A tightly-packed ball of childhood holiday nostalgia just for you…
Month: December 2007
Christmas Breakie
You know you are within sight of the French border when…
Dave’s Secret Tip #2813: Enjoying Christmas
If rum and eggnog do not work fast enough to reach that coveted state of christmas-enjoying numbness, try chewing on fresh pine needles.
If all else fails, hit your head repeatedly on a corner of the fireplace on that spot right between the eyes until vision starts to blur.
Don’t thank me.
Not Much of a White Christmas
22nd, 3pm: got all my damn xmas presents
22nd, 3:20pm: hot chocolate and good byes with S.
22nd, 4pm: walking to the station
23rd, 10am: sitting on my bed in a t-shirt, windows wide-open
New Role-Model
Nordine, commenting by IM on Mr. Sarkozy’s new glossy romance:
See, there is hope for you: this just goes to show that one can be short, arrogant and, yet, go out with a top-model.
Emotion…
Protein 1: Cytochrome P450-Terp (412 residues)
Protein 2: Cytochrome P450 (Bm-3) (E.C. 1.14.14.1) (457 residues)
Iteration #4: RMSDc=3.36383
My first α-carbon-based protein alignment!
I’ve got a lump in my throat…
Winter Night Music
Chopin makes for an uncannily perfect, if not overly original, soundtrack to a quiet evening of sub-freezing outdoor temperatures.
On a cold rainy Sunday…
… nothing beats snuggling in front of a fireplace (after paying a visit to an exhibit of very naughty things indeed at the French National Library).
Geek Humor
How can xkcd always be so spot-on?
It’s irritating.
Bioinformatics
Having the opportunity to pick a class slightly outside of my main curriculum, I signed-up for an eight-week pluridisciplinary session on bioinformatics in genetics. I had my first lecture on Friday.
What I’ve learned so far:
- This particular area of bioinfo (applying advanced AI algorithms to genetic research) is absolutely fascinating. With its mixing of cutting-edge results in biology, mathematics, physics and AI, it’s tough not being sucked in by the way they all combine into truly sci-fiesque results.
- About 3 month away from graduating into a field I have planned to pursue my researches in, I am suddenly starting to wonder about a switch in research paths. Yes: yet another existential academic crisis. Just what I needed now.
- During the introductory part on gene decoding patterns, when asked about information entropy in gene sequences, the lecturer: “Oh, it varies a lot between life forms. Viruses, for instance, have an extremely high entropy: lots of genes are coded using both directions of the helix”.
- What this means in layman’s term: viruses’ use compression in their genetic code… Yes, your flu virus may come in its own zip archive, just like your e-mail viruses!
- “Viruses are amazing things”, she concluded with an earnest look of admiration on her face (maniacal laughter did not follow, however).
- Yes, there is something ever so slightly chilling about hearing a respected biotech researcher uttering such phrases.
- I think I want to go into bioinformatics.
- Viruses are, like, totally cool.