As human beings, we tend to seek and crave routines. Waking up each day and being comfortable with what lies ahead in one’s daily regimen are what many look to for stability and as creatures of habit. Some observers may call this “playing it safe”, while others may see it as “the way life is”, and yet for those a bit more adventurous, spontaneity in life is welcomed – with limits. Today was the final day of SSP’s FIRST week, and to my fellow peers, warm congratulations, we survived! (As Dr. Hall noted: “it’s a milestone.”)
After a week of waking up at 7:15AM every weekday and sitting in front of a computer for hours, one would expect to feel fatigued or bored, but I didn’t feel an ounce of either. As someone who normally loves her sleep, I was surprised to find myself waking up so quickly in the mornings, buzzing with excitement, curiosity and a bit of nervous anticipation of what new day, with my fellow, like-minded biochemistry fanatics would bring. Every day this week has included a series of adventures to embark on – whether it was traversing through the wilderness of the MOE software or cracking jokes (filled with puns that were PUN-ishingly hilarious) with one another during campus blocks or exploring the unfamiliar and exciting new territories of certain biochemistry topics through lectures.
By the third day, I could list at least 2 hobbies and interests of each familiar face in the Zoom sessions, and within 72 hours, we were making jokes and conversing like familiar friends. This incredibly fast bonding that each of us made with one another is a large part of why my group decided on the name “Triple Bond”. We realized that through one another, we would not only be expanding our knowledge of enzymes and fungal pathogens but also our understanding of the innate value of teamwork, diversity of thoughts and input, and most important of all – budding friendships.
During our morning block today, my team and I worked on parts 3-4 of our research project, working to construct an expression vector for our protein and determine the sequence of the protein encoded on the plasmid. As I worked through each step with my team, I realized just how grateful and lucky I was to have my two teammates to collaborate and work with. My team has amazed me from day one, as in the face of complex problems and any obstacles, we do not falter but instead, run headfirst towards the challenge. Just today, we spent around 4 hours on one problem that we had encountered, analyzing everything that could have possibly gone wrong, testing all different possibilities for the solution, and retracing our steps and acknowledging that research requires tenacity and optimism, even when facing setbacks. The sense of accomplishment and euphoria we felt when we finally got our desired solution felt well worth it as – we had done it!
Today, we were honored to have Dr. Bevil Conway from the National Eye Institute/National Institute of Health join us for SSP 2021’s first Guest Speaker Event: Color Inside Out: The Neuroscience Of A Human Obsession. Dr. Conway introduced us to a new way to think about color, elaborating upon the concept that color is not something out there that we respond to as a reflex device, rather the brain is a machine that is filling and painting the world with color. The interdisciplinary topic of color intrigued me greatly, as color is how biology responds to physics and a new approach to understanding color stuck out to me: color doesn’t tell us about the identity of something, but rather its state. A fun fact: if you want to be less addicted to your phone, turn on the grayscale setting. You will be less inclined to want to go on your phone when there’s no color involved. My team and I had the opportunity to lead the Q/A session. and it was awesome to be surrounded (virtually) by peers who were just as excited about science as I was. Each question asked made me reflect and provoked deeper thinking. I must say, it was quite an EYE-opening experience (pun fully intended).
As one white light ray beam can emit the colors of an entire rainbow, each SSP member will add color to the world in their own unique way. We are the white light, SSP is our prism. I think that through SSP, we will be able to share the light and make the world a more colorful place with our collective love for science, quest for research and learning, and support for expansion of diversity and inclusion.
Each day my group, the Triple Bond, learns a new word or phrase in each of our members’ second (or first) languages. Today we learned the phrase “Today was a wonderful day” in Turkish (from Ardil) and Korean (from Noelle):
Bugün mükemmel bir gündü!
오늘은 정말 좋은날이었어요.
Now, SSPeace out!
Throughout the day, I found that SSP was spotted hidden in many different places:
SspI restriction enzyme in the PET15b sequence:
In a spectral sensitivity of bee pigments graph:
In a diagram of color molecules shown during the guest speaker event:
From the Cdc14 family protein phosphatase Clp1 [Schizosaccharomyces pombe]:
