Over the last several school days, my school has had a series of lecture by Sydney Brenner, who was the Nobel Prize winner for medicine in 2002. I think going to listen to him talk is definitely a high point in my years of undergrad here. I mean, come on, how often can you say that you’ve seen a Nobel Prize winner in flesh and blood!?
The lecture was on the “Architecture of Biological Complexity” and was rather interesting because I had pondered about similar issues. Biology is very complex. Inside each and every one of your cells, there are so many processes going on in order to keep the cell alive, replicate or allow for special functions. In order for the cell to produce all these functions, there are machinery (in the form of proteins) that allow it to happen. The more I learned in school, the more mind boggling it became. It was absurd that the cell can have all these complex reactions going on at the same time without interfering with one another. In the lecture, he suggested not to be overwhelmed by the complexity, but to break it down into functional units as nature has. You can understand the complex by understanding the simpler components and how those components bind together to form the complex.
The range in the audience was also very amazing. Undergrads, grad students, professors, and people working in the school all gathered in one of the medium sized rooms to listen to this guy talk.
One of the things I like to do when I listen to people do presentations, is to observe and try to see how they make the audience interested. There were no visuals during the lecture, just a little old man with his funny British accent. He kept the audience’s attention by doing lots of analogies to things we are familiar with and made jokes when the attention was waning. He was a good presenter, but something was missing. Maybe it’s the lack of exaggerated moments or speech. I’m not quite sure. Then again, the guy is respected for his research, not his presentation skills. As any student knows, just because they’re a professor, doesn’t mean they can teach.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to remember this for a long time to come. It was really cool.
Battle mode - ON!
Hm. I suppose that things don’t change after all and I still cannot manage stress very well.
It was Thanksgiving /Mid-Autumn festival this weekend so I went home for a few days. My relatives went over to my parent’s house on Friday and it was nice (kind of) to see people. Luckily, the main focus was eating so I didn’t have to interact with too many of them. I think the highlight of the night was playing Text Twist on Yahoo games with my cousins. All four of us were crammed into this small room randomly yelling out words we saw. *laughs*
It’s so dumb how I lock myself up in my room and try to make myself feel better by doing things I like (watch tv and read manga) all while I worry about my upcoming tests and assignments. Worry and stress over something that hasn’t happened and hold myself back because of something that hasn’t happened yet.
I just have to try. I think I did a good first step in organizing my table/room. All I need is to start. Right now, I’m very ashamed of myself. I suppose that’s why I don’t want to talk to anyone.
It’s a battle that I’m all to familiar with and a battle that I’ve never won. I know a plan that can win the battle, but I’ve never been able to execute it correctly. But maybe, just maybe, this time will be different.
I feel stronger than before and I know that there are people who care and will support me if I ask.
As niisan might say, “JUST DO IT.”
For once, I think I will.