Sweating over (Really) Small Stuffs

Today’s the first day of Molecular Biology (BioMol) module, which will run for another 6 weeks. As the name obviously suggests, this module deals with various molecules floating around in the cells, and some outside the cells. Carbs, lipids, proteins, enzymes, the whole nine yards – although “the whole nine nanometers” would be more appropriate.

As usual, the topics will be spread out and explained in  lectures, lab experiments, and group discussions. The lectures will of course cover these biomolecules, along with the application of BioMol in medicine. If today's two lectures were any indication, I can sense sleep deprivation lurking in the near future. Lab experiments are carried out by 3 departments: biology, chemistry, and biochemistry. Considering the departments involved, the field would not be as broad as in the previous module. Fortunately, lack of variation doesn’t kill. Group discussions, well, what can I say? This is the best way to not actually learn anything, and be scored for doing it.

On the paper, the schedule doesn’t look so hectic. I get many short days, mostly ending even before noon. Now, if only I can channel my goodwill and concentration to those free times to study…

Flashbacks of A Module Past

In my little world, I’m the happiest person ever. I managed to survive C&G with all body parts intact and a relatively sane mind. Or at least I think I’m still sane. My mom doubts it. … Anyway, I’m on holiday and I’ve been wasting time like it’s junior high school all over again. Then I remembered this blog and decided to fill you in on what I’ve been doing all these time.

Part #1: Lectures

The C&G module is my first ever proper med school module so most the lectures covered basic biology stuffs like the living cell and all the tiny whatchamacallits inside it. And also the minute thingamajigs inside those whatchamacallits. That alone would explain why there’s no such thing as a User’s Manual for The Human Body: because it would simply be ridiculously thick.

Taking things further, I also learned about cellular injury, i.e. what happens in the cell if it’s damaged, both reversibly and irreversibly. Quick note: this series of lectures is the bane of this module. Apparently, when our cells are damaged, they swell due to many mechanisms the explanation of which would make a baby cry. Then, if the injury’s not resolved, the cell will undergo necrosis or cell death. Even dying is categorized into several types: coagulative, liquefactive, and caseous. Woohoo. Another form of cell death is apoptosis, which is basically a swanky way to describe cell suicide.

By the way, the translation of caseous necrosis intrigued me every time I hear it. “Caseous” is related to cheese or keju in Bahasa Indonesia. Hence, students expected the translation to be “nekrosis perkejuan”, casually translated back as “cheesy necrosis”, no pun intended. However, it turned out to be “nekrosis perkijuan”, which sounded totally alien. I don’t know who came up with this “perkijuan”. Go figure.

Errm…what else? Ah, a close competitor for this module’s worst nightmare is Signal Transduction, which covers how signals like hormones or neurotransmitters are received and processed by the cell to elicit response. I find the processes of transduction like phosphorylation cascade quite interesting, although the magnitude of materials is really a turn off.

Let’s not forget the Genetics part of the module. Mendel is  still our favorite man and we pretty much went back to the basics again. Monohybrids, dihybrids, and whatnots. Hardy-Weinberg was there too. Perhaps the most jawdropping part of Genetics is when we discovered a whole new catalogue of genetic diseases. Believe me, there were oooh’s and aaah’s in the lecture room.

I think that described most, if not all, of my lectures.  TTFN and look forward to the next part. I think I’ll be doing the lab experiments. Booyah!

An Overdue Evaluation

For this post, I’m gonna talk about med school-related nonmedical stuffs. Well, mostly about this blog itself. Before we go anywhere else: if you are somehow curious about my adventures in Cell & Genetics, kindly go to my tumblelog Cerita Dll. It’s mainly written in Bahasa Indonesia, but then again, you don’t have to speak Indonesian to know that there’s a huge pic of atrophic testes. Oh well, let’s get to the main point.

I obviously realize that this blog’s been very dormant; the last time I posted something was around a month ago. That time, I was just starting the Cell & Genetics (C&G) module. Then I went away, just like that. Now, I’m writing again during the holiday after C&G’s wrapped up. Yup, I just have to spew out the cliched reason: med school’s been turning my life upside down and inside out. Spare time is a luxury and sadly I admit that I tend to prioritize other things.

Since a few days ago, I’ve been contemplating about what I’m gonna do with this blog and where I’m going to take it. There are several factors I’m taking into consideration. First, as I’ve mentioned earlier, med school don’t want its students to have enough leisure time. Second, I’ve been having much fun chronicling my med school antics in the previously-mentioned tumblelog. (Go there! Seriously!)  I’m thinking that it’s kinda pointless to write roughly the same thing just in different lingos. Besides, there’s problem number one.

At the end of the day, (well, actually it’s 12.15 AM – the start of the day) I firmly decided to keep this blog going, despite the foreseeable rough adaptation. I also decided to not match the content of this blog to that of my tumblelog. This blog will be less diary-ish and more mad rants-ish. Exhibit A: this post.

OK then. See you soon!