Three More Months to Go!

I wanted to write something yesterday, but had some problems with the blogspot sign-in. Now I've conveniently forgotten what I had wanted to write. Ha ha. I've been getting bouts of memory loss, and I'll like to think that it's because I've been working too hard, but I know better!

I had my very first shot at emcee-ing yesterday, and I must say it was quite nerve-wreaking for a while. Although only nerve-wreaking during the moments you had to wait to go on stage to say something. The times I was on stage actually saying something, it was okay, since it took my mind off the fear for a while! I have never done this before, so I'm glad I didn't make any major bloopers, and standing in front of hundreds of people in the auditorium actually was bearable, they all looked so still, you just blend them into the background after a while.

Although everyone came in the white polo t-shirts distributed to them for the event. And when they were seated down, all you see really was the top half of their body. It reminded me strangely of a certain political party, and I felt like I was emcee-ing some rally...

The office's been on about the General Elections of late, and we began educating each other about what SMC, GRCs and all that stand for. Considering most of us are voting for the first time, it actually is quite interesting. And we've been discussing if we'll actually get another day off because of polling day.

Hmmz... That would make another week short. :P

I've completed 9 months of this research job, and I'm counting down the days to get headed off to Stanford. It's all very exciting, although I've only just registered for housing. There are many of us scholars headed there this year, so I'll be in good company.

My brain's gone rusty after all these months. Working just isn't as brain-juice intensive as studying sometimes can get. Or maybe I've just been slacking too much.

Hey, it helps me think better. Ha ha.

Hair-pulling

I thought I'll write anyway, because my brain's not functioning very well now anyway, so a short break writing this isn't going to affect my productivity very much!

I'm almost done with one of my projects, so all I really need to do now is tie up some loose ends and compile them into a paper. Draft number I-have-given-up-counting-coz-there-are-so-many. Ha ha. I'll be glad to put this one down, finally.

This reminds me of what one of my friend apparently commented: that labs are created so they publish papers, after which there is a major overhaul in the quest for the next paper. This is seriously paraphrased, and I haven't even heard him say this to me himself - I got this second hand. But I think I caught the gist.

It'll be sad if everyone thought that - that we're so wanton in our actions. Science is costly, yes, but we don't do major overhauls, unless it's necessary. Besides, the equipments we use are usually similar, so we don't throw good existing machines away just because we've finished a paper!

In any case, science sometimes doesn't advance as quickly as people imagine. At least, I don't think so. It is a truly tedious process, especially when you want to cover every loophole. At the end of the day, sometimes, you end up only contributing a little bit to the overall research in an area, which can be desperately frustrating.

So that's a bit of scientific research for you!

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing some students for an award. I've only really been on the other end of an interview panel, so it was eye-opening. I came out telling myself I should hang out with the younger people more often because they had that degree of idealism which I seem to have lost with age and failures! It's difficult to keep going on a research project when you stumble and fall along the way, so it helps when you hear from the younger ones how your work actually has an impact. Although and impact you might not see at the moment!

Phew, I sound like I'm whining. Oh well, maybe I am!

Pictures of My US Trip!

Ah, yes, finally I'm going to do some photos in this blog, with some of my trip to the US, visiting universities before I decided where to go for my post-graduate studies. Eh, but I also visited some schools I didn't apply to, just because I was around in Boston.

Oh, did I tell you about this cool MIT t-shirt I saw at the university store? It said: E/c^2 SQRT(-1) PV/nR (although with the square and sqrt in nice symbols of course!) Do you understand what that means? Nearly bought the shirt, but I thought otherwise, because I didn't know where I could wear it without getting laughed at. Ha ha, as it is, being a female physicist is enough to get teased! Eh, I'm kidding, coz Physics is cool. :P

Don't mind the bad photography, I'm not sure why my pictures turned out so bad this time around, and I'm lazy to edit them. So there, bear with it. Maybe I'm losing it!

This is Cornell University! Eh, hard to tell...

And then, I was amazed at how the police at Ithaca used Voltzwagen Beatles. Crazy. Maybe I should be a policewoman instead!

Cornell's decently pretty, here's one of the gorges there.

Ok, and that's all for now at the moment, Blogspot's acting cranky when it comes to loading pictures...

Chernobyl: 20 Years On

On the 26th April 1986, Chernobyl had a fault in its safety test. Yes, as simple as that, but we all have heard of how bad the disaster was. And bad isn't even a good word to use. Catastrophic, maybe, and not even an exaggeration.

I had not known the 20th anniversary (I'm not even sure this is an appropriate word to use here) of Chernobyl is on next week until someone sent me the link to some graphics showing just how tragic the nuclear accident was. You can look that up here. The graphics can be quite disturbing though. Sometimes I wonder how much of it all could have been prevented if the public had been educated about what to do. It's so sad to see people jumping into the heavily contaminated River Techa. I mean, radiation isn't something you can see or feel, so everything looks nice and normal, until several years down the road. Nature gave Chernobyl the cover for this week too.

I had been reading a New Scientist (AGAIN! I hear you cry. Yes, I should try to read other things too, but I'm a subscriber, so I better make full use of my subscription...) article on radiation yesterday, so when I saw those pictures on the web, I just thought of what I read. Sigh, things about immune system failing and all that, cells dying, nausea... In the case of excessive exposure, death is definite. Yet it's so insidious, so you never really know. So scary.

Which is why people are so sceptical of nuclear research. But it holds so much potential, because of the energy that can be produced. I think researchers are looking more towards fission (I read it in an older issue of Physics World, I think) since it's easier to control. I guess such disasters ring in people's heads, even so many years on. No one wants to be a part of a nuclear disaster.

Then again, maybe not. Humans aren't always predictable. The New Scientist article was talking about methods to treat radiation-exposed patients, on the notion that nuclear attacks might not necessarily be something of the far distant and sci-fi future.

Sadly, this all means that anything with the word "nuclear" in it sends shivers down people's spines, when in actual fact, some research in these fields are safe too. As safe as any other sort, I guess. But I'm writing this from a lack-of-research point of view, so don't take my word for it.

But as scientists, we must constantly be considering social issues of our times and of future generations. Social sciences and hard core science and engineering aren't all that poles apart as some say, after all.

Climate Change

I was reading New Scientist (18th March issue) on climatic change, and it was interesting to me because I just had a short discussion with a friend of mine on climate change and global warming. This came from some issue of TIME that was on her coffee table when I visited her.

It is one of those things which people debate a lot about, in part because if global warming really were caused by our modern actions (e.g. using too much power, burning too many fuels, industrialisation and all...), then to reduce the effects, we have to make really drastic and costly changes to our lives. Maybe not costly, but definitely drastic, and coutries don't want to fall behind in development. So if you want to stop global warming, it has to be a global effort.

So I'll say to read whatever comes your way with a pinch of salt. Information that gets disseminated often have the author's agenda disguised within. Even when you read what I write here, it's going to be biased in some way. And global warming is affected by lots of politics too.

Anyway, the article I read was quite balanced, giving both views, and I've found blogs which were referenced in the article. One of them is RealClimate, whose Michael Mann was featured in the article. He's made "one of the first serious attempts to work out the average global temperature over the past millennium". And he came up with this "hocky stick" graph which showed that the climate has been rising sharply over the 20th century.

Well, his approach has been under scrutiny, in part of it's implications and assumptions, which was what the article was on about. But every methodology has flaws anyway, so I'm not surprised by that. In the New Scientist article (just so you don't think I researched all this myself and give me any credit), some criticism to Mann's work can be found at Climate Audit.

You know, I never said my own opinions on this. I'm not sure how severe the climate change is - whether it's part of the usual climate variations, or if this (if there is a drastic change) is due to our actions. Fact is, to extrapolate beyond the 1860 (when direct temperature measurement started) requires plenty of assumptions, and we scientists always work within assumptions because it's almost impossible to cover every possible factor. It's not taking the easy way out, but it's about being practical about research. I don't know what we should do though. At the end of the day, the governments have more say than I do. And we definitely need global unity on this matter, because there is no point one country cutting emissions while another persists on it. But I'll do what I can on a personal basis: take public transport, reduce my consumption of unnecessary (this is debatable!) power... At least I know we're definitely running short on coal and the non-renewable resource. So global warming or not, we still ought to be cautious of our power consumption.

Easter Weekend!

I had tried, previously, over the weekend, to post an entry with all my university trip photos, but I had problems loading the photos on the site. So again, that will have to wait a while more.

Spent the weekend trying to give my notebook a new life, reformatting, reinstalling and all that. Only to plug into the internet and have the spyware all load my computer quicker than I could install Windows update. So I decided to reformat my already reformatted notebook, since I couldn't take it - all the junk in my computer!

Oh, but I also got to catch Singapore Gaga, which was an interesting local film. It was funny, really, at least I found it funny. And it was nice to be reminded of how the rest of Singapore views Singapore, and take a step back from all my usual rants about the country. I've only eyes to see one side of it, and one life to experience one version of it, but it was interesting to see what else people saw which I always missed.

Speaking of which, one of the ladies featured was Ms Juanita, whose voice you always hear over the PA system in the MRTs. I had always thought it was some ang-moh speaking.

Oh, you know why there's a need for "Please stand behind the yellow lines"? Other than coz the government says so, and if you don't obey you get fined? And other than the fact that only the cranky people who intend to kill themselves go closer than the yellow line?

Well, actually, it's got a bit of science in it. Physics of fluids, or fluid dynamics. When the train approaches the platform, it drags air along with it, so the air just next to the train moves quicker than elsewhere. According to what's known as the Bernoulli principle, faster moving fluids exert lower pressure. That means, the air pressure just next to the train is lower than anywhere further away from the train.

Ah, what happens then is the pressure difference causes a force to act towards the train. So in other words, when you stand close to the train, you'll feel a force which pushes you towards and onto the train. As you step further away from the train, the force is smaller, since the pressure difference behind and in front of you (it really is the pressure difference causing the force) is smaller.

Now, if you stand too close, you'll experience a force, possibly, large enough to push you against the train. Not too pleasant an experience, I reckon, so don't try this.

As for why the line is where it is, and not further back or front, I don't know! I guess there must be some average, where it becomes safe to stand.

But just wait till the train stops, and approach it. No point risking your life there, it's not as if the train won't wait for you.

Actually, sometimes it doesn't!

I'm Back!

Really, I've been back for a jolly long while, but I haven't quite got down to writing this because I had wanted to include an entry on my visit to universities in the US. Problem with that was that I had wanted to include photos too, but I'm in the midst of reformatting my notebook, so I've quite a few things in hand to do.

So there, photos another day ok?

Anyway, the trip was good, and I spent a while at Boston taking a good break and waiting for the next visitation weekend at Stanford. While I'm at it, I might as well say I've accepted my place at Stanford, so I'm kind of officially a student again! Yay! I like learning new things, but somehow at work it seems to be a lot more stifling, so I'm looking forward to being a student again. Yeah, I guess some of you shake your head in shame and think that I'm some cranky scientist. Scientist, maybe yes, almost there, but not really cranky. Well, yet at least. Anyway crankiness is quite subjective.

Oh yes, so back to Boston. I spent a large deal of my time at the Harvard Coop, which most people pronounce as Co-op. But then at Harvard it's called "coop" as in pronounced like "coup". Ha ha, I found it funny, and still called it co-op. I don't study at Harvard anyway! But anyway, back to Coop. I was reading this book called Generation Me by Dr Jean M. Twenge, which talks about the new generation Americans. Americans yes, but perhaps they are the pioneer batch of a new age of teens.

I don't agree with all that she has written, but I guess that's because I'm not too used to the way Americans work, so if you asked me about the new Singapore generation, I might be able to speak better, since I'll be able to add somethings from my own perspective, especially since I'm one of the "generation me" (defined as those born after 1975 I think). Which reminds me, I think the Straits Times did some special report on the new 5 Cs of Singaporeans. I hope I kept the article with me, and that it's not lost somewhere coz I'm reformatting my notebook. Anyway, if you want it, tell me, I'll fish it out. Leave a comment or something.

I digree. Back to the book: I remembered this bit about her saying how the new generation seems to be looking for their job to provide a certain sense of satisfaction, which the older generation didn't. You know how the newer generation have plenty more opportunities and have been told to pursue their interest and dreams? Yeah, they come out wanting a job to fit their passions, almost exactly. And they also want to ace through it faster. They dream a bit much more, and don't quite keep grounded the same way. Sigh, I don't do her phrasing in her book any justice - should have copied it down! Anyway, I hope you get my drift.

So it got me thinking. Well, it was something I have been thinking for a while anyway. Maybe we (the younger people) have placed more expectations on our jobs than what they can really offer. Then we only come out more disgruntled and dissatisfied. Now there, being disgruntled isn't necessarily a bad thing, since it pushes one to try to improve the system. But sometimes it fumbles one more than it spurs.

Someone told me that to work in the civil service you've got to be a bit idealistic. I hope I remember what she said correctly. But I think that's true in anycase. We've got to learn to dream a bit, dream bigger than what we can take for a while, so we've a vision to look to, and a dream to make this world a bit better.

But to achieve those dreams, you've got to work hard and toil on occasions. Thankfully there are those short bursts of uplifting moments.

Just remember, if you can read this you probably are already a lot more privileged than many in this world, and you probably have the capacity to make a difference (regardless how small). I hope you take the opportunity to.

More on that another time. This entry's too long!

Cambridge, the US Variant!

I thought since I'm online, I might as well post something, before I lose the audience I have. Or if I have any, really. Waiting to get this out to people, when it finally gets a bit more content, and more sugar and spice. :P

I'm at Boston at the moment, nearer to the Harvard campus than MIT, and I must say they are quite different. So close to each other, yet so different. I haven't really ventured far beyond within MIT, but I've heard stories. Ha ha, I always hear so many stories. Even their train stations are decorated differently! You know when you reach the MIT station, but you're not as sure when you reach Harvard. I thought I remember seeing some bell/chime sort of thing at the Kendall (MIT) station last night. But maybe it was too dark and I was seeing things.

Was at Cornell the last couple of days, visiting the Physics department there, hearing some overviews and meeting some supervisors. Interesting place. You know how people say it's so ulu and only has cows? Ha ha, fallacy, I say, but it's not an urban jungle the likes of London where Imperial resides. Even Boston isn't so much of an urban city. It's pretty, decently quiet and decently towny. Nice mix.

As for Cornell, I was there when the sun was shining, and you know how the weather seems to make so much difference? The trip was informative, I must say, getting to meet faculty who went on and on about their research helps. After all, don't trust academic websites, they usually only get updated in the vaguest sense once a year or something. Ha ha. Like mine isn't very updated on the company's site either. :P

Righto, off to get some lunch! I'll post some pictures when I get back, and more on universities next time around.

Hopefully more interesting material to come soon. If I meet some Harvard snobs or something.

Kidding!