It ain’t easy

Prequel : Project … hunted !

Hmmm …

There are many subtle nuances that have to be kept in mind while you do this project.

Not at all that easy. The pre-planning is very very important. Have to proceed very carefully, for the territory is vastly unknown, though familiar. For example, we were thinking of getting the DNA samples from biopsy tissues, but just yesterday got to know in a mini-brainstorming with Navoneel da, a rersearch scholar in Human Genetics Unit at our insti that there is a phenomenon called heteroplasmy. What happens is cancerous cells have very high mutation rates, so drastic such that even the timid mitochondrial DNAs are affected. And what more, this research has been recently done in our institute itself recently. That’s why it is safe to take peripheral blood samples, not biopsy tissues, to be completely foolproof.

And this is only a part of it. There are some areas on which we are trying to think originally, but the basics turned out to be quite frail yesterday.

Have to study about it. A lot. Varied. More theoretical background needed. More efforts needed. More thinking needed.

Brainstorming

This was the third and last rung of the scholarship exam, JBNSTS, the Scientific Creativity test. A weirdo, of course, of an exam, because it lasted 30 hrs ! There were 32 students in total, each one given 8 questions, 2 each from phy, chem, math, and bio in the morning of 5th. We had to choose any one of them by evening, work on them ( you may not ’solve’ ), and the next day had to appear before a board for a viva about the problem.

The physics and chem problems were pretty tough, and I have forgot many things, so math and bio remain. The first math problem was too easy, and many figured it out within the first hr. And the second one just opposite. In fact of the six who did that problem at last, only one found the full solution. Thus remains bio, my eternal savior in this kind of exams. One problem told to design an experiment, and another involved extraction and purification of a specific protein.

It took me about 15 minutes after getting the paper to get a feel of all the problems. Then about half an hr was spent on the first math problem. And then the second one took about 15 minutes, but of course yielded nothing. Then almost decided on bio, entered the library not knowing where to start.

Problem 1 told to construct an expt to prove CO2 levels in primitive earth was high and later that came down. Randomly got a Voet/Voet bio book, and browsing through it literally unearthed the radiograph of RuBP/PGA levels in a C3 plant under variable CO2 conc. Why not extend it ? Do it for a C4 plant as well, and under 3 conditions, normal/less CO2, normal/more O2, and normal CO2, O2/less CO2, more O2 ( this is only to simulate the atmospheric conditions, and to prove that co-existence of CO2/O2 doesnt produce any extra effect. The difference in the two graphs in each setup explains it all. The presentation next day was quite okay.

This one expt though seemed a bit simple, compared to what others did. A boy who did a chem problem did actually disprove the well-known arrhenius eqn, and the board did approve of it! Commendable, but I’d like to see it first. Tamoghna, a fellow bio-olympian ( see Mumbai … the OCSC experience ! and OCSC Afterthoughts, …. about people ) did the same problem as mine and came up with an impressive solution. He thought of taking an algal strain with a very high mutation rate, and RuBisCO, i.e. C3 cycle, and grow its further generation under gradually decreasing CO2 conditions, and at the end we’d see RuBisCO converted into PEPCase, the key enzyme of C4 cycle. Everything okay, but the time it’d take is 15-16 yrs, according to his own estimate ! That single thing does create some discomfort about this expt-design.

And it wasn’t at all tearing away our hair all day long ! In fact, fed up and sick of problems ( for me it was double bill, as I was finishing on the idea of the bio expt and came up with a beautiful ’solution’ of the math problem 2, which later turned out to be very profoundly wrong ), we started playing football in the evening, and then after dinner, chatted away for nearly 2 hrs.