Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road!

The title is just a line I found from the back of my head. Don't get too serious about it. It's also the title of a song by Elton John, one of my favorites.

It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't updated my blog for ages. Recently a lot of things came to my mind. If you bother to read my blog, then you deserve to know what have happened to the blogger for the past few months. I hereby sincerely inform you.

I decided to stay in Sweden for a few more years. Not because of career choice, but relationship. I met a girl in November last year, after coming back from iGEM 2010. Initially, me and one of my friends are supposed to start some sort of A Capella choir, and that's how I met our soprano singer. However, to make the long story short, we formed bonds of love over exchanging our hearts' voices.

I still remember that night in late November. It was merely two weeks after knowing her name. I somehow sensed how she was interested in me. We could chat online for hours every day. The most notable sign she gave me, was even when the conversation had gone cold, she'd come back to me after the long silence, to tell me that she's going to bed and say good night. Maybe it's not that much of a big deal to you, but if you were in my shoes, you'd know how it felt. Between me and her, we had this running joke that she should punch me whenever we meet. That night, it was already past midnight. Suddenly she came online and told me she forgot to punch me. I joked about going over to her place right away to get punched. After exchanging a few more sentences, the joke became more and more serious. That's when I decided to run over to her place.

With my fastest pace I threw on me my jacket, and jumped into my giant winter shoes. I ran the whole 500 meter or so, with my heart thumping like pistons in a truck. I knew if I started running, I just had to at least kiss her that night. Or I would go home defeated, not feeling as a man as I was expected to be. Fortunately, I did it. I remember how electrifying it was when our lips first touched. Until this day, I remain thankful to whatever higher power in the universe, of not only granting me a woman I love, but also a woman who loves me back in return.

During my wildest moments in the states, with my thoughts crammed with pick-up techniques and carnal urges, I never thought this would happen this way. In the end, I have to say that the highest level of picking-up women is not about pick-up, but to love and respect women from your heart. Only then you will built a genuine connection with your would-be right one, only then, you can find your true soul mate without going through that much trial-and-error. Considering all the missed opportunities, times I tried but messed up, I'd say I have deserved it coming.

So, what do I mean by "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road"? The Yellow Brick Road is an image taken from the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz". The road is to be followed, if you are looking for the magical Wizard of Oz. It leads to an Emerald City, often seen as a metaphor for "the road that leads to life's answers". Our heroes in the movie followed the road, only to find that they had what they were looking for all along. So tell me, do you see a connection there?

Safety questions from iGEM Uppsala 2010

Safety questions from iGEM 2010. Four of us stayed up til 3am in a hotel room in Hyatt Cambridge to finish them. As iGEM Headquarter informed us, we forgot to submit them. Luckily they still gave us a bronze for breaking one of the easiest iGEM rules.

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
• researcher safety?

During the design process of this project, it was decided that the project idea involved only well-characterized, documented bio-bricks, and non-pathogenic, well-studied bacteria strain. No mutagenic experiments for making new bio-bricks and no pathogenic bacteria strain were ever involved. In the laboratory where the project was carried out, strict safety rules were employed for ensuring the well-being of the project participants. The rules include usage of lab coats, gloves, goggles and other necessary safety equipments. All the lab works were conducted under the supervisions of senior researchers. The project students were not allowed to work alone or without supervisions.

• public safety?

No pathogenic bacteria strains or virulent genes were involved either as precursor material, intermediate or final product. The laboratory where the project carried out is a closed environment. Safety rules were painstakingly followed to prevent the dispersion of, and to ensure the destruction of any lab waste. Autoclave was used to prevent any GMO from leaking out from the lab.

• environmental safety?

No mutations were designed in any of the constructs. The cells which incorporated the artificial plasmid do not secrete toxins as a result. They were destroyed to prevent any form of leakage into the environment. The bacteria strains used in the project possess no selection advantage over their wild type counterparts, other than antibiotics resistance. Although engineering bacteria metabolism through editing antibiotics resistance is a conventional feature.

2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,

There are no safety issues with our BioBricks. The constructed BioBricks consist of well-characterized parts without any intended mutations. They are only capable of expressing naturally occurring gene activators, repressors and harmless fluorescent proteins. All laboratory procedures were carried out under general microbiology and molecular biology lab regulations.

3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

In Uppsala University there is a bio-ethics group. One of the advisors, Daniel Camsund has taken a bioethics course taught by this group. Every stage of the project was closely monitored and approved by Daniel Camsund. Furthermore, under the guidance of Dr. Thorsten Heidorn, the project group complied with the established and applied biosafety regulations of Sweden.