Plant studied by ck

It is always a good idea to perform a newly establish research by using model organism, for instance drosophila, mice in animal science, and Arabidopsis thaliana in plant biology. It is belongs to the family of Brassicaceae or mustard family. Arabidopsis thaliana (A-ra-bi-dóp-sis tha-li-á-na; thale cress, mouse-ear cress or Arabidopsis) is a small dicotyledonous and it is closely related to such economically important crop plants as turnip, cabbage, broccoli, and canola. Anyway, Arabidopsis thaliana is not economically importance as compare with its family members, but the following characteristic makes it become valuable in plant science research.

• Small genome (114.5 Mb/125 Mb total) has been sequenced in the year 2000
• Extensive genetic and physical maps of all 5 chromosomes
• A rapid life cycle (about 6 weeks from germination to mature seed).
• Prolific seed production and easy cultivation in restricted space.
• Efficient transformation methods utilizing Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
• A large number of mutant lines and genomic resources
• Multinational research community of academic, government and industry laboratories.

To date, scientists have used it to study various physiological or biochemical aspects in (disease resistance, plant hormoney, enviromental response, commercial application, i.e. improved crops and so on.)

The following pictures show plant I used in my research. Finally, I hope these "kids" can reveal their hidden story to me, especially what're their feeling after I "torture" (applying abiotic stress) them. haha, pls pls pls... ////:-)

references:

The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), at http://arabidopsis.org/index.jsp

Arabidopsis, The Model Plant, The National Science Foundation, USA. at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/bio0202/model.htm

Arabidopsis cultivated by ck, such a great "performance", no contamination in 2 batches, it is never been easy for me to pippete each individual seed, (total 8 seeds per plate, size as small as sesame) from a pool of sterilised seeds

after 14 days of germination, grow too fast already, because "lui beng" like me accidentally placed first batch plants to long bright day growth room, haha, what to do?! so many growth rooms.., so they deveploped faster than expected, long and fine root, with ck's sexy, smooth, charming, fair fingers holding on it, hehe

one of my tasks, transfer plant from solid media to hydroponic solution. Again, it's never been easy to get into a hole without formal training, really not easy to put each individual "tiny" plant + long root into such a small hole, because got some "hidden power", maybe due to surface tension or viscoscity by liquid nutrient, so root tends to "move aside" / shaking when i attempted to place it in.

I spent 8hrs to remove >200 plants from agar and placed to hydroponic solution...."*%&$^&..

Place tape to make hole smaller (invention from cklim, haha) and hang the plant properly. Otherwise it will fall down to "toilet bowl", and take a "nutrient bath".

The movie below shows germination of Arabidopsis seed, enjoy it!

A cup of hot drink, new friend mari mari (come to you)

Research is always interesting, as researchers will carry out any study (if possible) to gain more understanding, fill in our knowledge gap, answer our doubts…Therefore, here we come, today topic--> "People are more likely to judge strangers as welcoming and trustworthy when they are holding a hot cup of coffee, experiments show, study by US researcher".

Hehe,Now people who were complained they don’t have friends, no one care them, and so on, are no longer have any excuses.

Haha, interestingly, temperature of drink also can reflect an individual selfishness. For more info refer the following articles.

Furthermore, another research from also found that friendships may be the key to happiness and they demonstrated that people with at least 10 close friends are likely to be happier than those with fewer than five.

Conclusion, make more close friend, if hard, start with a cup of hot drink, perhaps coffee is a good choice. This is especially true, I felt warm in the lab seminar, as most of my colleagues hold a cup of hot coffee before we begin our discussion. Even, when we attended any seminar/ orientation events as well as the first day I arrived at Glasgow Uni in September, people here tend to pour a cup of coffee to us...hehe

Reference:

hot drink promote warm feelings

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7688315.stm

Clocks Turn One Hour Back in Glasgow

Luckly my supervisor told me yesterday that UK time will turn one hour back, which means the time difference between Malaysia and UK time is 8hrs, no longer 7hrs. For clarification, I just added two clocks (Malaysia and Glasgow) in my blog.

The reason is daylight saving time (DST) comes to an end on October 26, 2008. Basically, Daylight Saving Time (or summertime as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. During Daylight Saving Time, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer. The reason DST works is because its saves energy due to less artificial light needed during the evening hours—clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the autumn. Many countries observe DST, and many do not.

Therefore, the coming DST begin on Sunday, 29 March 2009, 02:00:00 and end on Sunday, 25 October 2009, 01:59:59.

Well, about weather here, winter is approaching, average temp now is about 6-8°C

reference:
http://www.timeanddate.com/

Note to ck’s blog supporter

My life here is getting busier; therefore it’s hard for me to prepare bilingual posts myself. As a result, from now on, most of the time, I will make use of translator service provided by google, yahoo, msn.

This could be English to Chinese or Chinese to English translation, and the application of online translator will definitely reduce time for me to type every single word.

Anyway, meaning/ vocabulary used (especially Chinese translated version) will be a little bit weird. However, I’m still the major contributor of any posts I published. I will proof-read translated post and try my best to ensure the context of the post still stick to the original one.

I assure that I will prepare posts about me and research life in bilingual. Other posts, for sharing purposes, mainly prepare in one language in the future, either English or Chinese.

The pics below show future posts prepared by ck, and will publish on schedule. Please bear with ck ya.

Once again, thank you for your support.

eating speed and rate of being overweight

Again, I believe Marccus and I have reason/explanantion why we eat so slow during uni. life. Simply because we want to maintain our "slimp" figure and prevent overweight...wakaka.# Anyway, hard to compare, as my dear Marccus eat slowly but actually he eats a lot!..haha, friend, no offensing.

Study by Japanese scientist in the relationship between eating speed, feelings of "fullness" and being overweight. Findings showed that fast-eating men were 84% more likely to be overweight, and women were just over twice as likely.

Several reasons are such as: problems in signalling systems which tell the body when to stop eating. Besides, genetic variants also a possible reason that influence "feeling of fullness"

In conclusion, not matter guys or gals, eat slowly next time, enjoy ur mealtime..haha

More info, visit the following link

** Speed of eating 'key to obesity' **
Wolfing down meals may be enough to nearly double the risk of being overweight, Japanese research suggests.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/7681458.stm >

thanks for all the suppports and encouragments

Previously, I not so happy with my poor performance in lab works, and I got a lot of supports, motivations from friends & family. I am grateful and really appreciate.

Thank you, everything is alright now.

Cheers

finally, all flatmates arrived

In my previous post last month,I mentioned that I was the only occupant in my flat. Our flat can occupy 5 persons. Yesterday, the fifth flatmate moved in, and suprisingly he is a chinese from malaysia too, a sabahan, and carry out research in engineering. so, right now, i have 2 flatemates from african (east and west), doing city planing, and education studies respectively. Another one from Bangladesh, a PhD student in engineering.

I quite happy to welcome arrival of a malaysian to my place, but something not so perfect was about the room allocation and arrangment. In my application last time, I intended to apply for mix accomodation, but at last i got single gender accom. Besides, before came to here, i hope to mix with students from western / developed country, but some how right now all members in my flat are from developing countries.

hopefully, all flat members can mix well with each other, and zero-conflict is always the best thing..:-)

some pics of my accomodation





Last but not least, some pics when i leave msia last time, my appreciation to tian chad, for uploading the following pics in facebook, so that i can share it here.

Quantum of Solace trailer

Latest James Bond Film-Quantum of Solace, if possible will go and watch on 30 October..:-)

Brief synopsis:

Betrayed by the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr. White, who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

What this film does differently is to focus closely on an emotionally battered Bond, his mission and his motivation.

(From the Star online, Malaysia and BBC)

duration: one and three-quarter hours,

Open on 30-OCT-08 in the UK, Malaysia 6-Nov-08


Click the link below to watch movie trailer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7676489.stm

Comment about this movie:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7676637.stm

my humble opinions about Glasgow after one month of my stay

Speak it honesty, I only suffered homesick for about 3 days. The reason is there’s not much different between Malaysia and Glasgow, except weather, cultural, and driver here.

First, transport system here, similar with Malaysia. Also, road here almost the same, because many holes, not flat.

Streets not so clean as Singapore or Edinburgh, can see paper waste, cigarette butt, etc, everywhere.

Since, there’re several Chinese supermarkets here, so oriental/local food are available here. For instant, magi mee, indo mee, milo, nasi lemak/ tomyam paste, etc. Also, like London, Manchester, there’s a china town here.

I believe most of the people think that students from eastern countries are quiet and passive, but there’re some exceptional cases. Likewise, for students from western countries too. During tour, I found that westerners prefer to take picture on landscape, nature rather than group photo, or picture of themselves.

About culture here, I can say weather is cold, but people here are warm. When dealing banking matters or other public services. Other than simple greetings like good morning, hello, etc. they will express their concern to you, e.g. how to you do, how’s ur weekend, and so on. After settle, they will say:-thank you (common in everywhere), as well as take care, bye bye..keep in touch, etc.

I believe we should learn / practise these good services, not matter in public or private sectors. Maybe there are some staffs do so in Malaysia. That’s why, majority of them are not. As a result, people always condemned about services provided.

Anyway, I just arrived at here for a month, so can’t make any conclusion about what I observed here. Perhaps, after a period of time, I can draw some conclusions about my observation here.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008

**IMPORTANT--Maybe one of the future mid-term questions in Dr.Choo QC's Bioinformatic paper. Ans definitely not Prof. Dr. Edison Goh WM..haha

The scientists who discovered HIV will share the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine with the expert who linked human papilloma virus (HPV) to cervical cancer.

French team Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier were recognised for their groundbreaking work in uncovering the virus responsible for Aids.

Harald zur Hausen, from Germany, received the prize for making the link between HPV and cervical cancer.

(News summary adapted from BBC News). More info please refer to the following links:-

** Nobel prize for viral discoveries **
The discovery of HIV and work linking a virus to cervical cancer jointly win the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/7654214.stm

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/press.pdf

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/

Edinburgh Trip

The next day after trip to Loch Lomond, ck went to edinurgh (capital of scotland) which was organised by International Student Society.

This is a self-travel trip. Once we reached there, we had 5hrs to travel with reference to the map provided. First, we went to edinburgh castle. Since we need to pay entrance ticket, so I just took some picture around this castle.

Next another germany borned malaysian with me went to National Museum of Scotland (free admission). This is a truly scottish based museum, with all the stories about history, industry, deveplopment, culture of scotland.

Then passed by national monument, and we went to the National Galleries of Art (it's free). Unfortunately, we're not allow to take pictures. A lot of old paints displyed here. Some paints have 300-400 history.

Then we went to scottish parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse (official residence in the scotland for her majesty the queen). Unlike other goverment building in other places, i noticed that building of scottish parliament very creative, it looks like creative art studio rather than a coutry's administration centre.haha.

basically, compared with other friends, we travelled to alot tourist spots. However, still have several nice places haven't visit, i.e. royal botanical garden and a few museums.

for more picture, feel free to click the link below:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/cklim123my/Edinburgh#

Edinburgh Castle

old time toilet bowl

national art gallery

Trip to Loch Lomond

This trip was organised by FBLS (Faculty of Biomedical & Life Sciences). Only few people join this trip, about 40-50person. I realized that most students were from india, and majority of them doing biomedical sciences, mostly specialize in cancer research, vaccine development, infectious diseases, etc.

Loch Lomond is the largest lake in the scotland, also the largest inland water way in the uk. The best way to this place is travel by ferry, and there are many beautiful sceneries here. According to info provided, 3 distint features of Loch Lomond are: fish without fin, a floating island, & wave without wind.

Unfortunately, Loch Ness Monster is not here. (Loch Ness located at the northen part of scotland), otherwise i can take a pic and share with you guys. Anyway, i will go there next time.

there is a jungle trekking path and water fall after we crossed the lake. Personally, i don't think there's any special here.

Well, we spent about half day here, and i still have a trip to edinburgh next day,i will tell you more next time.

please click the link below to see more pictures,:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/cklim123my/LochLomond#