pulp science
Bioinformatics, right? Using computational methods from the tool-belt of informatics to study biology is a thing. And it’s not just some thing. It’s one of the things nowadays, as it lets us process increasing amounts of data, helps us find otherwise unnoticeable connections in the big mess that is nature and can even simulate biological […]
Over the course of my studies so far, I have worked with all sorts of different biological materials. I analysed the DNA in ear and tail tissue from mice, genetically engineered the thale-cress Arabidopsis thaliana, studied the impact of certain proteins on plant, hamster and human cells and also juggled around pure DNA (only metaphorically […]
What does the term ‘science’ evoke in you? Well, since you have found this blog, you may be supportive of science and wanting to read more about it. There are other people, who are critical of science – who actively mistrust the concept and even show hostility towards scientists. However, one thing I was not […]
“No, that can’t be right! That makes no sense at all! Is the machine broken? Maybe I mixed up the samples? Something is wrong here…” Such you may think a lot when working in a lab: you carry out an experiment and expect to see a specific result but are surprised by a quite different […]
British people must be some of the nicest around. Wanna know how I know? Well there just happen to be a few of them at London Heathrow airport, where I am sitting as I am beginning to write this article, waiting for my connecting flight to Baltimore. It makes me miss the Brits even more […]
My former supervisor was never a man of many words. Even though he guided me through my first tentative one-and-a-half years of science, we would seldom talk more than was necessary. This was especially true for non-scientific topics. When he arrived at the office in the mornings, my presence was sometimes acknowledged with a barely […]
A couple of years ago, while preparing for my prospective Bachelor thesis project, a term caught my eye that I had never read before: ‘selfish DNA’. We humans are really good at ascribing human attributes to other things, aren’t we? Fairy tales are the best demonstration of this. There you can find the ‘bad’ wolf, […]