Hello everyone, my name is Nicole and I go to high school in Shanghai, China. Today was the start of a new week, and we hit another milestone with our project here at SSP. Today was the day we received our sequencing data for our bacteria, and we all started running the bioinformatic programs we learned about last week. It felt unbelievable that the data gained from the past weeks of toilsome labs and risky media swaps with our chemostats was all condensed into these seemingly trivial files on our computers. Nevertheless, everyone was very excited to start analysing the data and discover the underlying meaning of what looks like a long list of random letters.
*This image shows participants having a BLAST with their bioinformatic analyses and trying to figure out their Superb Sequencing Parameters!
Although there weren’t any “special activities” planned for today, everyday at SSP is indeed special and eventful. This morning we had a lecture on scientific writing where we learned that writing in science is beyond just presenting facts; we should aim to tell a story rather than just giving out our facts. The infinite depth of details one has to consider when writing in science has elevated my appreciation towards all the effort behind each scientific literature out there.
*After a brief bioinformatics session, I had lunch with my lab group.
The afternoon consisted of everyone continuing on their bioinformatic procedures, relieved when it ran smoothly and squinting at our screen when the results tab turned red. Sometimes the tasks seemed daunting but with the help of all our supportive peers, professors and TAs, we pushed through and eventually managed to find meaningful results. We continued working on this and our problem sets during study session, described in the pictures below.
*picture on our way to study session
*stepped outside for a breath of fresh air in the middle of study session to this view. It successfully made me calmer and ready to conquer my problem sets
All in all, I think the title of today’s blog is a good summary of the day. Challenges came, and we overcame them; mistakes were made, and we learned from them. This is a typical day of SSP, where not a day goes by without challenges and learning.
