Noble aspirations
Does HTML code work in here when it's set on HTML mode?
It's that time of the semester again! Schedule planning! As always I took this as a time to look ahead and behind me and see what I'm interested in and if I like the direction my classes and other choices are taking me. In short, the answer is yes, I like my classes, my plan, and my life currently.
The most drastic choice I considered was attempting to change to biomedical engineering. While I find it interesting I decided that the variety I can take in LSA and the classes more directly related to biology and psychology made it the better choice. Presently I'm planning to major in neuroscience and possibly minor in applied statistics. This summer I'm planning to relax/not take classes in the spring, go to wyoming for an ecology class in the later part of the summer. For the fall the schedule I'm currently thinking of is biopsych, biochem, urop, physiology, and intro to chinese civilization (Race and ethnicity credit) for a total of 16-18 credits (for Urop being 2-4 credits.) So that's good.
Currently I'm gearing up for finals and the end of the school year. Tomorrow I have a spanish paper due, and beginning a week from tomorrow I have 5 finals, a lab report, and a project due that week. This is daunting to say the least. The breakdown is Lab report, bio test, spanish test monday. Lab test, orgo project, stats homework(not a big deal, but annoying..) due tuesday, nothing wednesday, stats test thursday, and orgo normal class test friday. I'm pretty scared.
I'm going to write this spanish paper now so I'm free to work on my orgo project later tonight. Unfortunately I don't trust my groupmates for the orgo project all that much. Maybe now that it's the final thing they'll bring out some more work ethic, but we'll see.
I've started reading a book called "More than human: embracing the promise of biological enhancement" and it's really really interesting and crazy. He's mentioned gene manipulations that have made animals that learn up to 5X as fast as normal animals, made them super strong, made them change colors, made them live longer, healthier. He's currently discussing calorie restriction and how when combined with the gene therapies mice have been seen to live up to 75% longer than normal. It's really remarkable. He also addresses the ideas of why we would want to do these things and in the case of the life-lengthening treatments it also keeps the animals healthy and youthful right up until they die, which in humans, would translate into far less paying for ill elderly people. Using examples like penicillin he also argues that there would not be a stratification of rich and poor where the rich live forever and the poor have to sit by and watch because at least over time the treatments will reduce in cost due to the competition to market to a broader and broader audience. Anyway, I'm eagerly awaiting the day that someone finds a treatment that makes me super smart, super strong, super healthy, and super long-lived without horrendous side effects. I am consistently amazed by the things he describes.
Yeah. So now I'm going to write about a poem about a grown up guy telling kids to live it up, but don't expect life to be all a big party. Not nearly as awesome as genetically modifying animals.
It's that time of the semester again! Schedule planning! As always I took this as a time to look ahead and behind me and see what I'm interested in and if I like the direction my classes and other choices are taking me. In short, the answer is yes, I like my classes, my plan, and my life currently.
The most drastic choice I considered was attempting to change to biomedical engineering. While I find it interesting I decided that the variety I can take in LSA and the classes more directly related to biology and psychology made it the better choice. Presently I'm planning to major in neuroscience and possibly minor in applied statistics. This summer I'm planning to relax/not take classes in the spring, go to wyoming for an ecology class in the later part of the summer. For the fall the schedule I'm currently thinking of is biopsych, biochem, urop, physiology, and intro to chinese civilization (Race and ethnicity credit) for a total of 16-18 credits (for Urop being 2-4 credits.) So that's good.
Currently I'm gearing up for finals and the end of the school year. Tomorrow I have a spanish paper due, and beginning a week from tomorrow I have 5 finals, a lab report, and a project due that week. This is daunting to say the least. The breakdown is Lab report, bio test, spanish test monday. Lab test, orgo project, stats homework(not a big deal, but annoying..) due tuesday, nothing wednesday, stats test thursday, and orgo normal class test friday. I'm pretty scared.
I'm going to write this spanish paper now so I'm free to work on my orgo project later tonight. Unfortunately I don't trust my groupmates for the orgo project all that much. Maybe now that it's the final thing they'll bring out some more work ethic, but we'll see.
I've started reading a book called "More than human: embracing the promise of biological enhancement" and it's really really interesting and crazy. He's mentioned gene manipulations that have made animals that learn up to 5X as fast as normal animals, made them super strong, made them change colors, made them live longer, healthier. He's currently discussing calorie restriction and how when combined with the gene therapies mice have been seen to live up to 75% longer than normal. It's really remarkable. He also addresses the ideas of why we would want to do these things and in the case of the life-lengthening treatments it also keeps the animals healthy and youthful right up until they die, which in humans, would translate into far less paying for ill elderly people. Using examples like penicillin he also argues that there would not be a stratification of rich and poor where the rich live forever and the poor have to sit by and watch because at least over time the treatments will reduce in cost due to the competition to market to a broader and broader audience. Anyway, I'm eagerly awaiting the day that someone finds a treatment that makes me super smart, super strong, super healthy, and super long-lived without horrendous side effects. I am consistently amazed by the things he describes.
Yeah. So now I'm going to write about a poem about a grown up guy telling kids to live it up, but don't expect life to be all a big party. Not nearly as awesome as genetically modifying animals.