Category Archives: Uncategorized

Overseas

Posted on August 1, 2020 by admin

“I think that if you go overseas with a superficial attitude, intending to come back home in a year, you won’t get much out of the experience. Particularly if you’re young, you should go with the intention of completely immersing … Continue reading →

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Redang

Posted on April 3, 2020 by mobile

Everything in monochrome. Black sea, sand white in the moonlight, black trees. Ribbons of grey cloud. The black upward arc of an old boat beached long ago. Flying foxes – huge bats – passing over the face of the moon. … Continue reading →

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A Journal of the Plague Year

Posted on March 28, 2020 by admin

Link to my review on Goodreads (same text as below). The book, free on Gutenberg.org. This was pretty entertaining reading in the grip of a pandemic. Just to be clear, Defoe himself was a small kid at the time of … Continue reading →

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BSL3 birdwatching

Posted on November 11, 2019 by admin

There are two large black-and-white corvids in South Africa, the pied crow and the white-necked raven. The reason I know this is because I had an argument with my partner’s friend who’s an older South African guy. He took us … Continue reading →

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Tuberculosis research for dummies

Posted on September 12, 2019 by admin

This is a work in progress article to form an easily understandable starting point for biologists new to TB research. I’m publishing it in incomplete form mainly as a to-do list for myself. The goal is to link to a … Continue reading →

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Life Sciences in the Apocalypse

Posted on September 7, 2019 by admin

Thought experiment no.1: If you were trapped at work during the zombie apocalypse, how long could you survive on lab reagents? drink tissue culture medium like soup. Add BSA (bovine serum albumin), or Western blot blocking reagent (skim milk), or … Continue reading →

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The Transformer

Posted on September 3, 2018 by mobile

(As with many other dreams, this takes place in a large building, which is the labyrinth that contains everything in the world.) I was in a room with white plastic tables and MDF bookshelves, perhaps a meeting room in a … Continue reading →

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Hotel level

Posted on July 23, 2018 by admin

I had a dream that my sisters and I were hunting for something precious through a labyrinth of hotel rooms. (It’s always a labyrinth.) We kept getting killed. But every time we respawned, the traces of how far we had … Continue reading →

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Pegang anjing

Posted on July 13, 2017 by mobile

I just remembered the weirdest damn thing from my primary school days. A stray dog had puppies at the side of the sports field and I spent a bunch of spare time in class making these elaborate disposable mittens out … Continue reading →

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Achivey

Posted on January 24, 2016 by admin

This morning I was chatting with a physician from a Francophone country who’s volunteering at a charity clinic while waiting to pass her exams to practice in South Africa. I asked her what health problems she commonly sees among the … Continue reading →

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