The Consequences of Sciencing

As some of you might know, if you paid attention to my finished-WIP celebratory post, that I am currently in Argentina participating in a science comp. In light of the occasion, I'm sharing some of the consequences of a fifteen-month-long training courses which have eaten up my Saturdays.

Note: the "we" in this post refers to my fellow teammates going to this comp, and there's a post featuring them soon.

1. I shall never eat potatoes again.

We were doing this experiment where we were boring strips of potatoes -- it's a pretty standard bio experiment, but for those non-science people, here's a picture I grabbed off the Internet:

How the potato ended up. Mine was a bit messier, of course. (Source)

Basically we were trying to get potato strips out to test the plant cells. But so much potato juice and potato bits ended up on my hands and clothes, and we were all so sick of the taste. Not even French fries, ever again.

2. Scratch that, I won't be eating anything without biology thoughts.

We had a chapter on carbos and proteins and stuff, and now I can't eat my vegetables without thinking "cellulose" or my meat thinking "lipid". I swear, this is traumatising. I literally can't eat anything now. I mean, we bake bread using living sacrifices of yeast. How the heck am I supposed to eat that lump of corpses.

3. Taking the train.

So I'm standing there, and there's the announcement for the next station, and my mind automatically starts calculating vectors to avoid me tripping over, so I spend ten seconds muttering to myself about Newton's laws of motions and momentum. And everyone's staring at me. And I still fall over.

4. Going on Tumblr without demanding a source.

Basically one of the most important things I've learned to ask is how do you know. Not how does it work or how can I make this better, because those questions are in the future and to paraphrase one of the awesomest scientists ever, those we find those out on the shoulders of giants. But first we have to find the giants and climb on their shoulders. How do you know is the best question a science student can ask.

Predictably, this leads to several difficulties on social media sites, especially Tumblr. I mean, it's cool to see all these animal pictures and facts floating around, and they are awesome, but without a source I just can't click reblog. This results in much longer time on Tumblr as I frequently stop and go look for a source. (By source I don't mean "the original person who took the photo", I mean "a scientific paper which actually confirms and explains this".)

5. Being terrified of flu-like symptoms.

Apparently when you're initially infected with HIV, you'll have flu-like symptoms for a week. Cue extreme horror whenever I sneeze/cough/feel a bit overheated.

6. As I mentioned, no Saturdays.

It's a 9 am to 5 pm weekly training session in a university, so basically I don't have that extra crucial day for homework or whatever. It's so draining that sometimes it takes the fun out of the science — but not today. Not that, you know, I don't look forward to getting my Saturdays back.

Despite all these consequences, I'll close with a gif which adequately expresses my feelings for life:

Originally reblogged here.

That's it for today: please do leave a comment whether you laughed to death, were shocked by my ridiculous comments, or simply awesome enough to make my day by saying hi :D And don't forget to subscribe for more random morbid insanity!

P.S.: Bonus very short post tomorrow — if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know why. Otherwise, sit tight and wait for it!