So I’ve recently decided to drop my biotechnology minor because let’s face it, I have close to zero motivation to study microbiology and I’m going to maintain a rather mediocre (bordering on just plain bad) GPA if I do.

This frees up enough course spaces to let me take biology courses I’m actually interested in, as well as a full-year project in my last year, and electives wow actual optional courses.  Mostly I’m excited about having a serious focus on evolution and ethology because by now I think it’s obvious I basically want to be an old school 1800’s naturalist/palaeontologist, but with contemporary taxonomic methodologies?!

Anyways for anybody who thinks this sounds as awesome as I think it does, I’ve listed my tentative rough outline of courses for the next two years under the cut:

Third Year/U2
ANTH 203 - Human Evolution
PHIL 341 - Philosophy of Science 1
BIOL 301 - Cell and Molecular Laboratory
BIOL 303 - Developmental Biology
BIOL 304 - Evolution
BIOL 306 - Neural Basis of Behaviour
BIOL 308 - Ecological Dynamics
BIOL 352 - Vertebrate Evolution
BIOL 585 - Game Theory & Evolutionary Dynamics

Summer 2013
BIOL 573 - Vertebrate Paleontology Field course

Fourth Year/U3
BIOL 307 - Behavioural Ecology/Sociobiology
BIOL 373 - Biometry
BIOL 435 - Natural Selection
BIOL 466 - Independent Research Project 1
BIOL 467 - Independent Research Project 2
BIOL 507 - Animal Communication
BIOL 569 - Developmental Evolution
BIOL 571 - Experimental Evolution/Ecology
WILD 420 - Ornithology

Edna: flippase
FLIPPASE
really biologists

Benjamin: That’s not a real enzyme
You made that up

Edna: FLIP
ASE
FLIPPASE
FOR FLIPPING

Benjamin: Yup

So I’ve been studying for my ecology and evolution final and trying to better understand the ecological concept of “climax communities,” which are like a supposed “ultimate” steady state community in a given environment.

So I’ve been keyword-searching all my notes for the word “climax”

No guys it’s for science

Guys I’m being serious here

I’m trying to talk about science

BIOL 200 - Molecular Biology
BIOL 206 - Methods in Biology of Organisms (lab course)
BIOL 215 - Intro to Ecology and Evolution
MIMM 211 - Introductory Microbiology
PHGY 209 - Mammalian Physiology 1

Tomorrow starts with Eco/Evo at 10AM. Oh god. YES. I am so ready. I am going to eat this fucking semester for breakfast.

So, it’s a beautiful sunny afternoon and I don’t feel like doing calculus, so instead I’m going to tell y’all about my dream job/career path.

I’m going to finish my major in evolutionary biology (or as McGill likes to call it, “biology”), and hopefully continue volunteering in Hans Larsson’s lab if they don’t kick me out, so that I’m able to do a master’s in evolutionary biology or paleontology later on. Maybe McGill, maybe U of T, maybe U of A… maybe even outside of Canada if somebody feels like giving me a lot of money someday.

Then I’d do a master’s in biomedical communication at U of T, which is essentially a medical illustration program. Then I’d move and live in a shack in the Alberta badlands (aptly named for their sheer badassery) and work for the Royal Tyrrell Museum illustrating papers and other cool shit.

Someday, guys. Someday, I’ll get to draw dinosaurs for a living.

Mr. Bill Howe was my English teacher in grade twelve, and pretty all-around awesome guy. We had a mildly antagonistic friendship, as I did with a lot of my high school teachers (small class size = one-on-one interactions = I made fun of Margaret Atwood’s poetry A LOT). From the very beginning of the year, he expressed disappointment that I was planning on going into science rather than arts, and made digs at me for being overly “clinical” in my approach to literature, etc.

During the summer after I had graduated, I was tutoring a friend in summer school physics, and Mr. Howe was around a lot, so I ended up chatting with him a couple afternoons out of a week. On one such occassion, we talked about science and how great it is, and all that. He concluded by saying, essentially, “Yeah, I love science too. I see you’re really idealistic about truth, and the possibility that it exists. That’s good for you, but you’ll be back in the arts in five years. Tops.”

I took that as a challenge. Now, less than a year later, I see it may have been an irritatingly well-thought-out prediction. Damn you, Howe. Damn you. I’ll have my dinosaurs and draw them too!

A lot of my friend-base is a quite-educated or in-the-process-of-becoming-quite-educated group of people, so, inevitably, I know a lot of people in both arts and sciences. I intend on going through with my evolutionary bio degree and all, but the more I hear from peers writing papers on feminist theory and early 20th century African history, or doing design portfolio assignments… the more I wonder what I’m doing after these four years are over.

I thought that I’d almost certainly go on to grad school and keep doing research, but the more I think about it, the more I’m not really so certain I’m all that cut out for it. Much as I think it’s endlessly interesting, and the idealized vision of absolute knowledge-seeking is great and all, I’m just starting to doubt that I’m that… type. I’m not sure. Maybe it would depend on the type of research I did. Maybe it would depend on my level of responsibility. Too many variables!

Overall, this isn’t some sort of crazy revelation. Science is just really fuckin’ interesting to me, but I’ve always been pretty inclined towards the arts, and that’s where a lot of my more natural ability lies. (Mr. Howe, I resent you for making that thought stick in my mind so firmly.) All this thinking means is that maybe I’ll take science journalism and medical illustration into more serious consideration

But it does feel like a weighty thought. It feels like I’m letting someone down by thinking I might not pursue a career in science - although I’m altogether unsure who, exactly.

Oh yeah, so I still do this whole science thing.

Today I stained 5 embryos and they all went directly to background (again). I used MSX2 on two, and fibronectin on three. The only difference was that the fibronectin ones went darker, faster… but not in a useful way. So yeah, this isn’t going so well.

However, today I was also approached with a proposal for me to start doing some research with/for my lab supervisor. Basically I am meant to go through some limb development lit and try and piece together some sensible theory of digital differentiation. (Prepare for science onslaught.)

It’s not really known whether the process goes distal -> proximal, or proximal -> distal, and generally, though the growth patterns are fairly well understood, the mechanisms are slightly mysterious. One theory my supervisor talked to me about concerned BMPs (bone morphogenic proteins).

BMPs are extracellular matrix signallers that basically make bones and cartilage “go.” As far as I’ve gathered, in early developmental stages, BMP(4?) is found in a highish concentration in a sort of band across the distal tip of the limb, and is also distributed quite evenly downwards, except for several “valley” areas. Potentially, this could be caused by the protein noggin, which inhibits the BMP, and creates the interdigital regions. There’s some correlation when staining for noggin, but noggin tends to occur in “beads” rather than the long, even “stripes” that would make neat little fingers and toes.

And that is the gist of what I am going to try to figure. I was in the middle of reading a paper when I realized I had to stop, in order to fill out my 100-level biology pre-lab excercise. There was something pretty amusing about that moment, I thought.