音時雨 ~Regentropfen~

♧ My Bio-Chroniclette

February 12, 2008 ~ 14
Up to now, I have passed almost all college biological courses and experiments—now I am only left a final thesis. About my courses, I can say that most of them I got not-so-splendid-but-I-can-accept records. I also want to get the highest records—who does not—but the fact has come, I am not the most splendid star. I love my choice of biology, however. I know that almost of us are not the type of making people amazing. We are trying to do our best while correcting our faults. A not so remark people can make splashes someday, which I believe all the time.
Here I will stop talking this troublesome topic. My objective of this post is to do a mini review of my biological courses—a chroniclette (can I construct so?).
Moreover, because it is a chronicle, I will show every course as the position in my syllabus of that time as possible.
-A “☆” is stead for a compulsory subject.
-a “★” is stead for an elective.
Freshman Year
☆Analytical Chemistry (1:1-4; 2:1-5)
That was not a simple course, really. Not only analytical chemistry but also some physical chemistry were included in this course. I was confused from the very beginning—the first lesson. Positive and negative electrons, lots of bonds, transitions, etc. ah, why I, a biology major had to know such things? Later I got that if you wanted to plug into Structural Biology, you have to get them.
☆General Biology (1:2-2)
It seemed not so different with high school biology; it is simple to learn and no too much new knowledge which we had to get. A good start, at least I think.
☆Foundational Biological Experiment (1:4-5; 2:5-3,4)
To me, this was a pre-real-bio-experiment. We learnt to use a microscope, to make tissue slices, to anatomize. I could not bear to join in the anatomize by myself. Thanked for my groupers, so I could sit it out. -__-||
☆Analytical Chemical Experiment (1,2:5-1,2)
I like the experiment course. We poured reagent A into a acid/alkali burette, and poured reagent B into a beaker; then switch on the burette, make reagent A dropping into the beaker. What we should have done was to record the volume of reagent A, by when the color of beaker changed. The most important thing is NOT to make the reagent which dropping out of burettes become a “line,” for accuracy.
☆Organic Chemistry (2:1-2, 3-5)
I learned some of organic chemistry at high school. Nevertheless, the college one was different completely. There were more difficult names and more complicated reactions. All of them were not very catchy. Moreover, you have to pay attention to whether one reaction can go by analyse its circumstance—alkali or acid, nucleophilic or electrophilic, and so on. That all made me faint, (sure enough, I had forgotten lots of them after its final exam…)
☆Organic Chemical Experiment (2:2-2,3,4)
I would rather say it was a dangerous and fruitless work. My grouper and I used to get NOTHING or only LITTLE. I do not know why even now.
Sophomore Year
☆Biochemistry (1:2-2,5-2)
I could not say I like any chemistry associated course after organic chemistry, but you know, chemistry is such important course that all biology students cannot flee. I think it is simpler than any other chemistry, and more interesting, even though I used to be puzzled by the intricate reactions and relationships. I made it out.
☆Biochemical Experiment (1:2-3,4)
Not so interesting but it was a good real contact to the textbook. I could use my favourite burette once again!
☆Microbiology (2:1-4)
Microorganism are tiny wonders—they have the widest living-sphere. And microbiology is one of my favourites. Maybe that I fell in love with it started when I saw the electron microscope photo of Penicillium and HIV and E.coli and budding yeast. These photo were very magnificent to me (if someday I have chance to use a real electron microscope, it will be very superb). However, I was afraid of the metabolism part, which belongs the headache biochemistry…
☆Enzyme Engineering (2:3-5)
Our teacher was wonderful (and strict), so I could gather all my concentration in every class. Some of them, like Michaelis-Menton kinetics, made me boring. Nevertheless, that was easier than biochemistry. Neither very like, nor very dislike. What I did was to do well and get an ideal mark. The teacher was strict, you see, so that even I only got a B (B- in fact), my order in the whole class was not low.
☆Microbiological Experiment (2:1-2)
I love the experiment very much. I like making medium, spreading microbes, drawing lines of microbes, and incubating the containers and enjoy looking the colonies. Also the physiological and biochemical part—we cultured two microbes, E. coli and a Bacillus in liquid medium in 5,6 kinds of medium. Then we dropped some reagents into these test-tubes. Their color got changed, which indicated the two kinds of microbes have different actives (also we did their Gram method staining). In a word that was an interesting experiment course.
★Bioinformatics (2:5-2)
That is another interesting course since it is related to computer science. I do not have more deep knowledge about computer science—I can only use a computer smoothly (in most time). However I found my first way to the mysterious bio-evolution. Very mysterious, the evolution do is, whether of genotypes or of phenotypes. And now human can dig out the puzzles, by gene analysis. How marvellous it is!
Junior Year
☆Genetics (1:1-2)
I love it too, but I do not like calculations on linkage analysis. Maybe you have known some about genetics, like color blindness or hemophilia, before you take it, but you might not know deeper. In this course, we came to know more about “why” and “how,” but only on “what.” Apparent genetics, is a new branch of the field. From it, people would take a double analysis between phenotype and genotype. The factors from circumstance and chromosomes are too many to count up. HGP is only a beginning.
☆Cell Biological and Genetic Experiment (1:1-3,4)
We did cell viewing, cell fusion, cell division and chromosome viewing, and so on. Not bad but I felt my eyes got dazzled, because I saw too long in microscope. That is really a eye-consuming work, I think.
★Advancement of Bioscience (1:1-5)
In this course, many professors showed us the newest information about bioscience in turn. That was very useful, but there were some got repeated. For instance, I listened to “gene chip” at least 7 times in one year, and in different courses.
☆Cell Biology (1:2-2)
It is one of my second favourites. It is also a hot field in nowadays bioscience. Certainly that was not easy to learn all its points, the course itself is including many unknowns; it is intricate, even little mysterious. However, it can inspire all your passion. Cells’ junction, communication, signalling, apoptosis, canceration… there are too much riddles are waiting for us. Here I only want to quote what our professor said: “Ah, youngsters, if only you love biology, you will not loss your job!”
★Applied Microbiology (1:3-2)
In this course we studied how to use microbe to do fermentations, waste water treatment, industrial production. To me, I think it was like another course “fermentation engineering” which I just took in last semester, but it paid more attention to waste water treatment.
★Animal Physiology (1:4-1)
That was my elective, and I had no any zoology foundation. Therefore it seemed difficult to me (also my classmates, who are belong in biotech major but bioscience major). Our professor was gentle and understood our situation, (at least I think so, and she also teaches zoology in my college). Her lessons were valued to take. I learned many which cannot be taken in my compulsories, (although what I got was not very professionally).
☆Gene Engineering (1:4-2)
A important field, isn’t it? Thanks to the discovery of restriction endonucleases, people can alter a particular DNA sequence freely—only if we got the correct alter site and we are lucky enough.
★Advancement of Biotechnology (2:1-1, 4-1)
I love this course. It was similar to “Advancement of Bioscience,” which introduced to us the newest information. However, in this course, we ourselves did the research work. Everyone needed to choose one interested point to show in class, and my point was “therapeutic vaccine and HBV.” The show was a part of the final exam, the other part was a mini-review. Our professor was kind and fun, he always laughs out of turn. Another “strange” profess of our college, I think, he is.
★Virology (2:1-2)
It was somewhat like microbiology, and its protagonists were viruses. Although they are partly harmful, but I was very enjoying to look them—the electron microscope photos. Simple, tiny, beautiful, and mysterious.
★Immunology (2:2-1)
Important, useful, intricate. Our professor was very strict, and not funny. I like all kinds of immune molecules, B/T cells, NK/NKT cells, antigens, antibodies, completes, lectins, etc… gather together and do their functions—defend our bodies, (although they may get into the opposite wrong way). We need them, don’t we?
★Biostatistics (2:2-2)
My mathematics is not very good, but I did this course a good mark. That is very fun to me of making significance test out, also the ANOVA. Frankly, that in its final exam we could open our textbooks for formulas supply, so we did not have to remember them.
☆Molecular Biology (2:2-4)
That is another my favourite, also my textbook GENES VIII does! Of gene replication, transcription and expression is also a hot point in nowadays bioscience. This field also evolutes fast. To browse Science and Nature, you will find that more articles are on this field. As our professor said, “hoping some years later, the GENES’ new edition will publish new findings of you.”
☆Cell Engineering (2:3-2)
How can I describe the course? If I have only one word to use, I will choose “lovely.” Firstly because of our professor, who is a strict but funny one. The pictures which she used into the teaching materials were cute, (did you ever saw a mouse is coving his eyes by himself, when he is injecting in a SCIENCE CLASS?). I like her, also the course very very much!
★Basic Human Embryology (2:3-4)
It was an elective for all the university students, so the content was simple to… medical students but me (-__-). Blended to development biology I could get it well. This professor always made joke to us. I also very enjoyed the every lesson. There was nothing impossible in the course, a four-kidney-person, or a no-limb person (of course he was born deadly). From a fertilized egg to a infant, we saw the entire process.
★Development Biology (2:3-5)
This course gave me a happy but nervous time, because it was interesting, because it was difficult. We mainly learned animal development. Once again, I found how important molecular biology was. I remembered, every lesson, what we got most were the new genes’ and proteins’ names and functions. Exceeded the numbers of reactions of organic chemistry.
★Ecology (2:4-3)
In this course we only got a little, but all of us enjoyed the course—our professor was very funny. His sayings, actions, examples, all expressed that his humour. Once, for example, he said some of his postgraduates made wrong on writing Latin names. “they don’t know that we should writing in italic.” He said, and he inclined his body like that he was an italic Latin letter. Such examples are too many to say here.
★Human Genetics and Eugenics (2:4-5)
It was also an elective for all the university, and our genetics’ professor took it; because I like him I took the elective. In one of his genetics lessons he taught us about eugenics. I thought he would told us more than that one lesson, but… how could he divided that one lesson into 12 times?! Even though I think that there were more details, I had known them. I felt I was deceived, it was not the professor’s fault, however…
★Physiology and Genetics of Microorganism (2:5-2)
That was an expansion of microbiology. However here, I got more about metabolism part. It was also a yield, wasn’t it?
Senior Year
☆Fermentation Engineering (1:1-4)
I don’t know why, that I think this course is my No.1 dislike. Maybe there were too much on the industry field, or maybe there were too much was related to microbiology and some others. Therefore here I pass.
☆Molecular Biological (Gene Engineering) and Cell Engineering Experiment (1:3)
Each time I had fun in the experiments, in spite of the results (most times my groupers and I could not got what we wanted). Nevertheless, the experiments made us got familiar to the processes. In the gene engineering part, we tried to make a transgenic E. coli culture; in the cell engineering part, we grew tobacco’s explants and rape’s seeds. Our group got a good harvest.
☆Isolation of Natural Product (1:3,4)
It was divided into two parts. One of it was to isolate chlorophyll and the relate experiments, the other was to isolate an active component from plants. The first part we always failed, (and the only thing we still remember was the endless centrifuges); the second part we did well, our HPLC result showed that our purity was high. Of course, at the end of the second part, we failed a bit—of the column chromatogram. No more words on it here…
My chroniclette has got ended here. The next phrase is my final thesis, and the later, I want to learn more, of postgraduate education, (and it should become my abroad studying; or can I say it will do?). Can I make my dream come true? I do not know yet. So that my next phrase will be filled with thesis and English study. The time is not the biggest problem, I have enough time to make out, only if I have enough desire. Well, let me go! To do my best for my dream!
Should I listened to “乙女はDo My Bestでしょ(Maidens Should ‘DO MY BEST’)?” to fit my feeling now? ^__^