Bio Journal 2006

Yes.. It's true.. As of now onwards, this blog will cease to be updated. A big thanks to all the readers of this blog. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading this blog. However, the author has larger matters to attend to and so has decided that this blog will be shut down. I will not remove it from the web. It is still free for you to read, just no more updates.

Again, thanks to all the readers.

Farewell to all....

Posted by Justin Poh at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ok.. Here's the deal.. I've been busy with HAVEN rehearsals and our latest orchestral presentation on sat 29th July. So we practically had rehearsals everyday, so i have had no time to write any journal entries. If this journal happens to be checked before sunday of week 6, then my appologies that term 3 week 5 and 6 journal wont be here yet but i will update soon. I've still got haven rehearsals everyday until 6pm so no time to do during the school week. Sorry again to all...

Hope this blog meets all required requirements! :P

Bye!

Posted by Justin Poh at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

Now we're really back on track with journal entries! Phew! Anyway, this week finally free from major disruptions.. but not for long.. i'm gonna end up missing the whole of week 6 due to HAVEN rehearsals.. sigh...

Aniwae, in accordance with the tradition of this blog, practicals first!!! This week's prac was an IA to measure the respiration of mealworms. The idea was to use a simple respirometer to measure the respiration rate of mealworms and then plot a graph. Sounds easy? NOT!! The mealworms were the ones causing most of the problem. Since theyre alive, they can struggle free! so yeah.. battle to fit them into the tubes. Basically the set up consisted of NaOH pellets in eppendorf tubes to prevent their smearing all over the tube injuring the mealworms when you put them in. Then you place mosquito netting into the tube to support the mealworms, then put the mealworms in, then a test tube stopper connected by a rubber tubing to a 1ml syringe which has a liquid level. The idea is that as the mealworms repire and the NaOH is taking in the carbon dioxide, the liquid will be pulled through the tube to take the place of the air being taken in. so the liquid level in the syringe will fall and that is taken to be your respiration rate. pretty interesting.. But because of certain issues, we get to do the prac all over again next week so i'll blog more about this next week.

This week, the other prac i did was the make up of last week's prac. That is, the same set up as this week, but instead of mealworms, you use kidney beans instead and take their respiration rate. Quite fun as well.. since everything's above, i won't go too much into this... on to theory lessons.... :P

For theory lessons, we basically covered teh rest of plant reproduction and then moved on to respiration. Didn't go too much into respiration... just a bit. I'm a bit worried now because i still haven't really got the hang of the whole plant reproduction thing.. so 'm just hoping i'll get it in due course. But that 's about it really.. nothing new.... same old theory lessons.... grrr..

But on saturday, i finally learnt how bad walking around in black shoes is for your leg msucles.. They're all kinda sore from walking around doing ushering at VCH for MEP national concert.. wonder why? ...

Aniwae, i've got alot of stuff to do before all hell brakes loose... hehe...

C ya!

Posted by Justin Poh at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok... I realised after reading through my blog that i forgot to blog weeks 1 and 2 of term 3. So here goes.. as far as i can remember....

Basically this week, we've been working on plant reproduction.. nothing that we didn't already have the jyst of..... but i'm sorta having trouble with the chapter though... the terms are a little confusing.

As usual, i'll start with prac first.. for the first week, we did the examination of plant parts to find the different parts we had been studying.. For the prac we used the grass flower and the red flower (i'm coming up short with names. Please excuse my memory). The grass flower i had trouble finding the stamen but eventually found it.... yar... In later parts of the investigation, a banana and an angsana just to name a few were involved, of which the banana ming sheng promptly douced in iodine (so we had a blue banana instead). It was interesting, but not really any fun... :)

2nd week we had model UN conference so didn't have a prac.. but learnt abhishek varma cares alot for the "poor penguins and polar bears should a nuclear warhead land in alaska" lol

For theory lessons, we just basically covered the chapter on plant reproduction that week.. not easy..

That's about it for the first two weeks. partly because of model UN conference, this post is essentially covering only the first week. But it was still enjoyable.. hope i can get my plant reproduction thing in order... sigh...

Posted by Justin Poh at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok. Here's a photo of the zebra fish embro in the first few hours.... This is late because SOMEBODY (hint hint) didn't lend me his thumbdrive after he got the photo.... lol.. Aniwae, enjoy!

Posted by Justin Poh at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments

This post i know is also late but i'll begin telling you about today....

So since most of the stuff had been done in the past 2 days, we only had dissection and mounting to do. Dissection was done under a microscope since the embryos are kinda small to do with the naked eye. The dissection process was simple-sounding: Cut off the tail end and throw away the head. I mean, for ACSians, we've done more to a frog!! But the catch was the phrase "under a microscope". That was pretty difficult to do. And they giving us syringes with a needle end to do the cutting wasn't helping at all. On top of that, the embryos are still in glycerol so they can float. Nightmare erupted until we discovered its easier to remove the embryos from the watchglass of glycerol and transfer to the glass slide first, then do the dissection, then add the glycerol and the cover sllip. so eventually i got mine. yay!! Not easy to all those who are reading this thinking we're all doofisus (or however you spell it). NOT EASY!! Anyway, the observation is just that the myosin areas which are basically all areas where muscle can be found is brown.. Not particularly exciting.... Oh well..

After the observations had been finished, they took us to tour their zebra fish facility.. Its basicallly a room with several side rooms and in the main room, they house up to 8000 tanks of zebra fish, kinda like a big petshop. No pictures cause we're forbidden to take pictures. So sorry folks.. Aniway, apparently they keep a couple of thousand or so fish and each scientist has one tank to keep his specimens. Even the lights in teh room are designed to mimic day and night!!! Talk about detail!! They feed the fish by placing artemia into the water.. Yes you read right, ARTEMIA!! the stuff we were bursting in the labs during prac last term!! They buy the artemia in cans and place them in sea water to allow them to grow and then they place them in teh water for the fish to feed. Quite amazing.... Too much to write here..

After that, we had lunch! Same place, same food as day 2 so I shall not elaborate.

After lunch, did our group photo as you can see at the end of this post!! Btw, the other pic is just a poser shot we were trying..

After that, we had our presentations i haven't told you about yet. Yes... Present on what we've learnt. Quick one.. and then finally end of session!!! We exchanged contacts and took our last steps around teh lab before leaving with a heavy heart, never to enter the building ever again.....

So i think we enjoyed ourselves. It was really good fun, but not something i'd do for IBA unfortunately... Too much wasted time..

Oh well...

Signing out...........

Here are the pics promised:


Our group photo!!!











A poser shot trying to mimic the beatles....

Posted by Justin Poh at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ok.. this is a bit late but I shall now blog day 2 at IMCB. Ok, basically, that day, I went in prepared to do alot of waiting (which is why my laptop got the chance to sit on a genuine IMCB desk that day). We went up to the lab and put on lab coats to begin. Basicallly, that day was supposed to be the time where the real stuff happens. The first day was just getting the zebra fish embryos used to non MEOH solutions to prevent shock. Today, we finally begin teh real stuff. Primary antibody solution applied in day 1 was removed and PBDT was re added to wash off the primary antibody staining to ensure that background staining is kept to a minimal. This consisted of three times replacing of the PBDT at half hour intervals. Total slack time: 1.5 hrs!! After that, add secondary antibody solution and incubate for 2hrs. The secondary antibody solution binds to the primary antibody for the binding of the stain to the secondary antibody later on. Total lunch time: 2hrs!! For those interested in what we did for lunch, we just went to teh food court next door. Reasonable tasting food :)

Ok. After the 2hrs of lunch came another wash cycle!! Same as before, replacing the PBDT at half an hour intervals 3 times was our job. Total slack time: 1.5hrs!! After which, an AB complex is added which binds to the biotin in the secondary antibody solution and that allows teh stain to bind to the AB complex, which is bound to the secondary antibody, which is bound to the primary antibody, which is bound to the myosin.... yar.... long way to go.. After adding the AB complex, the eppendorf tubes are agintated at low speed for 45 mins. Slack time: 45mins!!!

After that, the famous wash cycle again!!! This time though, they decided to cut slack time. So this time, the was cycle was set to replace solution at 15mins intervals 4 times. This time though, the solution being replaced is Phosphate Buffer (PB) instead of PBDT. Yar.. so total slack time: 1hr!!!

After all that slacking and waiting, we finally got to another crucial step: Staining!! Using staining solution apparently able to cause cancer, the embryos are introduced to staining solution and placed under a microscope where 5 microlitres of H2O2 or hydrogen peroxide is added to initiate staining. Once the embryos look stained enough, teh embryos are flooded with PBS to stop the staining. This is to ensure that the whole embryo does not become stained or rather to minimize background staining. After this, 80% glycerol is added to cause the embryo's to be as translucent as possible for viewing under microscope and the day finally came to an end. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, from teh staining part onward, it is all done on a watch glass instead of the eppendorf tube. Easier to see, especially under microscope.

Yar. Basically, today's slack time came to about 5 hrs of slack time (1.5 + 1.5 + 1 + 45mins) excluding lunch by the way. So yes, its more slack than school... :P

We had fun i think. Today, everyone seems to be more friendly instead of totally diao like the first day. :) cheers for us!!!!

So ends the second day.....

Posted by Justin Poh at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ok, I haven't been posting on this blog since the end of last term so I've decided to blog once now.

Ok basically the past two weeks i won't blog too much here but just ot let you know that we didn't really do anything worthy of special mention here. I'll post again on the past two weeks seperately.

Terms to note before I begin writing:

1. PBS - Phosphate Buffer Saline (Its isotonic to the zebra fish embro)
2. MEOH is Methanol but in most cases i'll use methanol instead of MEOH
3. PBDT: Long name, P - Phosphate buffer saline, B - Bovine Serum Albumen, D- DMSO, T - Triton X100
4. For the benefit of any1 hu wants to noe, DMSO stands for DiMethyl SulfOxide

Today was the first day of the IMCB lab attatchment. It was sorta boring the first day, thanks to the training ACS(I) people get in sec 1 and 2 (Not pointing fingers either). They started out with 2hrs of briefings which are not too boring, but extensive. Oh yes, before i forget, the title of the course goes "Diversificaton of Muscles and Neurons in Animal Development". Then they moved on to a MICROPIPPETTE EXCERCISE!!! Yes!!! Something we've been doing for a long time in sec 1 and 2, we did again during the excercise with distilled water!!! Well, after that was like 2hrs of lunch time ( not that we were really hungry).

After coming back from lunch the real stuff begins, where the zebra fish embryos, which we're supposed to find the muscle proteins in them, are to be experimented on (evil laugh... just joking). First is to remove the methanol they're being kept in and replace with 50% methanol:PBS mix. Then sit for 5mins, then drain and fill with 1ml of PBDT solution. Then sit for 2 mins, then remove solution and then refill with 1 ml of PBDT again and repeat this 3 times for a total of 4 washes. Then fill with 250 microlitres of blocking solution (Apparently PBDT again) and place on the shaker for 1hr. 1HR!!!! we started to slack and waste time during that 1hr (which is why i am bringing my comp tomorrow). After which, just to remove the solution and add primary antibody solution and store at 4 degrees celsius, after which we could go home. Slack and really boring, though tomorrow should be much more interesting. Will blog again tomorrow.

Btw, we discovered today that scientists aren't always clear headed people.... er.. find out from me in class...

For all budding biologists, here's a question for you to ponder.. what's the difference between a mutagen and a teratogen? Hint: its in the which stage of coding they affect. I'll give you the answer tomorrow... Tired now.. bye!

Posted by Justin Poh at 2:41 AM | Permalink | Comments

Hey people!! 2nd last week of the term! Got results back. Not too happy, but at least i made it to a up from a 5 in term 1. But my section C needs work. got only a 1/10 for that. Otherwise it was ok, its abt what i expected.

These journals are getting a little shabby because we hardly have lessons or pracs so.. yeah.

But basically we haven't been doing much for bio since mid- years (my bad, we call them "common tests" now.. ) are over.. :P

C ya!!

Posted by Justin Poh at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments