雞蛋中心

回應一下 Chun-Ting 的留言, 想想還是寫成一篇好了.

你喊的不夠專業, 人家鄉民們喊的是「馬英九下台 馬唯中下海 馬小九下鍋」呀!

至於國衛院和基蛋中心, 我還是覺得國內的問題是找的人似乎沒辦法好好地合作, 再強的人單打獨鬥也是會輸的. 一開始分基組的規劃是有這樣子, 不過政隨人轉, 周成功代了一陣子 再轉給蔡世峰, 就變成現在這樣亂七八糟了. 而且說實話新找進去的人也不怎麼樣. 從這角度看, 似乎大筆熱錢反倒害了台灣的科研, 有缺不一定就得補, 美國大學開缺也沒有一定得找到人的規定.

其實現在想想生藥組搞那個 small molecules screening 還真是挺有遠見的, 只是許明珠被鬥走後不知現在又是甚麼情況. 聽說許明珠當初帶了幾個 PIs 出去開的公司好像也是經營得很辛苦...

癌症組不是在內湖國防國醫中心嗎? 當初黃奇英想留在台北 努力半天總算讓他如願轉到癌症組回到台北, 現在又得簽去台南呀? 是跟成大醫學院合作嗎? 我以為臨床組因為蘇益仁的關係所以跟成大關係很密切. 怎會現在癌症組也要去台南了? 還是奇美??

職病組一直都在高雄 跟高醫合作, 不過這組也是被帶得亂七八糟, 每況愈下.

不知等你我開始找頭路時, 美國或是台灣會是何種光景?

休養生息

很久沒更新了，最近其實有不少事，近到凡凡長出上面的門牙了，第一次監考學校大學部的期末考，遠到 Charles river 結冰，也真的停止開始騎車往返家裡跟實驗室了，不過都沒有時間寫。

未免辜負許多朋友專程前來的好意，寫篇啟事較好，近來事繁，恐得等二月返台之後才會開始繼續在這寫東西，暫時先休息一下啦。

愛在西元前

Okay，放一下周杰倫的歌，我覺得他蠻可憐的，整天被人周魯蛋這樣地叫。他的歌其實普遍來說都還算好聽，不過我喜歡的不是他的曲子而是方文山寫的詞。方文山實在是個了不起的詞人，歌詞拆開來看其實就是新詩，頗有詩意。

另外搜尋了下網路發現原來 銀色快手 也跟我有差不多的感受。

不過，看了 MV 後還是要挑一下，住在中亞那邊的人怎麼會是金髮美女啊？





愛在西元前
詞：方文山 曲：周杰倫

古巴比倫王頒布了漢摩拉比法典 \ 刻在黑色的玄武岩距今已經三千七百多年 \ 妳在櫥窗前凝視碑文的字眼 \ 我卻在旁靜靜欣賞妳那張我深愛的臉

祭司 \ 神殿 \ 征戰 \ 弓箭 \ 是誰的從前 \ 喜歡在人潮中妳只屬於我的那畫面 \ 經過蘇美女神身邊 \ 我以女神之名許願 \ 思念像底格里斯河般的漫延 \ 當古文明只剩下難解的語言 \ 傳說就成了永垂不朽的詩篇

我給妳的愛寫在西元前 \ 深埋在美索不達米亞平原 \ 幾十個世紀後出土發現 \ 泥板上的字跡依然清晰可見 \ 我給妳的愛寫在西元前 \ 深埋在美索不達米亞平原 \ 用楔形文字刻下了永遠 \ 那已風化千年的誓言 \ 一切又重演

我感到很疲倦離家鄉還是很遠 \ 害怕再也不能回到你身邊 \ 愛在西元前

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2007.1.26（蘋果日報）周杰倫歌當考題 學生哀號 專家讚賞：命題老師不簡單

【徐銘穗、張天成╱台北報導】北縣徐匯中學高中部一名國文老師，上周舉行段考時，將流行天王周杰倫的兩首歌詞當作考試題目，導致一百二十多名學生中，僅有五人及格，一名厭惡周杰倫的學生不滿地在網路上質疑老師命題偏頗，臭罵：「我可能會因為滷蛋周被當！」不過校方與教育專家獲悉後，都認為命題老師下苦心，稱讚：「這老師真是不簡單！」

國文科期末考題摘要
◎請以你對中國文學的鑑賞眼光、鑑賞功力，及對詩詞意象的判斷，回答以下問題

《七里香》詞╱方文山、曲╱周杰倫
窗外的麻雀，在電線桿上多嘴，妳說這一句，很有夏天的感覺，手中的鉛筆，在紙上來來回回，我用幾行字形容妳是我的誰；秋刀魚的滋味，貓跟妳都想了解，初戀的香味就這樣被我們尋回，那溫暖的陽光，像剛採（摘）的鮮豔草莓，妳說妳捨不得吃掉這一種感覺……

．考題一
《七里香》中，作者營造「夏天」的意象，來表達對女子的愛情，這有何象徵意義？

．考題二
在《七里香》中「秋刀魚的滋味」是日本電影大師小津安二郎的文學大作，為什麼方文山要有「秋刀魚的滋味，貓跟妳都想了解」這樣的句子？他用什麼技巧來表達男子對女子的熱情？

資料來源：徐匯中學高中部國文科老師楊雅芳

Funding Climate

最近幾年大概 funding climate 真的是很差，或者我們學校真的太混了，Genetics Department 今年沒有拿到 training grant，而 Cell Biology Department 據說是得重送計劃再審一次，也因此今年的招生名額聽說會大幅下降，可能只會收 30 PhD 學生。

今天也是 Systems Biology interview 的日子，來了一堆學生，根據過去兩年經驗，應該是會篩去一半的學生，interview 只有 50% admission rate 算是很少見的。今天來的學生看起來都蠻強的，每個人手上都一堆 MIT, Stanford, Princeton 等名校的 interview。前年來的八個學生中有兩個台灣女生，一個德國男生，一個以色列女生加上一個拉美女生，超過一半是外國人；去年錄取的人中則只有一個印度來美念大學的女生；今年來 interview 的 24 個人中只有三個外國人，兩個歐洲一個澳洲。看來的確對外國人來說情況是越來越不利了。

因為有人用我學校和 program 的名稱搜尋 google 來到這裡(我也不知怎會連到這裡...)，簡單說明一下現在的情況讓有興趣的人瞭解一下。

I Don't Like Mondays

Today is Monday, and I don't like Monday, espeically after watching Pats screwed up a 18-pts-lead game on Sunday night... Now I am rooting for Chicago Bears! Beat Peyton Manning!

I don't Like Mondays.

"Inspired by the actions of Brenda Ann Spencer when she killed two and injured nine on January 29, 1979 and her lack of remorse, and inability to provide a serious explanation for her actions when captured other than the reason "I don't like Mondays."" From Wikipedia

This song sure has a modern day (10-2-06) meaning: Amish School Shooting-(Nickel Mines School shooting) and others before. Sad world we live in.



Bob Geldof in a special participation in a Bon Jovi's concert. Pretty nice.


"I don't like mondays" the incredible hit of Sir Bob Geldorf and the Boomtowm Rats, performed in a very gentle way by Tori Amos


Boomtown Rats - I Dont Like Mondays (on piano)


I Don't Like Mondays \ The Boomtown Rats

The silicon chip inside her head \ Gets switched to overload. \ And nobody's gonna go to school today, \ She's going to make them stay at home. \ And daddy doesn't understand it, \ He always said she was as good as gold. \ And he can see no reason
'Cause there are no reasons \ What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ I want to shoot \ The whole day down.

The telex machine is kept so clean \ As it types to a waiting world. \ And mother feels so shocked, \ Father's world is rocked, \ And their thoughts turn to \ Their own little girl. \ Sweet 16 ain't so peachy keen, \ No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat. \ They can see no reasons \ 'Cause there are no reasons \ What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ I want to shoot \ The whole day down.

All the playing's stopped in the playground now \ She wants to play with her toys a while. \ And school's out early and soon we'll be learning \ And the lesson today is how to die. \ And then the bullhorn crackles, \ And the captain crackles, \ With the problems and the how's and why's. \ And he can see no reasons \ 'Cause there are no reasons \ What reason do you need to die?

Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ Tell me why? \ I don't like Mondays. \ I want to shoot \ The whole day down.

傻笑

凡凡另外一個嗜好就是趴在窗台上東張西望，看窗外車子，看天上的雲，或剛好飛過的飛機。這陣子常下雪，凡凡也趴在窗外看得出神。

有時一趴著就是好一陣子，一邊看一邊傻笑。

收衣服

凡凡現在的興趣除了爬桌子之外，大概就是開抽屜了，家裡大大小小的抽屜他都要去開，這次開了衣櫃的抽屜把衣服落到地上，原本看了還很欣慰覺得這小子將來應該會幫忙做家事，還知道要把衣服撿起來放回櫃子裡收好，沒想到試了幾次後凡凡大概心裡想著反正也沒辦法把衣服放回去了，乾脆多掀幾件出來吧！

鬼叫

凡凡現在最喜歡做的事就是爬到客廳的桌子上，反正他已經可以上下自如了，只是感覺亂沒氣質的，放莫札特的音樂給他欣賞竟然在那邊吃零食邊鬼叫鬼叫，看來是真的沒有古典音樂的細胞吧。

喝水

凡凡很喜歡喝水，常自己拿著水瓶就喝了起來，綠色和橘色兩個瓶子是一個裝水一個裝 formula，沒有固定，讓凡凡自己選。

凡凡也很精，當他知道哪個瓶子裡裝了甚麼之後，如果想喝甚麼絕不會拿錯瓶子，比如說原來綠瓶子裝水，凡凡想喝水時不管綠瓶子擺得多遠，就算橘瓶子就在面前，他都會爬過去拿綠瓶子喝；後來我們做實驗把蓋子互換把綠瓶子的蓋子換到橘瓶子上，變成蓋子和瓶子顏色不一樣，才發現凡凡原來是以蓋子的顏色來判斷。這時他就認為那綠蓋子橘瓶身的是他想喝的水了。

真是好騙啊！

絕地武士

這件袍子是凡凡奶奶從台灣買了寄過來的，質料很不錯，穿起來還很帥氣，很像是星際大戰裡面絕地武士穿的長袍。

現在正是凡事都好奇的時候，連墊子也可以研究好一陣子為甚麼會自己翻回去，東爬西爬還不時會坐著欣賞一下照片牆上他自己的照片。

誰打了標哥？

喔，找到相關的影片了，果然還是比 CNN 播的精采完整的多，跟職業摔角有拼。

板橋選出來的王淑慧真敢，竟然連顏清標也敢打，左腳右腳的鞋子都丟出去了，還可以回頭拿葉宜津的鞋子繼續丟，典型的北部人欺負南部人嘛！不過還是勸她這陣子要小心點，有空要多去求媽祖多多保佑她出入平安才好。

馬英九要負責！

現在台灣就幾句話最好用，「總統國家機密特權」跟「馬英九要負責」。除了有些事情屬於「總統國家機密特權」，不能不該也不可以追究之外，其它大大小小的事馬英九都要負責，王又曾掏空後政府官員陪同通關離開台灣馬英九要負責，立法院民進黨自己打架還拿機車大鎖鎖門不讓議事進行馬英九也要負責，這麼多事情都要馬英九來負責，馬英九的責任真是太重大了。
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2007/01/20 聯合晚報
游：馬該向全民道歉
記者周宗禎／善化報導

民進黨主席游錫堃今天上午拜訪「三寶」立委侯水盛台南縣善化鎮服務處時，嚴詞批評馬英九要為昨天立法院的亂象負責，他指責馬英九故意利用中選會組織法來阻擋眾多民生法案，全為了一己之私、一黨之私，他要嚴厲譴責，馬英九該向全民道歉。

這甚麼鬼？

昨天看到留言跑去 Youtube 搜尋了一下有沒有人把新聞畫面放上網路，找不到還小失望了一下。

沒想到根本不用自己花力氣去找，回家看新聞，不用轉到 CNN，Boston 所有的地方台新聞都有台灣立法院打架的片段。 NBC 7-News 還說台灣立法委員打架是有其 reputataion，盛名在外的。看了真的覺得很丟臉，想罵三字經。

甚麼樣的人玩甚麼樣的鳥，怎樣的選民選怎樣的代表；王淑慧就當初吃紙的那個吧？有可能是受到了女人香中 Al Pacino 將寫有電話號碼的紙條搶來吃掉那一幕的啟發，王淑慧上次為了阻擋議事進行，將提案一把抓下揉成一團塞入嘴中吃掉的那畫面也上了美國的新聞，主播還問難道台灣沒有 copy machine 嗎？

圖片來自 張大魯的攝情布拉格

鬧到最後變成甚麼歷史共業，要海內外的台灣人一起承擔，真幹。
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立院全武行　王淑慧的鞋爆紅　綠營喊價高達10萬元
2007/01/20 18:46
記者梁芳瑜、蔡清文、陳志文／台北報導

立法院這場號稱10年來最嚴重的國會暴力衝突，意外捧紅了民進黨立委王淑慧的「超級無敵高跟球鞋」，綠營立委想珍藏，他們說，這是唯一打到泛藍，還揚名國際的民主之鞋，目前喊價已經高達10萬元，當初王淑慧在路邊攤買這雙鞋，只花了1800元。
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立院全武行　綠軍搶灘側擊　攻破在野護駕防護網
2007/01/19 20:45
政治中心／綜合報導

立法院最後一天藍綠在議場爆發激烈衝突，綠軍這一次有了準備，事先研擬戰術，有人從正面翻上主席台強攻，有人從側翼發動突襲，宛如天降神兵，至於負責保護院長王金平的藍軍一時間竟無法阻擋，防線頻頻被衝破，最後只剩下貼身護衛王金平的無盟立委顏清標，一夫當關作最後奮戰。

戰鬥的號角一響，綠軍發動立院版的諾曼地大搶灘，最前鋒由男立委打頭陣，鄭朝明、鄭國忠及曹來旺發動第一波搶灘直攻主席台，藍軍護衛隊型居然一成不變，只有三面護住院長王金平，這時候民進黨立委發起空中突襲側翼突破，一時間護衛阻擋無力，藍軍防線崩潰，王金平差一點就被直搗黃龍，等到回過神來，超級無敵愛國者飛彈顏清標硬是從空中擊落了民進黨立委郭俊銘。

眼看綠軍勢不可擋，藍軍縮小隊型集中保護王金平，沒想到卻遭遇民進黨女立委的飛彈攻擊，鞋子三度被顏清標攔截不愧立院第一戰將，還有院長殿前一品護衛蔡豪也聯手防禦，只是這一次綠軍的沙盤推演
戰術令人耳目一新，搶灘側擊個個將士用命，讓藍軍吃足苦頭。

Do you know who Henrietta Lacks is?

來這裡的訪客中許多是 biologists，有人對 Henrietta Lacks 這個名字有任何印象嗎?


Henrietta Lacks 對現今的生物研究有極大的貢獻，她不是甚麼 Nobel laureate 或 HHMI investigator，但是如果講出她名字的縮寫，那麼幾乎所有的人應該都立刻知道她是誰了。

沒錯，她就是那位去 Johns Hopkins 看病，結果被誤診送了命，而且身體的細胞在沒有告知也沒有得到允許的情況下被取出做研究的黑人女士。她的本名被保密了很長的一段時間，其間僅管很多人手上都養著 HeLa 的分身，但卻沒有人知道本尊到底是誰，等到公開了之後又因為她黑人及女性的兩種身份，也引發了一些爭議。

From Wikipedia
Henrietta Lacks (August 18, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was the involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. This is now known as the HeLa cell line.

HeLa 大概是 cell biology 中最重要的 model cell line，我現在手上的計劃也是用 HeLa。因為被廣泛使用，HeLa cells 經過了世界各地長期培養之後，有時不同實驗室來的 HeLa cells 還會長得不太一樣。現在也有很多改造過的 HeLa cell lines，前幾天 Chris 生日，Tim 以前的 postdoc 從 Max Planck 寄來 GFP-Anillin stable cell line 作她的生日禮物，用的細胞是 HeLa-Kyoto，不過我查了半天也查不出這 HeLa-Kyoto 到底和一般 HeLa 有甚麼不一樣，有人知道嗎？(就是因為這樣才找到了 HeLa 本尊的姓名，不然我也不知她是誰，HeLa cells 以前我還很菜的時候常寫作 Hela，還被糾正過。)

HeLa S3 也是很有趣的細胞株，除了像一般細胞貼附著養之外，還可以像 E. coli 一樣做 spinning culture。我現在的實驗室就是拿 HeLa 當 E. coli 養，用來合成並純化大量的蛋白。

My current studies focus on how mitotic cells determine the division axis in cytokinesis. Right now I use the original HeLa cell as my model system. I am considering shifting to the HeLa S3 cell since it is perfectly rounded in suspension and thus in a perfect symmetric status in M phase. I think it will be an interesting idea since very few (if not none) people did similar reseach on this topic before, as far as I know.

哇!

剛收到以前老闆寄給我的信，點了看才知道原來是怎麼回事。

本來我以為前幾天問我可不可以 quote 的是另外一個人，看來應該是記者先生。猜錯了。

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中國時報 2007.01.18　
學生抄錄犯錯 教授不能卸責
朱立群、李宗祐/台北報導

學界抄襲、做假案例不斷，多數學者認為研究生應負起責任，並指研究生常犯的錯誤包括「不當引用」、「張冠李戴」及抄襲。但有研究生認為，老師和學生都有責任。

一位台大醫學院博士班學生說，研究進行有賴「伙計」（學生）與「老闆」（指導教授）之間的信賴關係，論文投稿前，老闆與伙計都應再為對彼此的信任達成協議。因此，論文出事的時候，責任不可能只歸責一方。

一位化名「Red」的網友觀察「張邦彥事件」後，在部落格指出，「就算重做實驗後的結論是真，但附上假圖是否就表示一切沒問題？」他認為，學界如何處理此案有指標作用。

國科會副主委楊弘敦表示，遭檢舉抄襲的學者常把責任推給研究生，國科會已發函大學，研究生「抄錄犯錯」的理由，不能再成為學者卸責的藉口。

為何學界會出現這種現象？有學者分析，研究生趕畢業，可能冒險造假或抄襲，教授不查就會發生問題。

此外，很多大學以發表論文的多寡，作為教授升等依據，也易讓學者產生急功近利心態。國內處理違反學術倫理案件均採「不告不罰」原則，沒人檢舉，相關單位就不主動處理，也助長抄襲歪風。

陽明大學教務長、前國科會生物處處長魏耀揮說，學生欠缺「正確引用他人智慧財產權」的常識，因此參與或指導研究的老師要把關，不能以「不知情」、「沒發現」而把全部責任推給學生。

New Work from Our Residential Artist

我們的藝術家這禮拜換新作品了，禮拜一出了電梯口就發現不一樣了，不是黑白的而且比較複雜。

不過這次沒有講叫甚麼名字，也沒有解釋。

Emmanuelle Béart

最近趕 paper，有點怠工，為了避免辛苦來這看的人空手而回，秀一點好康的。

Emmanuelle Béart, once my favorite actress.

超有氣質，以前念書時就很喜歡看她，她演的片子我大概都看過，包括那部演人體模特兒的「美麗壞女人」和兩部美國爛片「天使之約」跟「不可能的任務」。

Vodafone French AD


8 Femmes
台灣片名「八美圖」 金馬影展片


Un Coeur en Hiver/ A Heart in Winter
台灣片名「今生情未了」 跟太太一起在高雄二輪戲院 大華僑 看的

To Be the Best, to Beat the Best

昨天 Patriots 到 San Diego 作客對上戰績最好的 Chargers，Changers 的防守讓 Pats 吃了不少苦頭，不過雖然一路落後，進攻也不順；但 when game is on the line，Tom Brady & Pats 就會發揮出最佳的表現，拿下勝利。

昨天也是，上下半場前最後幾分鐘的 drive 都能有效地得分，上半場最後兩分鐘的 shot gun plays，以及比賽終了前 touchdown & 2-pts-conversion 的 play set 都很精彩。不過該遇上的終究還是會遇上，下禮拜 Tom Brady v.s. Peyton Manning 大戰！

ESPN 的投票結果顯示多數人還是寧可選 Tom Brady 勝過 Peyton Manning，Tom Brady 季後賽戰績 12:1！

Everyone hits on Brady!



之前在 Family Guy 裡講 Peter 去當 Patriots 球員的一集，我有看到，特別是那個 shipoopi dance 很好笑。
--



Saturday Night Live 裡面 Tom Brady 演出的短劇片段，那時 Tina 還在，不過現在跑去演 30 Rocks 了，她跟 Amy 一起報的新聞是 SNL 裡我唯一覺得好看的單元。

Parody - Memoirs of a Giesha

A funny clip, Bobby Lee is really funny. I am still waiting for Mad TV's NBC "Heroes" parody. Bobby definetely is the one to play Hiro.

小老鼠三上燈檯

有了前兩次失敗的經驗後，凡凡又挑戰上燈檯。



不過今非昔比凡凡已非當日吳下阿蒙，自己下來已經不是甚麼大問題了。開始前還記得回頭瞧一下腳的位置並估一下高度大概有多少，保險起見。



就在幾天前，凡凡的表姨媽打電話來跟凡凡的媽媽聊天，問到凡凡會自己下床了嗎？答說還不會；凡凡可能聽到了心裡不是怎麼服氣，當晚就表演了自己爬下床讓他媽媽好好地看一下。



剛剛卡到毯子，下床姿勢有點不標準，所以情商後特地再示範一次。

Drift

This is Brian Knep's work showed in our floor. It is named "Drift".

If you can understand what it means, please tell me.



Drift, by Brian Knep

Organic shapes grow, shrink, split and join across five projected panels, drifting slowly from right to left and traveling from one panel to the next. When a shape drifts off the left-edge of the leftmost panel, it reenters into the rightmost panel. The system is a closed loop, and the shapes nevel repeat.

Each panel imposes a different set of rules governing movement and growthm and as a shape corsses a panel boundary, its look and behavior change. Although the panels look very different, the growth on each is based on the same set of chemical models, with single changes to the paramenters of these models causing large changes in behavior.

--

Brian Knep's art is situated at the intersection of artistic imagination, technological savvy and scientific inquiry. For example, in his recent interactive piece Healing, a video projection responds to the shadow of a person in its field and translates this information into an evolving organic pattern on the projection surface. The changing image is the result of a computer program that uses an algorithm based on the FitzHugh-Nagumo chemical reaction-diffusion equations (originally developed to describe the propagation of an action potential along the axon of a nerve cell).

Healing vividly demonstrates many of the concepts that are central to systems biology. The equations may be simple; however, the behavior of the evolving pattern in this artwork is complex and unpredictable, like life. The patterns grow, respond to visitors, and retain a memory of past interactions. The piece changes in response to its environment, but overall retains the same look-just as a living organism may change depending on its environment, but still be recognizable as a particular species.

At the same time that it illumines scientific concepts, Knep's visual representation of the complex interactions between viewer and environment-or viewer and stranger-offers a powerful aesthetic experience and personal journey. Knep poses the question: "Can our interactions with these [high-tech] objects satisfy us as deeply as our interactions with each other and our environment?" Through his artworks, he seeks the "soul" in technology. And through the invisible workings of computer-aided directives, he evokes the organic relationships of the natural world that have inspired artists for millennia-albeit seldom examined so precisely and at the level of basic life structures.

The essential elements of our spiritual and physical experience of life-growth, change, contact, and response-are at the core of Knep's art. In an arts world that is increasingly entwined with technology as both medium and subject, his exploration of the profound depths in our rapport with high tech is fresh and provocative. Moreover, the inherently interactive nature of his work extends public art's objective of engaging the viewer in a new experience of his/her environment.

We Have an Artist Working for Systems Biology

My department has been established for just two years and is relatively young comparing to other departments in my school or the whole Boston area.

Because of this, many "new and interesting" (a.k.a weird) things could be seen here, making it a unique place for doing research.

Not surprisingly, We, as a "Systems Biology" department, have biologists, chemists,physicists, and mathematicians in this place, working together. However, we also have a residential artist in our department. This is rare, even in the whole world. The artist's name is Brian Knep, owned two Academy (Oscar) Awards. You can visit his website www.blep.com for more information.

Marc, our chair, notes that one of the greatest obstacles in understanding the mechanisms underlying biological complexity is our own limited imagination. "While we can easily write the equations, appreciating what they mean is a formidable challenge. Visualization .becomes critical to illuminating and understanding the whole system. Healing is a hint of how that might be accomplished and how revealing it may ultimately prove to be." He adds, "I believe it will be essential for systems biologists and artists to collaborate in the effort to understand and visualize the mechanisms that underlie the behavior of living systems."

Hmm... Do you really believe what Marc said??

One of my colleagues' feedback was "maybe someday in this department Marc will hire a poet to write papers for us."

--
BIO

Brian Knep is a Boston-based artist who combines art, architecture and science in his work. He has shown in museums, galleries and festivals across the United States, Europe and Korea. His career has ranged from the film industry, where he was awarded two Academy Awards in science and technology, to the exhibit design industry, and now to full time artwork. In September 2005 he becomes the first artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School, splitting the residency with the undergraduate Office for the Arts.

Brian helped organize the Cambridge-based Collision Collective and co-curated several of their exhibitions. He has published in computer-graphics and other scientific journals, and graduated with honors from Brown University, where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

照片牆

這就是影片裡常被帶到的照片牆，客廳裡空白的那面牆上貼滿了凡凡從出生到現在各個階段的照片，因為照片的位置沒有特定順序，有時相鄰的兩張照片看起來就好像兩個不同人的照片一般，小孩變化得真快。


好像快貼不下了。

It's Good!

這週末看了好幾場 NFL wildcard games，禮拜六看到中場的花絮播出了 Peyton Manning 兩歲時候練習玩 football 的影片，心想「有為者亦若是」，禮拜天便帶凡凡去玩具店裡買了個嬰兒足球從小開始練習。

不過 Peyton Manning 強是強啦，長得抱歉了些，還是我們 New England Patriots 的 Tom Brady 比較棒，不僅球打得好，人長得也帥，還有一堆冠軍戒指。Go Pats!!!

Finger Food

這陣子開始給凡凡吃些 real solid good 讓他練習咬或咀嚼的動作，凡凡看來很喜歡，烤過的吐司拿在手上一口一口地慢慢啃，中間還愛現地秀一下讓你瞧清楚他在吃甚麼東西，最後竟然還真的吃完了。



西瓜也是，邊欣賞這週末的 NFL wildcard weekend games 邊吃著西瓜，有沒有這麼享受的啊！

The Hottest Day in Boston January

今年是暖冬，今天 63'F 還破了原本 62'F 的舊紀錄，成為有史以來 Boston 一月份最熱的一天。早上參加 writing workshop 的 placement test，看到許多人穿著短袖，在新英格蘭的冬天這實在是個很詭異的畫面。

下午凡凡午覺睡醒，陪公子在床上玩耍，見窗外暖日映照，留下此一圖象。

當機

凡凡已經從「動如脫兔」進化到也能夠「靜如處子」的階段了，最近這陣子常常動呀動地就忽然停下來，眼神四顧，陷入沉思狀；放在推車上帶出去逛也能夠安靜地觀察四週從身邊流過的景物花草。

剛開始時還以為是怎麼了，怎麼凡凡像是電腦當機了一樣動也不動地石化在哪兒，很嚇人。

得意的哩

家裡客廳有兩張沙發，其中一張是專門看書用的，自從房裡的書桌貢獻給凡凡作換尿布的檯子後，幾乎回家包包都丟在這張沙發上。現在凡凡能爬能站能走還能抓，自然這小小沙發是不放在眼裡的，一陣努力後便將我的包包翻開，還抽出我的筆記本子拿在手上晃啊晃的，好像在跟我示威一樣：「你看我拿到了你的筆記了呦！」

真是，等你看得懂我上面寫的東西再來吧！

Determining the Position of the Cell Division Plane

Nature 424:1074 (2003)

Ted Salmon @ UNC

I should have written this review a long time ago since it is highly correlative to what I am doing right now.

How do cells properly position the cell division plane is a big, important but unsolved question. The cleavage plane appears in the equatorial plane which is in the middle of spindle poles. Therefore a bipolar microtubule array has been proposed to be a minimum requirement for furrow positioning, with furrows forming at the site of microtubule plus-end overlap between the spindle poles. In this paper, Julie made cells in mitosis with monopolar spindle by applying monostral which is essential for bipolar spindle formation. Then a Mad2 antibody was microinjected to inactivate the spindle checkpoint to force cytokinesis entry.



As the movie shown, since there was only one pole and no overlapped microtubules, surprisingly cells could still form a cleavage furrow in the side facing the chromosomes but not centrosomes. Further, Julie found there are some stable microtubules passing by kinetochores/centromeres to the cortex. So she concluded this supported the hypothesis that chromosomes provide some factors enhancing microtubules.

The cell Julie used in her paper was Ptk1 which has small chromosome numbers and is easier for live imaging because it is flat in mitosis. Unlike HeLa cells in my hands, the monopolar spindles are polarized in Ptk1 cells, that is, spindles are symmetrically distributed, with pole in one side of the cell and all microtubules growing to the other side of the cell in metaphase. The common argue about this paper is the furrow always appears on the side microinjected. However that is the downside of microinjection; it is much easier to inject to the thickest part of the cell, usually the center. Since centrosomes polarized no longer in the center, it is very difficult to avoid this problem.

This is a descriptive paper which described a surprising and interesting novel finding but rarely addressed the detailed mechanism in it. The immunostaining pictures are bad, especially for INCENP in figure 2. Julie showed and claimed in that picture INCENP accumulated in the equatorial region. It is well known that INCENP was transported by MKLP2 motor proteins on microtubules. It clearly showed that INCENP is positioned beyond the microtubule ends, but no more detail was addressed further. One point Julie didn’t address publicly is microtubules can be stabilized without antiparallel microtubule arrays (spindle-midzone). This could be a very unique finding for microtubule studies.

意外

今天帶凡凡例行性地去看醫生，身高跟頭圍都還是在 90% 左右，凡凡媽媽十分滿意；不過最近因為凡凡的體重一直沒甚麼增加，比例也從原來的 90% 降到 50%，有點擔心今天特別問了下醫生，醫生說這情況在六到九個月間很常見，特別凡凡又已經會走路了，活動量特別大，消耗熱量跟著增加自然體重就增加較慢了。不過還是排了六個禮拜後回診做 weight check 追蹤是否體重有繼續掉到 50% 以下。

凡凡還做了抽血檢查，從手指採血，先用針扎破個洞再用力把血一滴一滴擠出來，凡凡一開始針扎破手指時還沒反應也不哭，當手指被用力擠血時就受不了開始大哭了。真可憐，好久好久沒看過他哭這麼慘的了。

也提到了打算過年回家的事，似乎現在長途飛行對凡凡好像還是太早了些，特別是在冬天；據說現在正是小朋友開始認臉和週遭環境的時候，長期處在陌生的密閉狹小空間似乎不是很好。本來已打好主意心裡也做好準備要回去過年的了，連機票都已經買好定好了。

這次回台灣小朋友是主角，也是最重要的考量，現在心裡又有點動搖了，唉。

乾妹妹

習慣在用電腦處理些文件的時候上 youtube 找歌當背景音樂聽，剛翻到這一首張震嶽的「乾妹妹」，好久好久之前的歌了，當時只知道這歌很受歡迎，今天看了才曉得沒想到連 MV 都這麼有趣。



乾妹妹
詞/曲:張震嶽

我真的不是故意傷了妳的心 \ 妳知道 男生嘛 總會有小小的出錯 \ 我每次出去玩都會打電話給妳 \ 只有這次一時忘記

舞池裡面的空氣一向如此難聞 \ 發現妳在人群 也發現我 \ 旁邊的女生是她喝醉跑來認識我 \ 暫時叫她乾妹妹

只是乾妹妹 剛認識的乾妹妹 \ 妳以前還不是我的乾妹妹 \ 也許很多餘 但我最愛是妳 請妳要相信 \ 只是乾妹妹 剛認識的乾妹妹 \ 只是不小心牽到她的手 \ 也許很多餘 我等下就回去 請妳要相信

覆水難收的誤會說也說不清 \ 是我錯 要怎樣 隨便妳 \ 我現在對天發誓只想告訴妳 \ 我始終沒有變心

50 Science Blogs from Nature Magazine

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060703/multimedia/50_science_blogs.html

Pharyngula
The Panda’s thumb
RealClimate
Cosmic Variance
The Scientific Activist
Respectful Insolence
Aetiology
Cognitive Daily
Effect Measure
Adventures in Ethics and Science
Deltoid
UncertainPrinciples
Thoughts from Kansas
John Hawks Anthropology Weblog
blog.bioethics.net
In the pipeline
Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology A Group Blog
Stranger Fruit
The Disgruntled Chemist
A Blog Around the Clock
Evolutionblog
Gene Expression
Mike the Mad Biologist
Mixing Memory
Archives of The Cheerful Oncologist Volume 2
The Questionable Authority Archive
Biosingularity
Evolgen
bootstrap analysis
Evolving Thoughts
Terra Sigillata
Prometheus (Roger Pielke Jnr)
A Few Things Ill Considered
75 Degrees South
Discovering biology in a digital world
A Concerned Scientist
Invasive Species Weblog
Developing Intelligence
The Daily Transcript
Biopeer
Stayin' Alive
On being a scientist and a woman
Flags and Lollipops - Bioinformatics Blog
The Quantum Pontiff
Good Math, Bad Math
nodalpoint.org - A bioinformatics weblog
Climate Science
The Lancelet
Afarensis

Theories of Cell Division

Usually, it is easier to invent a new theory of cell division than to test an old one.
- L.V.Heilbrunn, The Colloid Chemistry of Protoplasm (p.256)

Because of the rain, I didn't go to the lab today but stayed at home reading books instead. I would like to quote some words from R.Rappaport's book "Cytokinesis in Animal Cell (1996)". It could give you a sense on what a weird field I am in right now, ha!

--
Second Chapter "Theories of Cell Division"

Page 54 (for cytokinesis studies)
It now seems apparent that a detailed knowledge of the nature and scheduling of the normal events of cell division did not greatly limit the number of potential logical explanations. The difficulty in understanding lay not in an inability to explain the process, but rather in the overwhelming number of reasonable possibilities. Deeper understanding required the consideratin of experimental facts obtained by observating the course of events when division occurs under imposed, unusual circumstances. Despite occasional zealous assertions of proprietary rights, the originator of a theory and even its previous existence were sometimes forgotten. There followed a cyclical reemergence of the same idea as it occurred to a succession of authors. The impetus for the idea's reappearance sometimes appeared to be its perceived freshness and "orginality" rather than the development of new supporting data.

Page 55 (for Systems Biology)
At times the gap between experimentalists and theorists appeared unbridgeable, and the two groups took little account of each other's work. It was as though the former regarded the latter as bright enough but a little lazy (because they did not keep up with experimental literature), and inclined to use free play of the imagination unfettered by data because they were constitutionally incapable of designing good experiments. The latter, however, appeared to relegate the former to the ranks of the merely clever who were incapable of appreciating the beauty of a hypothesis apart from its relation to reality.