Keeping it Real with Sam the Squirrel

If anyone would like to know what a New Zealand accent sounds like, watch this about one of the world's more ridiculous bicycle accessories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLeBHI3LYAo&feature=player_embedded#!

I am currently practicing with a bhangra dance group in preparation for a performance next month, and am having a blast. My procrastination method of choice is now to watch videos of bhangra on Youtube. Here is one of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnL9sEherR0

Finally, here is an essay I submitted to the Michigan medical school literary magazine, called "The Hippo."

Keeping it Real with Sam the Squirrel

I don’t know how I was persuaded to write this--I hate hippos. People make hippos out to be so adorable, like the hippo girl in Fantasia they dressed up in a tutu. Sure, put a tutu on a hippo, but it’s still a hippo. Just the name hippopotamus sends shivers up my spine (but I may be biased due to hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia—for those of you with a weak vocabulary, that’s a fear of long words containing “hippo”). I also avoid octopuses, because I never trust suction cups, and platypuses because they’re just mini-hippopotamuses. And before you call me a pusist, let me tell you I had a good friend who was a xenopus who tragically had all of her offspring taken by a molecular biology lab. Anyway, this kid representing the Hippo told me they were having trouble getting creative writing out of medical students, who allegedly lost all artistic inspiration somewhere between Bayesian statistics and the extensor carpi radialis longus. So here I am.

My name is Sam. I’m a squirrel, the common variety with light-colored fur and a big bushy tail. Right now you’re probably thinking “Oh, that’s nice, but squirrels like you are everywhere. They’re boring. I’d rather watch apple slices turn brown than talk to a squirrel.” Well here is a list of things that are everywhere, yet increase happiness substantially in the right time and place: money, coffee, IKEA furniture, body lotion, blueberry muffins, Michigan med student women wearing furry boots, Michigan med student men wearing blue collared shirts, pornography, burritos, bicycles, and squirrels. Yes, squirrels can be just as exciting as pornography. Look, I’m already naked.

It turns out squirrels have a lot of fun. In fact, every day my friends and I get higher than the chairs at a Jewish wedding. That’s right, us squirrels smoke marijuana. And unlike for humans, it’s actually legal for squirrels to smoke marijuana. Usually me and my buddy Terry, who’s a black squirrel (not related to Obama, as some local school kids claim), we go down to the Jolly Munchkin for some smoking and poker. Mostly it’s just birds and grass snakes at the bar, but occasionally some real interesting characters come. Like last week this aardvark showed up. Usually I avoid playing poker with anyone whose name rhymes with “card shark” but this aardvark turned out to be all right. I figured he’d be devouring insects left and right, but actually he’d converted to Jainism five years ago. “So what do you eat?” I asked him.
“I usually get Vegan VegAnts from Trader Joe’s; they’re right next to the Tofutti Tootsies” (vegetarian pig’s feet, apparently). As long as no one tofutizes my acorns, everything’s cool.

So I hang out in the Arb quite a bit, and I see lots of couples walking on the trails. It’s always interesting to observe the varying levels of PDOA. For those of you unfamiliar with the “lingo,” or for members of the Providers of Doughnuts to Orphans and Albinos (God bless you), I’d like to remind you that in this case PDOA stands for Public Displays Of Affection. By far the most common PDOA is Hand Holding (HH), followed closely by Laying On Top Of One Another Just Far Enough Away From The Trail To Make It Unclear Exactly What You Are Doing (LOTOOAJFEAFTTTMIUEWYAD). Because HH is so common, there are several subcategories, including the “finger interweave,” the “four finger wrap” (preferred when wearing mittens or if you have syndactyly), “sporadic hand fondling,” and pattycake (advanced HH technique). The other main PDOA, kissing, is highly controversial among PDOA experts. Some claim that kissing is a perfectly respectable expression of love, but others think kissing looks like two people trying to eat each other and may cause children to grow up to be cannibals. Personally I enjoy watching people kiss, although all that cheek movement makes me hungry for nuts.

The great thing about being a squirrel is you can pretty much do whatever you want. I mean, no one is going to try to exterminate squirrels. City parks advertise their “rich and vibrant flora and fauna,” and if you take out squirrels, your fauna component is down to pigeons, and everyone knows pigeons are dirty. So I get away with a lot of shenanigans. Like one time last summer in the Arb I saw this girl sun-bathing face down with her top unhooked, so she could maximize her risk of skin cancer. I crawled up next to her cell phone, so that I could maximize my cancer risk, and a half hour later the phone rang and she grabbed me around the waste. The girl shrieked as she jolted up sans top, some 12-year-old boys gasped, someone yelled “Oh come on, haven’t you seen Titanic?” and then I was chucked into a pricker bush. But it was worth it.

In the Arb I see a lot of runners, and running styles. Some people run by bounding in the air two feet higher than necessary, some people run like they have a stick up their butt, and some people don’t actually run but pretend to by swinging their arms madly, stomping their feet, and looking exhausted. As a squirrel, when I run I look like I’m on crack. People think squirrels make jerky movements because we have primitive neurologic systems, but actually it’s because we like to ensure that people driving cars have no clue which direction we’re planning on going. Seriously though, the world would be a better place if people didn’t run with iPods. First of all, if you’re listening to Metallica’s Enter Sandman while you’re running there’s no way you’re appreciating how charming us squirrels are. Second of all, listening to music on your iPod is selfish. If you’re going to get fired up with Eye of the Tiger, I want to get fired up too. Why not tape speakers to yourself so everyone can listen? Maybe you’ll inspire some overweight dude on his way to fill his Big Gulp, and suddenly you’ll be leading pigeons, squirrels, and fat people on a glorious exercise crusade. You can do it; trade in your ear buds for shoulder-mounted subwoofers, and be an American hero.

Pictures from the Arb (and a couple from DEN)

Med school, first semester

I'm well over halfway through my first semester of medical school, and having an absolute blast. Our curriculum is divided into body system sequences, rather than semester-long classes, and right now we are on the musculoskeletal sequence, having already completed cardiovascular/respiratory, "cells and tissues," and "patients and populations." The musculoskeletal sequence is very heavy on anatomy, specifically of the upper and lower limb. There are four main types of structures in the limbs that we are studying: bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, and it's important to know not just where the blood vessels and nerves are located but which muscles and areas of skin they innervate. Besides anatomy we've learned a fair amount of muscle physiology (how sarcomeres work) and energy metabolism (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, fatty acid oxidation). We're also going to learn a little radiology this week.

Our afternoons are filled with either anatomy or histology labs. Dissection of human cadavers made me nervous at first, especially after I read that some medical schools do not tell donor families what exactly students will be doing to the bodies (and some medical schools still use unclaimed dead bodies). But at Michigan we had a thoughtful memorial service for the donor's families and while I don't know precisely what is on the informed consent form, I'm assuming the anatomy program tells donors and families what dissection is. My enjoyment of anatomy increases with each lab as I get a little better at cleaning nerves and muscles and have a better general structural understanding of the human body. I still have no ambitions for surgery though. In histology we study digital microscopic slides of various human tissues ranging from respiratory epithelium to articular cartilage. Even though histologists and anatomists are friendly rivals, the two disciplines complement each other well. It's often surprising looking at a tissue under the microscope after I've dissected it, and it always blows my mind how these tiny cells can organize themselves into such complicated macroscopic body parts.

Here are two very silly attempts at injecting fun into studying:

Cardio Rap

Anatomy Comic

In extracurriculars (if you don't count the above as extracurriculars), I'm participating in a Chinese drum dance and a Bhangra dance that will be performed in the medical school Biorhythms show in January. I have no dancing experience whatsoever but am having a great time with this. The best cycling days of the season are behind us, but I've been running several times a week and went geocaching last weekend.

Today there was a very enlightening "Coming Out Panel" at lunchtime in which a number of medical students, residents, and attendings who were part of the L(esbian) G(ay) B(isexual) T(ransgender) Q(ueer) Q(uestioning) A(llied) community told their coming out story and discussed prejudices or biases they've encountered. To my knowledge, unfortunately no one in my family is gay and I've had very few gay friends, so I haven't thought much about these issues. It was really eye-opening to go to this panel and see my friends talk about their experiences, as I was completely oblivious to how they identified. As example of my ignorance, a few weekends ago at the annual medical student Fall Ball, I remember being very surprised when one of the guys on today's panel told me he had arrived late to the ball because he had been speed dating with undergrads. I couldn't understand why he had been speed-dating with undergrads when there were hundreds of single girls our age at the Fall Ball. I'm very glad I attended this panel because I want to be a physician who supports the LGBTQQA community, not one who makes assumptions about someone's spouse or is shocked to learn their patient is gay.

AMA Conference

Last weekend I attended the American Medical Association-Medical Student Section interim meeting in San Diego, California. There I presented a resolution stating that the AMA should support designed incompatibility for medical tubing such that it is physically impossible to connect tubes intended for different functions. Medical tubing misconnections have caused serious injuries and death; for example, in 2006 Robin Rodgers and her fetus were killed when a feeding solution meant for enteral delivery was accidentally pumped into her veins (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/health/policy/21tubes.html). This resolution was one of only two resolutions that was passed without amendment and referred to the main AMA, probably because the Nevada delegation of the AMA had recently proposed a very similar resolution. About a dozen Michigan students attended the conference, and we presented four additional resolutions on lengthening drug expiration dates, opposing mandatory treatment of patients with government-funded health insurance, sending unused surgical supplies to the developing world, and enforcing strict rules on medical students participating in medical clinics overseas. All the resolutions either passed with amendment or were not passed but led to reaffirmation of previous AMA policy.

Overall I had a great time at the conference and learned more about how the AMA works and a little about parliamentary procedure. I also attended a couple talks on research by medical students and a talk on HIV/AIDS disparities, particularly in the African American and Latino populations.

On a very different note, here is a rap that I made with a fellow classmate on the cardiovascular system:
https://mfile.umich.edu/?path=/afs/umich.edu/user/r/o/rogawski/Public/Cardio%20Rap.mp3

Pictures from two of my favorite places

Here are some pictures from Ann Arbor and Williamstown taken this fall.

The Michigan football experience

Today I finished my weekly quiz (this week's topics were biochemistry and anatomy) around noon and discovered that a fellow student was selling a single ticket to the afternoon season-opening football game at Michigan stadium against Connecticut. I wanted to get to at least one game this season and decided that no game was better than the first game. So I arranged to buy the ticket for $30, then headed to a store on State Street to pick up a t-shirt--I didn't want to be caught in the Big House without spiritwear, and I certainly didn't want to be mistaken for a UConn fan (of which I think I saw two the entire afternoon). I bought a yellow shirt with a straight "Michigan" logo so I could wear it to other sporting events. Then I coasted down the hill on my bike, past thousands of students playing dance music and drinking outside of frat houses, and relished the big-midwest-school-pregame-experience. I thought the partying we witnessed in Barcelona before the Madrid-Seville championship match was the most excessive I would ever witness, but the pregame celebrations I witnessed today may equal or surpass those of the European fans. For one thing, tailgates started around 7 am this morning for a 3:30 pm game (In Barcelona we witnessed dance parties at noon for a 9 pm game). In Barcelona there were two main fan zones for each team, relatively well contained by fences like a nice benign tumor. But in Ann Arbor the parties had metastasized, with many small and medium sized gatherings and tailgating over several square miles around the stadium.

I navigated through the throngs, parked my bike at the outdoor track, and joined the herd moving to the stadium gates. Everyone was decked in maize and blue, and there was palpable excitement for the first game of the season. It was partly sunny at that point, not too chilly, and I watched overhead as a plane drew an "M" in the sky with its exhaust; there were also a couple helicopters flying around the stadium at lower altitude. Unfortunately, when I got to the gate I was told that for a student ticket I needed a student ID, which I did not have on me, so had to squeeze through the crowds to a ticket office, wait in line for twenty minutes, and pay another $30 to get my ticket "validated" (i.e. make up the difference to a non-student ticket). As I was waiting in line some fighter jets did a flyover of the stadium. I made it into the stadium just after kickoff, went to section 29, and showed the usher my ticket. "Way down there," he told me and pushed me rather hard down the stairs. My ticket, it turns out, was from a med student who also went to Michigan for undergrad, so she had some pretty amazing seats. The stairway was packed with people and it quickly became obvious that there were way more people at the lower levels than who actually had tickets to be there. The row with my seat, like all the other rows, was completely full of students standing sideways on the bleachers. There was no way I was going to fit too, so I stood around on the stairs for awhile until a security officer told us to move out of the stairs and I sheepishly slid myself in between two screaming students. There I stood for the first half, both feet only half on the bleacher, back twisted, neck craned, watching Michigan score two touchdowns in the first quarter and nothing for Connecticut. I heard "The Victors" fight song, the lyrics of which are plastered all over med school posters, and some other cheers with arm chopping and key shaking. Connecticut scored a touchdown and a field goal in the second quarter, but Michigan also scored another touchdown. At halftime I was expecting everyone to leave to get a hotdog or something, but instead I was surprised that as the clock ran down everyone suddenly sat down on the bleachers around me. Before I knew it, I was trapped, surrounded by a sea of knees. There was no escape--so I just watched the marching band perform. They were good but not loud enough. Finally the third quarter began and I decided to exit the student section and explore the rest of the stadium.

I did a full loop, smelled the fried dough and caramel corn, and sat down in a non-student section on the opposite side of the field. There I watched as Michigan continued to demolish UConn (they won 30-10). The stadium really didn't look that big because it wasn't super high, but in the fourth quarter it was announced that the attendance was 113,090, an NCAA record for the best-attended college football game ever in America! That got the crowd really excited. The student section did some more cool cheers; for example they split into two groups and yelled "Go" and "Blue" back and forth for a minute. They also started a wave. Many fans started leaving in the fourth quarter, but all the students stayed to the very end. Finally the game was over and it was a reverse pilgrimage back into town, with many stopping at bars and restaurants. What a game and ritual!

First week of medical school

The first week of approximately 416 before I graduate is behind me. I learned what a suppurative exudate is (composed of neutrophils and dead cells, basically pus) and how to use Bayesian probability to calculate the risk of an individual carrying a disease gene. Some lectures on DNA structure and transcription were review. But overall it was an exciting and interesting introduction to medicine. I was especially inspired by a patient with the Huntington's disease gene who talked to our class in the middle of the week.

The first sequence, which lasts three weeks, is called Patients and Populations and consists of some genetics, pathology, and epidemiology. With one or two exceptions, the lecturers thus far have been engaging and funny and eager to answer questions. My classmates are friendly, smart, and easy to talk to. I think med school is going to be alright.

In recreational activities, I've joined fellow students on bike rides, runs, and games of frisbee. Last night I went to an MSTP student's house to watch Lagaan, a Bollywood favorite introduced to me by my high school social studies teacher. Tonight I went out to dinner and ice cream with the MSTP students in my year. This morning I went to a cooking class at Hollander's household items shop. This was a clutch find, as they have cooking classes twice a week for $15 a class. I learned how to make Provencal Sauteed Chicken, Potato Gratin with Garlic, Lemony Grilled Eggplant, and Poached Figs in Red Wine. The instructor is a French woman from Paris with her own catering business.

Ann Arbor continues to impress me as an all-around awesome place to live. There are parks and trails everywhere, amazing roads for cycling, tons of tasty restaurants, lots of places to get local produce and meat, and generally friendly smiling people. Life is good.

Town of trees, and potholes

Last weekend I drove a 10-foot rental truck carrying all of my belongings from Pasadena, MD to Ann Arbor, MI. This was my first "serious housing move" since I was bringing large unwieldy furniture to an apartment I'll have all to myself. The drive was uneventful except for a nasty thunderstorm in western Pennsylvania. I arrived in the evening after driving all day, and since my apartment wouldn't be ready until the following morning, I stayed in my favorite inn, the Motel 6 on the outskirts of town. That night I found that Chipotle had opened a store in downtown, which was not there three years ago! This was a bittersweet find, however, because I have fond memories of stuffing myself with "Giant" burritos from the famous BTB (formerly Big Ten Burrito, sued for copyright infringement), an Ann Arbor icon. Fortunately the burrito market here is substantial enough that BTB remains in business.

The next day I took advantage of the four-day truck rental period to drive to Target to buy miscellaneous household items. There are some things you take for granted and are slightly taken aback when they're not there in your new apartment. Toilet paper, shower curtain, and dishwashing soap come to mind. In the afternoon the new MSTP fellows met together for the first time. The main purpose of this meeting was to inform us that as first-year MSTPers we were responsible for performing a skit at the upcoming MSTP retreat. This would be our only formal commitment for the first week, during which we were receiving $500, so apparently they want a very funny skit.

On Wednesday we had another MSTP social at Dominick's pizza restaurant. There I learned that the state of the roads around Ann Arbor is a hot issue, which I was encouraged to hear after a bone-rattling ride the day before. The nicest cycling road in town, Huron River Drive, is nearly unrideable, and repairs are way behind schedule due to town and state budget shortfalls. Ann Arbor cyclists are taking matters into their own hands, working to raise funds themselves to pay the construction crews. The hope is that they'll start repaving in a few months.

Here are a few pictures from my new apartment, located in the "White Coat Ghetto" a short walk across the Huron River from the Michigan Medical Center.

I'm in the basement, so the view I have from one small window is obscured by the big bush on the left. It is a little cooler down here though.

What's behind door number 6? The suspense is killing me.

Already busy with logistical items.
Bicycle workshop.
The "den."
The kitchen, with tiny but mighty oven and spectacular knife set. (Not shown: four beautiful new wine glasses)
The kitchen table. A real newspaper, other than the Ann Arbor 3-page biweekly less-than-rag, would be great but delivery of the NYTimes is very expensive.

This afternoon Nobel Laureate (Chemistry) Ada Yonath is speaking here. She's worked on the structure of the ribosome. Should be an awesome talk!

Pilgrimage to Napa Valley

I'm currently visiting my dad in Sacramento, California for a couple weeks and yesterday I made a pilgrimage to the wine capital of the United States, Napa Valley. To get in the mood I started the day with a visit to the Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science at the University of California Davis. Robert Mondavi was largely responsible for dissemination of Napa Valley wines around the world and passed away two years ago. On the inside, the Mondavi Institute looks like any other laboratory building for biology or chemistry, with labs full of scientists in white coats holding pipettes at long benches covered by reagent bottles and fancy equipment. The labs are connected by boring white hallways lined with scientific posters. The only way you would know it's a Food and Wine Institute is by reading the names of the labs (might say "Sierra Nevada Brewing Laboratory"), by finding the usual waiting room news mags replaced by Wine Spectator and The California Dairy Dispatch, or by noticing the abnormally large number of offices with signs saying "Closed from 12 to 1 for lunch." On the ground floor there was a wine marketing conference going on. As I walked by I heard the presenter insist that you might really like your dog, but it doesn't belong on your wine label.

From Davis it was about an hour drive to Napa; the town didn't look too exciting so I headed up the Silverado Trail through the heart of the valley. Just about every acre of land was covered in grapes. Napa Valley is a good place to grow wine grapes due to its unique geography and climate. In some spots the soil contains volcanic lava, and in others it contains maritime sediments from when the San Pablo Bay reached into the valley. Thin and rocky soils cover the hillsides, which decrease overall yield but lead to grapes with concentrated flavors and sugars. Napa Valley's climate isn't too cold or hot, and it has a long growing season with warm sunny days and cool nights, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly over time.

I stopped at the Honig Winery in the Rutherford American Viticultural Area. I had read that Rutherford soil is a unique combination of gravel, sand, loam, and volcanic deposits that provides especially good conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon. I tasted four wines--first a Sauvignon Blanc in which some of the grapes had been left in contact with the skins for a few hours before pressing, presumably enhancing a grapefruit flavor. The second was a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon with grapes from the Honig vineyard that had been aged in American oak for 18 months. Third was a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon with grapes from a nearby vineyard that was aged in French oak. Last was a late harvest dessert wine made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes that were infected with Botrytis fungus, which dehydrated the grapes and concentrated the sugars. All the wines were good but at $40 to $75 per bottle they were outside my budget.

I finished off the day with a very hot but enjoyable walk on a trail up Cold Canyon near Lake Berryessa.

Today Alex and I went sailing on Lake Natoma near Sacramento, reviving an old hobby of mine. As I was reviewing sailing terms and techniques, I was reminded of the various points of sail, the possible orientations of a sailboat relative to the wind direction. Sailboats can't sail directly into the wind, but they can sail about 35 degrees to either side, called "close hauled." If the wind direction is perpendicular to the sailboat, that's called a "reach," and if the wind is coming from behind the boat, that's a "run." What is the fastest point of sail? At first it seems obvious that a run would be fastest--that's when the wind is squarely hitting your sails from behind. But the fastest you can go on a run is the speed of the wind. In fact, the fastest point of sail is usually a broad reach. This can be explained by considering two points. First, for all points of sail except a run, forward movement is caused by sails acting as airfoils, like airplane wings generating forward lift. Second, the wind direction experienced aboard a moving sailboat, the apparent wind, is different than the wind experience by a stationary object, the true wind.

Let's say you're on a broad reach, with the wind coming over the corner of the stern at a 135 degree angle to the direction the boat is pointed. The wind will flow over the sails and accelerate the boat forward. As the boat accelerates, the apparent wind direction shifts forward. It's the same thing that happens when you're driving in a car on a rainy day and the rain is pelting your windshield from ahead. When you get out of the car though, the rain is falling vertically.

When the boat has accelerated to the point at which the apparent wind is 45 degrees off the direction of travel, a comfortable close haul for most boats, the boat is going 1.41 times the speed of the true wind. Racing boats that can sail closer to the wind than 45 degrees can travel significantly faster--at 29 degrees off the apparent wind, the boat is going twice as fast as the true wind.

I found this wikipedia page helpful for visualizing with vector diagrams.

According to Wikipedia, "in 2009 the world land speed record for a wind powered vehicle was set by a sand yacht sailing at about 3 times the speed of the wind."

Greatest Survival Stories

I recently read South by Ernest Shackleton, an incredible story of survival in the Antarctic. In 1914 Shackleton and a team of 28 scientists and sailors embarked on an expedition to cross Antarctica, which Shackleton judged as the last important polar mission after Amundsen became the first to reach the South Pole in 1912. Their boat, the Endurance, became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea, drifted helplessly for months and was finally crushed at 69 degrees latitude, forcing the crew to abandon ship. They drifted further on ice floes for hundreds of miles until their floe broke up beneath them and they scrambled into lifeboats. They landed on mountainous, ice-covered Elephant Island, 550 miles southeast of Cape Horn. From there, Shackleton took a crew of five others in the lifeboat James Caird for a fifteen-day journey to South Georgia. They weren't done once they landed on the south side of the island, however, because the whaling stations were on the north side. After regaining their strength, Shackleton's team walked for 36 sleepless hours over glaciers and through dense fog to the whalers, who would help the expedition rescue the remaining crew on Elephant Island.

Shackleton's story has been billed as the greatest survival story of all time, and I don't doubt it. What makes it so impressive is the length of time spent away from civilization (21 months for those left on Elephant Island) and the harsh conditions endured (hurricane-force winds and blowing snow were common, and temperatures were typically tens of degrees below zero Fahrenheit). What really makes the story, however, are the navigation, leadership, and decision-making skills of Shackleton and his lieutenants. Every member of Shackleton's Weddell Sea Party survived the ordeal, not by luck or fate, but by always keeping their wits and positive attitude despite unimaginable physical challenges.

This got me thinking about whether other survival stories could rival Shackleton's. Here are snippets of a few more incredible tales, most of which have associated books that I intend to read at some point:

1) Joe Simpson's "hop and crawl" back to base camp in the Peruvian Andes, recounted in Touching the Void. Simpson broke his leg descending from the nearly 21,000 foot Siula Grande. His partner Simon Yates proceeded to belay Simpson down the mountain, but Simpson went over a cliff and Yates was forced to cut the three-hundred foot rope separating the pair. Simpson fell into a crevasse and was presumed dead by Yates. Miraculously, however, Simpson survived by landing on an ice shelf and over three days struggled back to base camp.

2) Alexander Selkirk survived for four years on the Juan Fernández islands off the coast of Chile. He was left there in 1704 by his boss Thomas Stradling after he starting causing trouble on their ship Cinque Ports. Selkirk's story was the likely inspiration for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which I also recently read.

3) Antarctica is not surprisingly a survival adventure hotspot. In 1911, a few years before Shackleton's cross-Antarctica attempt, Douglas Mawson and two colleagues Xavier Mertz and Belgrave Ninnis were sledding over the icy continent when Ninnis along with most of the group's provisions and dogs fell through into a huge crevasse, killing all but one dog that managed to hang on to a shelf 50 m down. Mawson and Mertz continued back to their base, eating dog meat and liver to survive. Mertz went crazy, fell into a coma, and died. Mawson made it back to the base to find that their ship had departed hours before, forcing him and a few companions left behind to spend the winter in the Antarctic. The experience is recounted in Mawson's Home of the Blizzard.

4) In 1971 Juliane Koepcke was aboard a flight from Lima, Peru to Pucallpa in the Amazon rainforest. The plane encountered a storm and a fuel tank was hit by a bolt of lightning, tearing the right wing off the plane. Ninety one people on the plane were killed except Koepcke, who was somehow ejected from the plane as it broke up 2 miles over the forest canopy. Still sitting in her row of seats, she spun through the air like a helicopter blade and suffered only minor injuries upon landing. She walked down crocodile and piranha-infested streams for 10 days, finally being rescued by Peruvian lumberjacks. Koepcke's story has been made into two films including Werner Herzog's Wings of Hope.

5) The following year another plane crash miracle happened in the Andes. A flight carrying 45 rugby team members crashed in the mountains when a strong headwind and clouds caused the pilot to miscalculate his position. Twenty-seven people survived, but the search for the white plane in white snow was called off after eleven days, as the survivors heard on a radio. There were no animals or vegetation on the mountain, so after the few chocolate bars they had were gone, the only option was to eat flesh from those killed in the crash. Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa hiked for 12 days across the mountains to alert a Chilean cowboy. Fourteen remaining survivors at the crash site were rescued by helicopter, two and half months after the crash. Alive: The story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read tells the story. In 2006 Nando Parrado published his personal account Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home.

Interesting that all of these occur in the southern hemisphere and 4 out of 5 in South America. Anyway, some exciting and inspiring reading material for the next few months.

Europe Favorites

Out of approximately 1600 total pictures taken during my trip to Europe with sister Liz, here are some of my favorites.

This is the center of the 1992 Olympics complex in Barcelona, on the hill of Montjuïc. On the left is the Montjuïc Telecommunications Tower, designed by Santiago Calatrava to represent a kneeling figure making an offering. The central vertical needle casts a shadow on the brick plaza below and can be used as a sundial of sorts.














Bicycling along the Mediterranean in Barcelona was definitely a highlight of the trip. This was my first time riding on a tandem bike. Liz and I got the hang of it right away. The person in front stirring has to be cognizant of the larger turning radius and greater distance required for braking. The person in back just has to trust the person in front because she has no control whatsoever. Pedaling together at the same cadence is a minor incovenience.















Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona is one of my favorite works of architecture. Construction was begun in 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026. The magnificent towers and facades are unlike any other church I've seen. While Liz and I decided not to pay the entry fee, we spent a good amount of time looking at the Passion facade, which features Jesus crucified on an I-beam (not shown).





















This is the Pont d'Avignon in southern France, from the popular nursery rhyme "Sur le Pont d'Avignon." The bridge over the Rhône river was constructed in the 12th century but took a beating from floods and only four arches out of the original 22 remain today. According to the song people danced on top of the bridge, which I could definitely see possible on a warm pleasant summer evening such as the one of our visit.

Pardon me for liking bridges, but this is not a conventional bridge--it's the Pont du Gard and part of a Roman aqueduct 50 km long near Nîmes, France. The downward slope of the aqueduct was just 0.4%, meaning in descended only 12 meters along its entire length. Although it's a profoundly beautiful structure, it was rationally constructed with one specific funtion: carry water from point A to point B.














I'm not much of a beach person, but this is the kind of beach I like (it would be even better without all the other people). This is Calanque d'En-Vau near Cassis in the south of France. The water was blue and chilly, there were big cliffs all around, and you had to hike 1.5 hours, or kayak, to get there...perfect.
















This picture was taken during our hike in the Apuan Alps in Italy, not too far from Pisa.














Florence was probably our favorite city. It has some of the finest art in the world (Michelangelo's David is only the start), and a view of the city at sunset from Piazza Michelangelo is awe-inspiring.






















Venice is swarming with tourists and prices are outrageous, but it's also sinking and turned out to be a must-see for us on this trip. Cities on a body of water, whether it be a river or the ocean, have a worldly and often romantic ambiance, and Venice takes this to the next level. There's no other place in the world where the ambulances are boats.














This is a very nice mosaic, 2000 years old, from Pompeii. It's one thing to see ancient temples and stadiums. In Pompeii, one has the opportunity to see well-preserved houses, restaurants, baths, and a brothel, to actually go back in time and imagine oneself as a Roman.















This is the Roman Forum, the main marketplace in the ancient city. The best preserved buildings here are the ones that were lucky enough to be converted into churches. I like this picture because it made me imagine what a large modern city, like New York, would look like if it was abandoned, looted, and left to the elements for 2,000 years. I think there'd be a lot more asphalt and concrete and fewer elegant columns. By the way, the white building in the background of this photo is the magnificent monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of unified Italy.














The Pantheon in Rome was another of our favorite architectural wonders. It is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.















This is my sister Liz sitting on the face of a 3,000-year-old statue of Dionysus on the Greek island of Naxos.














The Parthenon, taken from nearby Hill of the Muses. I always find it fascinating that the Greek style of architecture is essentially the same we use today for any important building.

Vexillology

With the United States' nail-biting World Cup victory over Algeria, capped by a goal in the 91st minute, it feels great to be an American today. Watching the World Cup has rekindled in me an interest in world flags, the study of which is called vexillology. A country's flag is its most important visual symbol in the media, international diplomacy, war, and sports competitions. While every country is entitled to choose whatever colors and images they want for their flag, it's obvious to me that some flags are better than others.

Here is the Saudi Arabia flag.
This is a poor flag because it has writing on it. Flags should be comprehensible by all people and writing in any language excludes those who are unfamiliar with the language. To make matters worse, there's a sword underneath the writing and so for all non-Arabic speakers know, the writing says "Saudi Arabia kills all non-Muslims." In fact, the inscription reads "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God."

Here is one of my favorite flags.
The Japanese flag portrays the rising sun, an incredibly powerful symbol. It contains just two colors and is simple enough for a child to recall and draw it. The color red has been repeatedly associated with victory in human psychology, and so is a good choice to include in a national flag. Another benefit of its simplicity is that it can be recognized even when partially unfurled on a calm day.

Unfortunately the New Zealand flag is pathetic.
You never want the flag of another sovereign nation in the upper left-hand corner of your flag. There is a long-stading movement to replace this flag, but nothing seems to ever come of it.

I also take issue with the Canadian flag.
Sure, it's simple, uses two colors, and there's a lot of winning red there. But a maple leaf? It's hardly a symbol of a thriving, powerful democracy.

I actually don't think the Israeli flag is all that bad.
The star of David is a simple and unique symbol of Israel's establishment as a Jewish state, and with the blue stripes the flag looks like a Jewish tallit.

Complicated coats of arms and multi-colored patterns are definitely flag no-nos, such as in the flags of Serbia
and Turkmenistan.

And now for the United States flag.
The U.S. flag is really a fantastic flag. It is extremely unique and far from the boring tri-colors of European nations like France, Italy, and Germany. In some ways there's a lot going on, with 13 stripes representing 13 colonies and 50 stars for 50 states, but really there are just two symbols repeated 13 and 50 times. There's no problem with a partially unfurled U.S. flag because even the 13 red and white stripes are enough to identify it.

Interesting fact: What is the only world country not to have a rectangular flag?


Nepal.

Backpacking in Europe, Part II

Highlights from second half of backpacking trip in Europe with my sister Liz:

Florence, Italy:

• Ufizzi Gallery, where we saw Francesca's Duke and Duchess of Urbino, Leonardo's Annunciation, Titian's Venus of Urbino, and Rembrandt's self portraits
• Beautiful view of the city with sunset from Piazza Michelangelo
• Michelangelo's David sculpture in the Accademia
• Second largest synagogue in the world, built in the late 1800s. It has a magnificent copper dome that holds its own against the Duomo. We received an excellent tour and learned how the synagogue was used as a garage by the Nazis and was severely damaged in a 1966 flood, which destroyed many sacred Torah texts.
• Two walking tours of town (free with stay at our hostel) that included stops at Palazzo Vecchio (city hall) and Palazzos Medici and Strozzi, home of rival wealthy families
  
• Tasty wine at Le Volpi e l'Uva
• Best meal of the trip at a restaurant showed to us by an American woman who had lived in Florence. There was no set menu, and we were unsure how much the meal would cost, so we explained that we just wanted 20 euros worth per person. That got us prosciutto with melon appetizer, hearty bean soup, and four different types of pasta including delicious cheese ravioli. Did I mention unlimited red wine?

Venice, Italy

• Stepping outside the train station, hearing a siren, and seeing an ambulance speed past. Except the ambulance was a boat. Soon we saw police-boats and fire-boats.
• Visiting Piazza San Marco for as little time as possible due to extreme numbers of tourists.
• Taking tour of Doge's Palace, which rivals Versailles in its elaborate gold decorations, colorful frescos and columned facade.
• Going to top of the belltower to get panaromic view of the city.
• Walking through town with British exchange student Alex, who took us to see the Jewish ghetto. Synagogues were identifiable only by a pattern of five horizontal windows.
• Running on La Giudecca, dodging drunk ladies and hitting dead ends at dirty dark alleys and hotel courtyards equally often.

All night train ride from Venice to Naples.

Naples, Italy

• Stepping of the train to unbearable heat and horrible traffic. We found our hostel on a street where men were selling stolen goods and in the process of getting busted by police as we arrived.
• Nearly getting run over several times by reckless moped drivers.
• Eating pizza at its birthplace.
  
• Running in a hilltop park, only refuge from the madness on the streets.
• Taking a bus to and then hiking the last fifteen minutes to the rim of Mt. Vesuvius. It looks pretty tame now. Had excellent views of the city and Bay of Naples.
• Spending the afternoon strolling around Pompeii in intense heat. We saw temples, baths, marketplaces, private homes, a theater, a stadium, and a brothel. There were piles of artifacts that had just been thrown into sheds; archaeologists didn't know what to do with it all.

Rome, Italy

• Taking tour of the Colosseum, site of thousands of gladiator battles and man vs. beast contests. Beneath the sandy stage we saw ruins of the complicated trap door network used to add and take away props.
• Walking through the Roman forum, the center marketplace of ancient Rome. The best preserved ruins had been converted into churches.
• Seeing the Palatino, the living quarters of the Roman emperor. He had his own personal stadium where he could watch gladiator fights and plays.
• Fontana di Trevi, where 3000 euros are thrown away every day. Liz and I contributed 2 cents.
  
• Lots and lots of churches. Can't beat St. Peter's Cathedral for size, though.
• Spending the better part of a day at the Vatican Museum, where we saw the Apollo Belvedere, Laocoon, Leonardo's St. Jerome, Raphael's School of Athens and Disputa, and some incredible tapestries including one of Jesus's resurrection.

We flew from Rome to Athens, then took a ferry to the island of Naxos, the largest in the Cyclades group.

Naxos

• Hanging out on the beach for a day. Good to relax after non-stop traveling for a month. The water was pleasantly warm.
• Renting a car and driving around the northern half of the island. We saw many Greek ruins older than those in Athens, including the Temple of Demeter (6th century B.C.) and a statue of Dionysus. We climbed up to the cave of Zas where Zeus was born. In the tiny village of Apollon we watched the U.S. come back from 2-0 to tie Slovenia! Our drive down the west coast cliffs of the island as the sun set was incredible.
• I rented a bike and retraced our route in the car the day before. I stopped for lunch in the village of Koronos, where a friendly cafe owner was very excited I was American. The cycle was challenging but rewarding.

Athens

• We saw the main sights on the Acropolis including the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. We also saw the Temple of Zeus, of which only a handful of columns remain, and Hadrian's Arch.
• We visited the Greek parliament building and saw the changing of the guard. Also took a stroll through the city gardens.

More later, pictures and further comments.

Backpacking in Europe: Part I

My sister Liz and I are currently backpacking in Europe. We arrived in Barcelona, Spain on May 18 and are departing from Athens, Greece on June 21. Here are highlights of our tour so far:

Barcelona:

• Tandem bicycle ride along the Mediterranean Sea.
• Visiting Olympic Park and Botanical Gardens
• Eating tapas, drinking sangria
• Walking through twisting streets of old city
• Seeing Gaudi's Sagrada Familia basilica
• Happening across the Madrid Fan Zone for a championsip soccer match being played in Barcelona. Thousands of fans dressed in red and white striped jerseys partying in the afternoon in preparation for a 9:30 pm match, creating a Where's Waldo-type scene.
• Searching for the Barcelona fan zone.
• Discovering the Barcelona fan zone is in fact the Sevilla fan zone, as Barcelona was chosen as a neutral site for the Sevilla-Madrid match.
• Watching the soccer match in a bar called The Obama, complete with a life size statue of the American president.

France/Provence

• Visiting Chateau d'If, prison on an island off the coast of Marseilles and setting for Alexander Dumas's Count of Montecristo.
• Strolling through open air markets and munching on delicious fresh fruit and veggies, croissants, pain au chocolat, warm baguettes, amazing cheeses.
• Spending three nights in Cassis, resort town in Provence. We went hiking on cliffside tracks and spent the day on a beach that required a challenging walk to get to (this didn't stop the French, as the beach was packed).
• Driving through cute French towns with friends Charlotte and Stephan.
• Visiting Pont du Gard (Roman aqueduct) and a couple Roman stadiums. In one stadium we attended a bullfight, in the Spanish style ending in the killing of the bull.
• Swimming in the Mediterranean and watching kite surfers.

Italy

• Staying in Riomaggiore, one of five villages in the Cinque Terre.
• Hiking the breathtaking coastal track between the villages of the Cinque Terre.
• Going on a couple runs on very steep tracks in the Cinque Terre.
• Kayaking on the Mediterranean, during fairly rough seas.
• Eating focacia with pesto and mozzarella
• Cooking our own pasta with walnut sauce (decent).
• Strolling through non-tourist towns of La Spezia and Massa.
• Three day walk with challenging ascents in the Apuan Alps from Resceto to Castelpoggio. These mountains are known for marble mining, which we witnessed in abundance. Marble for Michelangelo's David was mined here. Mining didn't ruin the walk, as we had some tremendous vistas and were led for an hour by an Italian couple who showed us trenches used by soldiers in WWI and pointed out native flora. We were treated well in two rifugios, where we received filling and cheap meals and had comfortable beds to sleep in.
• Walking around the Leaning Tower of Pisa and taking the obligatory tourist pictures, followed by gourmet gelato.
• Spending the day at il Ciocco, an Italian resort where Liz's friend Nick is working. We were treated like kings to free four-course meals and spent hours lounging by the pool.

We arrived today in Florence and walked a bit around the Duomo, a massive Gothic cathedral. We plan to spend a couple days here and then travel to Venice, Rome, Naples, and a Greek island. It has been a very epic trip so far and I'm super excited to begin the art history portion of our tour.

Rakiura

Two weekends ago I competed in the Dunedin Three Peaks footrace, which traverses Mt. Flagstaff, Swampy Summit, and Mt. Cargill. I finished the approximately 29 km course in 2:27:32, in fifth place in the overall men's category (a few masters and one woman also beat me). The weather was perfect, with sunny skies and cool temperatures. Some sections of the course required some semi-bush-bashing. Overall it was a great introduction to mountain running and a very enjoyable event.

Last weekend I traveled to Stewart Island with Emma, a friend from the biochemistry department. We rented a car and took the ferry across, then walked the Rakiura Track, a 3-day 36 km hike over rolling terrain and through pretty native bush. Emma discovered that she is not super keen on tramping or long rough boat rides, but we still had a pretty good time. Here are some pictures:



I depart New Zealand next Thursday, May 6! In August I will begin in the MD/PhD program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Gettin Folded Wit It

The latest high-impact project from my bench:

Getting Folded Wit It

Writing, Running, and Board Games

I've morphed into 80% writing mode in the lab, working toward submission of my masters thesis a few days before I depart New Zealand on May 6. I've found that while it's easy to become motivated to do lab work every day, I don't really feel like writing very often. Fortunately the writing is interspersed with demonstrating procedures to Sam, the honors student who will be continuing the DnaK/Hsp70 project in the lab, and making plans for single molecule FRET experiments later this month. I'm also working on a lab website. Most labs at the University of Otago don't have their own website, but these days websites are essential tools for recruiting students and postdocs and disseminating information to collaborators and the public. The only half-decent web design program we have access to is iWeb, which is not nearly as good as Adobe Dreamweaver but will still get the job done.

For several months now I've been running 4 days a week on steep trails around Dunedin in preparation for the 3 Peaks Run in two weeks. This race goes over 3x 700+ meter mountains: Flagstaff, Swampy Summit, and Mt. Cargill.
http://www.leithharriers.com/threepeaks.html
I'm also hoping to have time for one last adventure before I leave--to the Rakiura Track on Stewart Island, one of the most remote places on the planet and possibly the farthest south I'll ever venture.

The past two weekends the lab has had social events. First we had a board games evening at my flat, featuring Wabbit Wampage and Robo Rally. It was Earth Hour that evening, so at 8:30 pm we turned off the lights and put some candles in beer bottles. My flat is on a hill and you can see some of the city from the window, but we were disappointed when there was no decrease in city lights during Earth Hour. This weekend we went to Sigurd's house for a potluck. It was a perfect sunny and calm day, so we just sat out on the patio eating chicken pot pie, lasagna, roast chicken, salad, and pavlova all afternoon.

Last week I gave my last presentation to the lab, which I've posted here. It was also the world premiere of "Gettin Folded Wit It," which will be posted on YouTube shortly.

Parents visit

My parents Carol and Jim arrived in Dunedin this morning! I still haven't seen them yet, as they are sleeping off jetlag, but am looking forward to touring around the Otago Peninsula with them tomorrow. Then they will be off to Fiordland, the West Coast, Mt. Cook, and Mt. Tongariro, a snow-covered volcano on the North Island.

I've had a fantastic few weeks back in Dunedin, enjoying the late summer sunshine and making good progress on my thesis writing and finishing up a couple experiments. We're now ready to take the fluorescently labelled protein I've made to a total internal reflection microscope down the road at the medical school for single molecule studies. We hope to immobilize the protein to a poly-lysine cover slip that will allow us to resolve the fluorescence of individual DnaK proteins. If we overcome a few technical hurdles and can see the protein move, it would be the icing on my thesis and to my knowledge the first time anyone has done single molecule studies of Hsp70.

Also in the last few weeks we designed a t-shirt for the Wilbanks group that I will be proud to wear. Here is the design.

Living my last months to the fullest

I arrived back in Dunedin last Saturday morning, after an exhausting month of travel around America. Here is a recap of cities visited, in order, in a 4-week period: Pasadena, MD--Boston, MA--Ann Arbor, MI--Chicago, IL--Stanford, CA--San Diego, CA--Chapel Hill, NC--Berkeley/Stanford, CA--Memphis, TN--Berkeley, CA--Portland, OR--Dunedin, NZ. This travel extravaganza includes seven interviews, one 24-hr bout of experiments at the Stanford Synchrotron, one visit to friends in Berkeley, and my grandmother's funeral. I'm now very happy to be back in quiet warm Dunedin, where the undergrads are only just arriving. The day I got back there was a big festival in the Octagon with the whole town attending it seemed, which reminded me of the small community feel I get here. It was great to see everyone in lab again, and in my first week back I managed to produce a doubly labeled DnaK protein with shifting fluorescent peaks that report the conformational change upon addition of ATP, which has been the primary goal of my masters project. Now I have something to write about.

The interview process was fairly enjoyable, as I met a lot of interesting professors and students and saw three cities I had never before visited (Chicago, Chapel Hill, Portland). I was particularly impressed by Michigan (where I've been accepted!), Stanford, and UCSD. Michigan has a solid cohort of people working on protein folding diseases, as does Stanford along with a well organized MSTP and beautiful campus, and UCSD has research opportunities at the world class Salk, Scripps, and Burnham institutes.

My time in New Zealand is running out. My scholarship ends this month, so the faster I submit my thesis the less tuition I have to pay, although I'm hoping for a friendly grant from the Biochem department. Returning home will be bittersweet in many ways. On the one hand I'm looking forward to taking my research to the next level in a major U.S. academic institution, and from what I've heard the first two years of medical school can be a blast. I'll be happy to be closer to family and friends and good bagels. But I've had an incredible amount of fun here and really enjoyed the chilled out change of pace that I now can see in stark contrast to the fast-moving, consumptionist, ambitious culture in America. I know I'll be back many times later in life.

Chilling in MD (for real) before interview mayhem

With a jam-packed month of MD/PhD interviews beginning Tuesday next week, I've had a relaxing couple weeks in cold Anne Arundel County Maryland. For Christmas I received two oven-safe frying pans with lids, 3 large mixing bowls, a wire wisk, adjustable measuring spoon and cup, and a complete set of knives! As tempting as it is to take all this equipment back to New Zealand, I've decided to hold it safely here in Maryland for my indefinite return to the U.S. most likely in May. I've had a great time cooking in our large fully equipped kitchen here, serving pad thai, fish tacos, and salmon linguini among others. I've been doing a lot of reading, including a couple Science and Nature magazines, but have most enjoyed Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Amazingly, I had not heard of this guy before stumbling across the book at an airport bookstore. His Central Asia Institute has been building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the past decade and a half. Some of the stories he recounts about being led on wild goose chases by self-interested businessmen resembled some of our experiences in Tanzania. I agree wholeheartedly with Mortenson's view that educating youth, empowering women, and in general promoting peace in the tribal regions of central Asia does far more to protect American security than bombs and guns. Mortenson's schools do not teach extremist Islam (like the madrassas) nor Christian/American values, but unbiased (as is possible) history along with basic reading, writing, and math. A young Muslim who wants to go on jihad has to get approval from his mother, and an educated mom is far less likely to approve of violence than an uneducated woman. One of Mortenson's comments really hit home: that American soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, who have immediate contact with the people and culture, have a far better understanding of the issues than detached State Department officials planning the wars. Apparently Three Cups of Tea has become required reading for military commanders.

I'm pretty excited for interviews. I'll get to visit some new cities and universities as well as meet a lot of new students and researchers. I should probably invest in one of those travel pillows though.