"Life creates it, makes it grow..."
Every so often I stop in the hustle of everyday life and simply marvel at the fact that in the insane entropy of this universe life manages to exist at all. The ability of so many organisms to live, perpetually on the brink of death, fascinates me. How do the biochemical components of individual cells allow them to function, and how do these build together to create the incredibly diverse and fascinating living world? Is it obvious yet that I'm a biology major?
Biology is a dynamic puzzle with no edge pieces | I love puzzles - when I was younger my sister and I loved to work on every new one we acquired, and we'd even use the old ones and have races to see who could put them together the fastest. In biology the puzzle pieces are constantly growing, multiplying and evolving - continually increasing the puzzle's size, depth, and beauty. |
While writing my sophomore paper for the ever-so-crowded Bio department I came to the surprising discovery that I'd already taken five of the required eight biology credits I need to graduate as a Bio major. It was rather frightening, actually, since there is so much I still want to take and so much I still don't know. This past semester (Spring '97) I fell in love with Cell biology - my sophomore paper essentially became obsolete by the end of the semester due to rearrangement to accomadate the Cell Division seminar this fall. It was worth it, however, and I have learned so much and worked so hard all semester. It seems I'm always in lab with Claudia, but it's paying off - our project is coming along well! I hope to do independent research next semester with Liz Vallen (my seminar prof.)
Here are some useful biology links that I've found while surfing the net:
- Check out Zygote for the latest illustrated developments in Embryology
- and my paper on X-chromosome inactivation and monozygotic twinning - created this past spring for my embryology class
- A dictionary of cell biology - in case my musings are a little confusing
- The Yeast Genome Database - A bit overwhelming at first, this is a vital resource if you work with budding yeast (and I do)
- Cell my favorite journal on cell biology - the articles are well written, the results clearly presented, and discussions are interesting.