Channeled Mike yesterday and ditched lab for an hour and a half to go to the Kyoto Prize symposium yesterday, to the one that was hosted on campus, which was the award for basic science. This year's basic science prize went to a Laszlo Lovasc, in applied math, specifically as applied to networks (he gave internet and neural networks as examples; I was gleeful). There weren't that many equations and he demo'ed an online program he wrote that everyone can play around with, whose url I left on the back of protocol sheet in lab. I'll post it later. It was fun. To complete the feeling I had a turkey salad sandwich for lunch, in which I was boggled to find pineapples. Which were not listed in the ingredients. I checked three times just to be sure. Dried cranberries? Yes. Pineapples? No. If they are going to bother listing the ingredients down to the preservatives (EDTA, yum -- I use it to de-calcify samples in lab) they really should list something that's rather large (it was in chunks) and noticeable, both in appearance (yellow) and taste (pineapple is hard to mistake). It's almost as weird as the quesadilla with the chicken-bell pepper-mango mixture, but at least that one had no lying ingredients section. I feel betrayed.
Had a discussion about ethics again (it's a quarterly requirement), specifically about ethics in biomedical research and the responsibilities of those of us who specialize in genetics. It has sucked all the enthusiasm out of my life. Or so it currently feels like.
Oh and for those who didn't know: Anna won the NSF fellowship! It's this hugely prestigious pre-doctoral fellowship covering your stipend and such. I've tried twice and wasn't quite good enough to make the cut-off but ohmyGod I have a friend who got it! Vicarious excitement is quite potent. Congrats Anna!
They have already plotted out the days for next year's Science Festival. Expo Day's March 24th, apparently, but this knowledge is a wee bit too early for me.
Last thing is the 3-D printing: I first heard of 3D printing via XKCD, about the tiny open-source violin and I thought -- okay, new technology, very cool, but ...can't really relate. Then Ars Technica ran an article today about copyright issues in 3D printing, I discovered RepRap and Fab@Home and suddenly it's sci-fi come to life:
Guy. Guys. You can PRINT a PRINTER.
Given the right materials, of course. Personally I was vastly amused by the range of ...uh..."material" that people tried (it's open source so you can try anything), from spray cheese to silicone to playdoh to metal to chocolate. There are commercial 3D printers too, and between the hobbyist and the companies people have printed everything from tea sets to synthetic muscles and just...wow.
Okay tired clean up then sleep.
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