20 Things You Didn't Know About Lab Accidents
from www.discover.com.
***
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents
LSD, gunpowder, Viagra, and the Incredible Hulk all have something in common.
By Sean Markey
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 11 November 2006
1 There went our best chance: In the ninth century, a team of Chinese alchemists trying to synthesize an "elixir of immortality" from saltpeter, sulfur, realgar, and dried honey instead invented gunpowder.
2 German scientist Hennig Brand stored 50 buckets of urine in his cellar for months in 1675, hoping that it would turn into gold. Instead, an obscure mix of alchemy and chemistry yielded a waxy, glowing goo that spontaneously burst into flame—the element now known as phosphorus.
3 Soldiers supplied the raw material in vast, sloshing quantities until the 1750s, when Swedish chemist Carl Scheele developed an industrial method of producing phosphorus. He discovered eight other elements, including chlorine, oxygen, and nitrogen, and compounds like ammonia, glycerin, and prussic acid.
4 Scheele was found dead in his lab at age 43, perhaps owing to his propensity for tasting his own toxic chemicals.
5 Kevlar, superglue, cellophane, Post-it notes, photographs, and the phonograph: They all emerged from laboratory blunders.
6 The Flash, created in 1940 for All-American Publications, was the first comic book hero to develop superpowers after a lab accident, attaining "super speed" after inhaling "hard water" vapors.
7 Other beneficiaries of the Freak Lab Mishap include Plastic Man (struck by a falling drum full of acid), the Hulk (irradiated by an experimental bomb), and of course, Spider-Man (bitten by a radioactive spider).
8 In real life, perhaps a bigger risk comes from lab-contracted diseases. The world's last documented case of smallpox killed photographer Janet Parker in 1978 after the virus escaped from a lab at the University of Birmingham in England.
9 But sometimes humans strike back: Alexander Fleming, famous for his serendipitous discovery of penicillin, also chanced upon an antibiotic enzyme in nasal mucus when he sneezed onto a bacterial sample and noticed that his snot kept the microbes in check.
10 The lab-accident rate in schools and colleges is 100 to 1,000 times greater than at firms like Dow or DuPont.
11 In 1938 DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett opened a dud canister of tetrafluoroethylene gas and discovered an amazing, nearly friction-free white powder. He named it Teflon.
12 Perhaps he should have chucked it out instead: In 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency identified a Teflon ingredient, perfluorooctanoic acid, as a "likely carcinogen." It is now in the bloodstream of 95 percent of Americans.
13 After a 1992 drug trial in the Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil, male subjects reported that sildenafil citrate hadn't done much for their angina, but it did have an unusual side effect on another part of their anatomy. Today the drug is sold as Viagra.
The picture on these tabs of acid commemorates Albert Hoffman's first significant trip, when he went for a bike ride.14 In 1943 Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman inadvertently absorbed a small quantity of lysergic acid through his fingertips and experienced "dizziness . . . visual distortions . . . [a] desire to laugh." The age of LSD had begun.
15 Hoffman's long, strange trip continues. He turned 100 this past January.
16 Why he's not the father of the electric chair: While trying to electrocute a turkey, Benjamin Franklin sent a whopping jolt from two Leyden jars into his own body. "The flash was very great and the crack as loud as a Pistol," he wrote, describing the incident as an "Experiment in Electricity that I desire never to repeat."
17 In 1965 astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson scrubbed their Bell Labs radio antenna to rid it of pigeon droppings, which they suspected were causing the instrument's annoying steady hiss.
18 That noise turned out to be the microwave echo of the Big Bang.
19 The world has scores of superpowerful particle accelerators. Last year, a fireball created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Upton, New York, had the characteristics of a black hole. Physicists are reasonably sure that no such black holes could escape and consume Earth.
20 Reasonably.
from www.discover.com.
***
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents
LSD, gunpowder, Viagra, and the Incredible Hulk all have something in common.
By Sean Markey
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 11 November 2006
1 There went our best chance: In the ninth century, a team of Chinese alchemists trying to synthesize an "elixir of immortality" from saltpeter, sulfur, realgar, and dried honey instead invented gunpowder.
2 German scientist Hennig Brand stored 50 buckets of urine in his cellar for months in 1675, hoping that it would turn into gold. Instead, an obscure mix of alchemy and chemistry yielded a waxy, glowing goo that spontaneously burst into flame—the element now known as phosphorus.
3 Soldiers supplied the raw material in vast, sloshing quantities until the 1750s, when Swedish chemist Carl Scheele developed an industrial method of producing phosphorus. He discovered eight other elements, including chlorine, oxygen, and nitrogen, and compounds like ammonia, glycerin, and prussic acid.
4 Scheele was found dead in his lab at age 43, perhaps owing to his propensity for tasting his own toxic chemicals.
5 Kevlar, superglue, cellophane, Post-it notes, photographs, and the phonograph: They all emerged from laboratory blunders.
6 The Flash, created in 1940 for All-American Publications, was the first comic book hero to develop superpowers after a lab accident, attaining "super speed" after inhaling "hard water" vapors.
7 Other beneficiaries of the Freak Lab Mishap include Plastic Man (struck by a falling drum full of acid), the Hulk (irradiated by an experimental bomb), and of course, Spider-Man (bitten by a radioactive spider).
8 In real life, perhaps a bigger risk comes from lab-contracted diseases. The world's last documented case of smallpox killed photographer Janet Parker in 1978 after the virus escaped from a lab at the University of Birmingham in England.
9 But sometimes humans strike back: Alexander Fleming, famous for his serendipitous discovery of penicillin, also chanced upon an antibiotic enzyme in nasal mucus when he sneezed onto a bacterial sample and noticed that his snot kept the microbes in check.
10 The lab-accident rate in schools and colleges is 100 to 1,000 times greater than at firms like Dow or DuPont.
11 In 1938 DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett opened a dud canister of tetrafluoroethylene gas and discovered an amazing, nearly friction-free white powder. He named it Teflon.
12 Perhaps he should have chucked it out instead: In 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency identified a Teflon ingredient, perfluorooctanoic acid, as a "likely carcinogen." It is now in the bloodstream of 95 percent of Americans.
13 After a 1992 drug trial in the Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil, male subjects reported that sildenafil citrate hadn't done much for their angina, but it did have an unusual side effect on another part of their anatomy. Today the drug is sold as Viagra.
The picture on these tabs of acid commemorates Albert Hoffman's first significant trip, when he went for a bike ride.14 In 1943 Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman inadvertently absorbed a small quantity of lysergic acid through his fingertips and experienced "dizziness . . . visual distortions . . . [a] desire to laugh." The age of LSD had begun.
15 Hoffman's long, strange trip continues. He turned 100 this past January.
16 Why he's not the father of the electric chair: While trying to electrocute a turkey, Benjamin Franklin sent a whopping jolt from two Leyden jars into his own body. "The flash was very great and the crack as loud as a Pistol," he wrote, describing the incident as an "Experiment in Electricity that I desire never to repeat."
17 In 1965 astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson scrubbed their Bell Labs radio antenna to rid it of pigeon droppings, which they suspected were causing the instrument's annoying steady hiss.
18 That noise turned out to be the microwave echo of the Big Bang.
19 The world has scores of superpowerful particle accelerators. Last year, a fireball created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Upton, New York, had the characteristics of a black hole. Physicists are reasonably sure that no such black holes could escape and consume Earth.
20 Reasonably.
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
7:28 pm
Thursday
Letters from Iwo Jima just came out today... and there's no one to watch with me... =(
yz, my war buddy, says he'll catch it with me tmr... hmm.. gotta ask him tmr again
nuan is busy with her essay. oh philo, OMG. philo is one subject that only certain people can appreciate, and i am not one of them. she's now flipping through the webcasts and praying for a miracle from socrates. HA.
Anyway, Letters (the film) is about the ill-fated defence of Iwo Jima, told using the Jap perspective. After going through GEK2022 (Samurai, Geisha and Yongqiang), it is certainly interesting to try to avoid stereotyping these banzai soldiers as bloodthirsty orcs or trolls holding on to this rock in the East China Sea (?), as what is seen in US propaganda war films and computer games such as Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. Japs (Japanese soldiers) seem to always be depicted as gutteral beings firing lousy one-shot-reload rifles and are remembered for their banzai charge with bayonets glinting in the air and a horrifying war-cry. And during occupation, they are in charge of cutting limbs, heads, and bayonetting innocent civilians, as shown in the local production, The Price of Peace, and many others.
While all of this may be true in history, Letters seem to give the humane story of a loser, battling in vain. Many of a time, we have been victors, such that we do not know the sting of losing; some cannot take it, some are at a certain loss of what to do.
I believe, other than the killing that takes place in the film, the show will nevertheless focus on themes like brotherhood, loyalty vs humanity. and i believe it will be worth its 4 stars. haha
***
slacked the whole afternoon away.. read through ONCE the glucose notes.
basically, our body is like a car, and glucose units are like petrol cans. it is even better than a car, cos it can consume glucose and turn it into CASH (NADH, FADH2, NADPH) which can be redeemed at the ETC "bank" into ATP, which can be used to fuel other energy requirements. it can store its own glucose by condensing it into a highly branched form known as glycogen, and "re-cycle" its glucose through gluconeogenesis, as well as convert to other forms of "kerosene, motor oil" through the hexose monophosphate shunt.
amazing! i shall draw the mind map later.
at every pathway there are "switches" (enzymes) which can be turned on and off, like something u play in 2-d video games. turn on, the pathway moves to the right, turned off, the pathway moves to the left, etc.
actually. the whole thing is much like a video game. lolz.
just don't make me answer the questions in detail. ha.
(lets see if i can still say this in april-may)
Letters from Iwo Jima just came out today... and there's no one to watch with me... =(
yz, my war buddy, says he'll catch it with me tmr... hmm.. gotta ask him tmr again
nuan is busy with her essay. oh philo, OMG. philo is one subject that only certain people can appreciate, and i am not one of them. she's now flipping through the webcasts and praying for a miracle from socrates. HA.
Anyway, Letters (the film) is about the ill-fated defence of Iwo Jima, told using the Jap perspective. After going through GEK2022 (Samurai, Geisha and Yongqiang), it is certainly interesting to try to avoid stereotyping these banzai soldiers as bloodthirsty orcs or trolls holding on to this rock in the East China Sea (?), as what is seen in US propaganda war films and computer games such as Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. Japs (Japanese soldiers) seem to always be depicted as gutteral beings firing lousy one-shot-reload rifles and are remembered for their banzai charge with bayonets glinting in the air and a horrifying war-cry. And during occupation, they are in charge of cutting limbs, heads, and bayonetting innocent civilians, as shown in the local production, The Price of Peace, and many others.
While all of this may be true in history, Letters seem to give the humane story of a loser, battling in vain. Many of a time, we have been victors, such that we do not know the sting of losing; some cannot take it, some are at a certain loss of what to do.
I believe, other than the killing that takes place in the film, the show will nevertheless focus on themes like brotherhood, loyalty vs humanity. and i believe it will be worth its 4 stars. haha
***
slacked the whole afternoon away.. read through ONCE the glucose notes.
basically, our body is like a car, and glucose units are like petrol cans. it is even better than a car, cos it can consume glucose and turn it into CASH (NADH, FADH2, NADPH) which can be redeemed at the ETC "bank" into ATP, which can be used to fuel other energy requirements. it can store its own glucose by condensing it into a highly branched form known as glycogen, and "re-cycle" its glucose through gluconeogenesis, as well as convert to other forms of "kerosene, motor oil" through the hexose monophosphate shunt.
amazing! i shall draw the mind map later.
at every pathway there are "switches" (enzymes) which can be turned on and off, like something u play in 2-d video games. turn on, the pathway moves to the right, turned off, the pathway moves to the left, etc.
actually. the whole thing is much like a video game. lolz.
just don't make me answer the questions in detail. ha.
(lets see if i can still say this in april-may)
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
8:02 pm
Reunion Dinner
it is cool to see all the folks back again.
went to my paternal grandparents' house to eat reunion dinner. as usual, every year, a steamboat with all sorts of raw food presents itself. met the regulars: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th uncle. surprised to hear that my cousin has earned himself enough years to serve the nation! yep he's 18 this year and in jc2. and his sister is already in sec4!! amazing.
well i never interacted with them much, even as we are supposed to meet every sunday for food at grandparents' house (yes i didn't go), since perhaps my jc years. hence it comes as a rude shock that all my cousins have blossomed and matured into adolescence. It is hard to imagine them once as the kids who were great fans of central's kiddie programs... from their throats come a deep, hollowed voice that i cannot recognise not link it to them.
i have aged - they have grown up.
being 22... soon i will be raising a family of my own. the cycle repeats itself.
my sixth uncle's two children - one a toddler of 2-3 years old (?), one a infant of 2-3 months old - still lay innocently in their parent's arms. it is hard to disregard the fact that my sixth uncle was my best playmate, when i was small and the rest of the children had too large an age gap to fill. he was in university, and i was in primary school.
now, it seems like his children (whom, interestingly, i still call cousins) would most likely be the companions of the next generation.
i still remember the time when i was seven years old. and now i am twenty-two.
time flies.
it is cool to see all the folks back again.
went to my paternal grandparents' house to eat reunion dinner. as usual, every year, a steamboat with all sorts of raw food presents itself. met the regulars: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th uncle. surprised to hear that my cousin has earned himself enough years to serve the nation! yep he's 18 this year and in jc2. and his sister is already in sec4!! amazing.
well i never interacted with them much, even as we are supposed to meet every sunday for food at grandparents' house (yes i didn't go), since perhaps my jc years. hence it comes as a rude shock that all my cousins have blossomed and matured into adolescence. It is hard to imagine them once as the kids who were great fans of central's kiddie programs... from their throats come a deep, hollowed voice that i cannot recognise not link it to them.
i have aged - they have grown up.
being 22... soon i will be raising a family of my own. the cycle repeats itself.
my sixth uncle's two children - one a toddler of 2-3 years old (?), one a infant of 2-3 months old - still lay innocently in their parent's arms. it is hard to disregard the fact that my sixth uncle was my best playmate, when i was small and the rest of the children had too large an age gap to fill. he was in university, and i was in primary school.
now, it seems like his children (whom, interestingly, i still call cousins) would most likely be the companions of the next generation.
i still remember the time when i was seven years old. and now i am twenty-two.
time flies.
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
10:00 am
Wednesday - Valentine's Day
i woke up and it felt good. haha.
wanted to deliver sandwich "made with love" to nuan in the morning.. but she had to buy flowers and go to the market. so ate 1/4 of the sandwich instead. made the sandwich yesterday, 12:00am. haha, kept in fridge.
pharmaco lecture. received lots of presents, there were eatables such as eesang's green tea (pie?), christina's cornflakes, xinran's marshmellows, and jw + entian's sweets (did i miss out anyone??) oh yes, and my* brownies.
(* made actually by my good friend wang... i helped to mix the contents only. haha)
anyway, seems like the pharmaco lecturer was in a good mood today.. although he got stern with us once. but he let us off early like 10:45! anyway, i ate another 1/4 of the sandwich during the 15 minutes break and gave another 1/4 of the "made with love" sandwich to constance, after the guys rejected it. muhahhahhaha!!
then went down to science foyer to help out with the pharmacy bazaar. manned the BMI machines from 12pm-2pm. quite fun. took a reading - i'm darn overweight. should lose like at least 10 kg. argh....
You are at moderate risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.
To achieve a healthy BMI and reduce your helath risks, eat a well-balanced diet low in fat and high in dietary fiber, and engage in regular physical activity.
oh and concurrently, i sorta "deejayed" for the bazaar. talked alot of crap to no one in particular, played songs. luckily kiki came around 1pm and saved my ass, it made the whole show a little bit more interesting. suddenly song dedications from people who had not been near the dj booth popped up.
later came lab, 2pm-4pm. quite easy, FTIR. but dr koh expects a "full report" on whatever waveforms we see. oh gosh. luckily they haven't taught that subject yet, which can buy me more time. ended early, hence went to the bazaar and slacked till 5pm.
went to meet nuan at 5pm.... we went to NUH for volunteer work, as usual, as part of our wednesday routine. thing was, it was chinese new year celebrations and alot of volunteers from the children's section popped up. after putting up decorations and giving out the oranges and red packets to the patients, we went throughout the sections of the ward, me playing the guitar, with the others making a motley choir, with two songs to serenade the bored patients. i considered my playing a horrid flop, but when i saw the mood that was hanging in the air and all the smiles that the patients wore, it made me feel better, that i could actually do something with my music. and i was glad.
went to the children's ward too. brings back memories of my 2-week stay at NUH during my operation. most of the rooms are still as i left it.
left NUH at 7:30pm... nuan still had a bouquet of flowers to deliver to BTC (bukit timah campus) and so we left... almost got lost in the sprawling campus. the guy (yes the recipient is a guy) must have been quite surprised to see a couple delivering the flowers.
took 66 home... bought dinner. 9pm.
valentine's day has just started...
i woke up and it felt good. haha.
wanted to deliver sandwich "made with love" to nuan in the morning.. but she had to buy flowers and go to the market. so ate 1/4 of the sandwich instead. made the sandwich yesterday, 12:00am. haha, kept in fridge.
pharmaco lecture. received lots of presents, there were eatables such as eesang's green tea (pie?), christina's cornflakes, xinran's marshmellows, and jw + entian's sweets (did i miss out anyone??) oh yes, and my* brownies.
(* made actually by my good friend wang... i helped to mix the contents only. haha)
anyway, seems like the pharmaco lecturer was in a good mood today.. although he got stern with us once. but he let us off early like 10:45! anyway, i ate another 1/4 of the sandwich during the 15 minutes break and gave another 1/4 of the "made with love" sandwich to constance, after the guys rejected it. muhahhahhaha!!
then went down to science foyer to help out with the pharmacy bazaar. manned the BMI machines from 12pm-2pm. quite fun. took a reading - i'm darn overweight. should lose like at least 10 kg. argh....
You are at moderate risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.
To achieve a healthy BMI and reduce your helath risks, eat a well-balanced diet low in fat and high in dietary fiber, and engage in regular physical activity.
oh and concurrently, i sorta "deejayed" for the bazaar. talked alot of crap to no one in particular, played songs. luckily kiki came around 1pm and saved my ass, it made the whole show a little bit more interesting. suddenly song dedications from people who had not been near the dj booth popped up.
later came lab, 2pm-4pm. quite easy, FTIR. but dr koh expects a "full report" on whatever waveforms we see. oh gosh. luckily they haven't taught that subject yet, which can buy me more time. ended early, hence went to the bazaar and slacked till 5pm.
went to meet nuan at 5pm.... we went to NUH for volunteer work, as usual, as part of our wednesday routine. thing was, it was chinese new year celebrations and alot of volunteers from the children's section popped up. after putting up decorations and giving out the oranges and red packets to the patients, we went throughout the sections of the ward, me playing the guitar, with the others making a motley choir, with two songs to serenade the bored patients. i considered my playing a horrid flop, but when i saw the mood that was hanging in the air and all the smiles that the patients wore, it made me feel better, that i could actually do something with my music. and i was glad.
went to the children's ward too. brings back memories of my 2-week stay at NUH during my operation. most of the rooms are still as i left it.
left NUH at 7:30pm... nuan still had a bouquet of flowers to deliver to BTC (bukit timah campus) and so we left... almost got lost in the sprawling campus. the guy (yes the recipient is a guy) must have been quite surprised to see a couple delivering the flowers.
took 66 home... bought dinner. 9pm.
valentine's day has just started...
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
12:56 am
My 22th St. Valentine's Day
ooooooooh valentine's day is coming!!!
haha, cupid is waiting to gpmg his arrows, collect 'em all!!
although i still take the common opinion that valentine's day is but another disguised attempt to rob poor folks (guys) out of their reserve monies (i.e. $$ saved from their hardworking days at NS and tuition and other jobs), nevertheless, the dark side is still strong...
received a $50 voucher from this floral shop. the voucher was addressed "specially to nus pharmaceutical society", by some weird method of thinking, why did they choose to target poor NUS students, esp. pharmacy students, when they could have nailed those richer fellas in med or dentistry instead (disclaimer: i'm not saying all med/dent students are rich) or the even richer folks in shenton way. and that pharmacy only has like 15 guys per class and most of my class guys aren't attached?!??!?!? well, maybe they think that some rich prodigal son exists in nus waiting to be milked.
like statistics 101 from yuantai, they have like only a 15-20% chance of snagging a guy to buy their stuff. lol. poor business strategy. haha. in the end, some guy (whom shall remain anonymous) had an excellent idea of converting most of those vouchers into paper airplanes. haha.
whatever the case, they must think that us poor NUS students are full of money. for although they are giving a $50 discount off their stuff, one rose costs $160! this is with some musician hand-delivering the single flower (they provide islandwide delivery) and perhaps playing some suiting melody with his violin.
i would love to be that musician, except that i can't play the violin. bummer. but, provides an idea for next valentines. ^$$^ haha... imagine the salary he's getting!! roses sell for like hell cheap in nus.. so he must be earning like $100+ for each delivery. wowee~!!!
damn.. why didn't they invent the portable electone?? bleah.
***
must finish project valentine by this sunday!!! jiayouz!!!
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
6:52 am
random ramblings
a look at the modules:
i have 3 labs this sem!! how shack.
pr2104 pharm analysis is quite simple. so far. very much like a-level chemistry and physics loosely strung together. two funny lecturers (ok, funny as in lame) lecturers Dr Koh and Dr Chan. although their lectures are damn boring and their pracs are qian pon (worthwhile of deliberately skipping), it is one topic which i can understand and find their practical easy to do (whats so difficult about following BP?)
pr2105 pharm microbiology is probably the mod i will get C for this sem. i can't understand what i'm doing in the prac, i think i'm gonna fail the prac test... staining, looking under the microscope, drawing, serial dilution, melting agar... all these seem mere procedures that i just follow blindly without giving much in-depth consideration. theory is pretty technical... also boring. although prof chan lai wah is very kind. but getting lamer in her jokes. =p
pr3107 pharm prac II is the module that had gotten everyone sitting up in the upright position. lecturer (?) david woo is notorious amongst last year's pre-reg students as being one of the toughest testers for pre-reg around. and now he's come to test us... he hails from (unity?) pharmacy and apparently lifts his notes from the textbook which he encourages us to read before lesson (friday), gives us the tutorial questions (friday) and teaches us during next monday. lilian wong is still ok. i think... since david's been such a sob that he's practically taking all the flak that we can probably hurl at him. accent's a problem too, but i can see he's adjusting gradually to the asian student mentality. still, this is one guy you don't wanna play cards in front of (you can do that with dr eric chan though). the stuff they teach is interesting, but very heavy. gotta stock up soon.
i still think david woo isn't that bad. there are worse people out there esp in army. i should say that he is reasonable. but during tutorials he will act the customer from hell who will nail your sorry ass for everything. "i insist on having a ear drop". "how do u teach your customer to instill eye drops?" but i admit it's quite good training since prob we're gonna face customers from hell and beyond next time and by that time you're already half-dead from deflecting all the darn arrows.
lsm2101 metabolism and regulation is taught by 3 different professors, none of which i remember the names. one for carbo, one for fat, one for protein and probably nucleic acids. crazy!!! very dry. memorizing work. enough.
pp2106 pharmacology I is taught by a lecturer, a former pharmacist who was once the chairman of nusps. quite a nice guy, but really needs to have more tact when he lectures and not treat the class like a jc class. or medical school class. his experiments are nice and slack, everything's provided for, no set up, no mixing of solutions, just press button, inject and observe. how cool is that!
a look at the modules:
i have 3 labs this sem!! how shack.
pr2104 pharm analysis is quite simple. so far. very much like a-level chemistry and physics loosely strung together. two funny lecturers (ok, funny as in lame) lecturers Dr Koh and Dr Chan. although their lectures are damn boring and their pracs are qian pon (worthwhile of deliberately skipping), it is one topic which i can understand and find their practical easy to do (whats so difficult about following BP?)
pr2105 pharm microbiology is probably the mod i will get C for this sem. i can't understand what i'm doing in the prac, i think i'm gonna fail the prac test... staining, looking under the microscope, drawing, serial dilution, melting agar... all these seem mere procedures that i just follow blindly without giving much in-depth consideration. theory is pretty technical... also boring. although prof chan lai wah is very kind. but getting lamer in her jokes. =p
pr3107 pharm prac II is the module that had gotten everyone sitting up in the upright position. lecturer (?) david woo is notorious amongst last year's pre-reg students as being one of the toughest testers for pre-reg around. and now he's come to test us... he hails from (unity?) pharmacy and apparently lifts his notes from the textbook which he encourages us to read before lesson (friday), gives us the tutorial questions (friday) and teaches us during next monday. lilian wong is still ok. i think... since david's been such a sob that he's practically taking all the flak that we can probably hurl at him. accent's a problem too, but i can see he's adjusting gradually to the asian student mentality. still, this is one guy you don't wanna play cards in front of (you can do that with dr eric chan though). the stuff they teach is interesting, but very heavy. gotta stock up soon.
i still think david woo isn't that bad. there are worse people out there esp in army. i should say that he is reasonable. but during tutorials he will act the customer from hell who will nail your sorry ass for everything. "i insist on having a ear drop". "how do u teach your customer to instill eye drops?" but i admit it's quite good training since prob we're gonna face customers from hell and beyond next time and by that time you're already half-dead from deflecting all the darn arrows.
lsm2101 metabolism and regulation is taught by 3 different professors, none of which i remember the names. one for carbo, one for fat, one for protein and probably nucleic acids. crazy!!! very dry. memorizing work. enough.
pp2106 pharmacology I is taught by a lecturer, a former pharmacist who was once the chairman of nusps. quite a nice guy, but really needs to have more tact when he lectures and not treat the class like a jc class. or medical school class. his experiments are nice and slack, everything's provided for, no set up, no mixing of solutions, just press button, inject and observe. how cool is that!
Dispense-A-Dream '07
Live your dream!
8:19 pm
Chat Point
Ipod
The Man
Name: Tan Yongqiang
Birthday: 19 Nov 19XX
Profession: Student (Pharmacy)
Zodiac: Scorpio
Email: whyqueue@hotmail.com
Favourites: Songs
Likes: Having fun, friends, music, dreaming
Dislikes: Being lonely and wasting time
Wishlist
Nuannuan
Genuine friends
Survive pharmacy
Get a nice job with a decent salary
Write at least one song
Film at least one MTV
Links
YouTube
yaHoo~!
I Vow to Lose Everything
Wikipedia
Pandora's Box
baidu
banzou
Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
Games
Nanaca Crash!
Blogs
Stick Gal
Benny
Edwin
Mayi
Xinyi
Xiuting
Cons
Shannon
fmr1gene
tuck som bong
Yuantai
Gaddafi
Yew Sen
Paulene
Puay Kee
Christina
Jeannie
Jiexin
Aina
Recollections Part 2
We've been together for...
Credits
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