idea-- every idea I could dream up, with my very limited undergraduate education, seems to be something studied and dissected by a graduate student, post-doc, or professor somewhere in the world. The only real way forward, for my group at least, was to read some new scientific articles, take notes on the discussion section, and Google every question that came into our head regarding suggested experiments. My team decided to look into the possibility of using Zika virus, something my team knew almost nothing about, as a potential treatment for glioblastoma multiforme, a cancer that my team knew almost nothing about. During various class discussions, my team heard various other groups discuss pr...

So the worst part about taking a late day is forgetting about all the follow up assignments. Just like what I'm trying to do now. Make up a blog post because I completely forgot it was due 24 hours after I submitted my M2 report. Firmly timed deadlines are the bane of my existence. A little bit about myself-- most of the time I spend on my assignments happens while I'm on shift (I work fairly often on the student ambulance). Usually, my schoolwork and EMS don't come together to make life hard. Writing the M2 report was great! Having steady assignments due over the course of multiple weeks made finalizing the report much less daunting than I expected. I had multiple figures done well ahead of the deadline, multiple sections of my methods portion was fully written, and I already outlined my introduction. I had the majority of the report finished roughly an hour before the deadline and then-- a call came in while I was on shift. Which meant, of course, my assignment was 100% g...

The research article was one of those assignments that I’m sure was very important to my growth as a scientist and communicator and I’ll probably look back on frequently when I’m doing future science writing assignments and whatever, but boy, it was rough to write. I’m really glad to have this assignment behind me, even though as I submitted the paper (late) I felt like it still wasn’t as good as it should have been. I think that a lot of my stress about this assignment just came from the dread leading up to it, so hopefully now that I’ve gotten one research article under my belt the next one will be better. The assignment wasn’t all bad! I liked analyzing the data and putting together the figures and schematics, but getting through the writing was definitely a slog.

Writing the module 2 report was easily, though let's be clear it was far  from easy, the hardest and worst thing I have ever had to do during my time here at MIT. I'm not saying that in a negative way. It's just facts. I think what made is so difficult was that it felt endless. At least with exams you know it's from 7:30PM to 9:30PM and fin , but with this report man, you really didn't know when it was going to end. It's like, you've put in 20 hours and you still ain't done. What made matters rougher was that you put in all this work, and you're not even sure it's good at the end. That being said, I think it was a very formative experience. I for sure did not like the added stress of the fact I was turning it in late, but I did like the pressure to write a whole research report. Now I know how much work it requires-- a whole lot. I want to learn from this experience and say to myself, "I never want to be in this position ever again,...

It is such a relief to be finally done with this Mod2 report. I took a big L for not starting this report much, much sooner but thank god for the lenient 20.109 late policy (writing this blog post late too...). This weekend was one of my most stressful times here at MIT so far and that's saying a lot. But I did learn about how much work goes into scientific writing and I really, really don't like it. Some people are just better at this and I am not one of those people. The hardest part for me was the results section, where we had to interpret our--lets say mediocre--data. Statistical analysis was extremely time-consuming and explaining the data took even longer. I wish we spent time repeating our fermentation assays because that would have made life easier. At least it's going to be smooth sailing in 109 from here on out..right?

This was definitely the most intimidating writing assignment that I’ve had to take on during my time here at the ‘tute, and it was definitely super overwhelming. Once all the data was collected, I had a few days where the only thing that would go through my head when I tried to start writing is: “now what?”. I couldn’t tell you how many times I opened up Word or PowerPoint, stared at a blank page, and then closed my laptop. Even though we had homework assignments along the way to serve as handrails for the assignment, I still found myself fumbling. Where to start? I tried starting with the figures, as suggested by... well, everyone. But instead of a blank screen, I was staring at multiple (five, to be exact) spreadsheets filled with numbers waiting to be analyzed. As torturous as it was for my eyes, I was able to gain some traction, and motivation, to actually start writing. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to say about all the data and word vomit ensued. My writing process ended up...

I didn't expect a written paper to be so much work, there were clear guidelines on what needed to be written, and the purpose of the paper was pretty clear. But despite this, writing the MOD2 paper took so much time and energy. Every part of this paper required attention to detail, it really gave me perspective into how much work is put into scientific papers. The most straightforward part for me was writing the intro, since the main motivation behind the study was understandable, but even relating that purpose to the experiments we conducted took time and research. The method section was the worst part for me, I always try to err on the side of caution so I was tempted to go step by step in the method section, however that quickly proved to be futile. It was difficult for me to try to piece together a clear timeline that was easy to follow but omitting certain details; additionally separating the experiments became a minor hassle. I love making graphs, so the results section was f...

This weekend was meant to be a relaxing weekend away from the stress of MIT...THINK AGAIN. This weekend was instead spent pouring over my research paper. None of the relaxing, all of the editing. At the start of Mod 2 I told myself that I would have the research paper done by the time I left for my little Maine vacation, thinking that it would all be okay. (Narrator: “It would not, in fact, all be okay.”) Turns out, it’s pretty difficult to write a paper with no data! Who knew! The fact that we got our data the Thursday before this was due was a little bit of a rough time. I was actually pretty successful with working on the paper as much as I could but forming the critical parts of the paper, such as the end of the introduction, the discussion and the results section was pretty difficult without any concrete findings. In the future, I will try and not schedule get-away weekends right before big assignments are due. Or lower my expectations of the relaxation to be had. Or jus...

I never thought the day would come when I felt literally emotionally attached to my results, but it did on the last day of Mod2 when we saw the ethanol production levels. I was so perturbed! Not only were there no clear observable trends, but the only clear point was that the cells with the CRISPR system in the optimal conditions were simply the worst at producing ethanol out of every single sample.  Thinking I would get ahead, I pre-wrote much of my introduction, hypothesis, some discussion points, and even pre-planned my figures. But alas- come Thursday, I had to remake that all to tell a story that made sense with the data we got. One thing I will say is that if I did learn anything about scientific communication, I learned the importance of keeping track of your work so that people in future years can use it! A big part of our data analysis ended up depending on the work of those before us who had targeted the same gene, and it was so helpful when their data was...

This weekend was by far the worst weekend to have to work on this report. I don’t think I have ever put so much time into one project in my whole academic career. I honestly feel like I could have spent a million more hours working on it. I am just glad that it is finally over. I really thought this module was much more interesting than the first, even though our data didn’t really show that our experiment was that successful. Thank you Leslie for answering 10000 of my emails! I wish I could’ve come to office hours. It probably would have been more helpful. I just need a break from work, but now on to studying for 320! Not having lab and lecture has really been helpful for my studying though.