Week one!

After two weeks of classes, I can finally say that I'm starting to feel settled...pictures of the apartment and where I live will be my next post, since my roommate is still clearing boxes and such and things are a slight mess.

Registration Day was this past Tuesday after labor day, and it was kind of a rather shot-gun meeting with my advisor where she had me sign up for four classes and didn't tell me that most people take three...more on that later.

My first day of classes was Wednesday, and I started out with 7.51 (7 meaning biology, 51 being the class number). Termed "Principles of Biochemical Analysis," this course was biochemistry on steroids with thermodynamics and equilibrium thrown in just for fun. The professors were both engaging, full of metaphors for binding Bob into his chair and thousands of Bobs competing for the same chair, and Bob standing on his head and only sort-of fitting on the chair...you get the idea. It's very interesting to me to see the binding of a ligand (for example, a hormone) to a protein (a receptor that receives the hormone on the cell surface) taught from the angles of biochemistry, cell biology, and biomolecular engineering and modeling. I feel like I know the subject, but really, I know it in four very distinct ways...it makes you wonder what you would be missing from the big picture if you were only attending one of those classes.

My second class was a "Eukaryotic Cell Biology." This one is going to be really interesting, for they hold you responsible for GOBS of material - think 200 pages in a textbook per lecture. Lecture is two hours long, and it's really cool to see the concepts taken above and beyond what I know (although two hours is looooooooong...eesh). The other portion of the course is a discussion day, and on those days, we spend the two hours all thoroughly analyzing two or three academic papers (about twenty students total). Now, you'd think, "Oh...two or three papers...piece of cake! I could do that in my sleep." Oh how wrong you would be. They call on us randomly to explain figure legends, ask us "why the writers didn't include a negative control?" or "can you expand on the results? what else can be inferred from this figure?" It is intense. Even after spending about eight hours with these papers prior to lecture, I still feel as if I missed so much. But, that's the idea...they are giving us a crash course in how to read papers effectively, efficiently, see through the crappy data, and come to scientifically meaning conclusions. I am truly a fan of this class. It's with almost all biology students, but I do have a pal in Fernando, a second year BE student from Portugal.

My next "class" is actually a seminar period, and during this time, two bioengineering professors present their work and talk a little bit about what it means to be in their lab and pretty much convince us that we should work for them. It's really a great process, because not only do they feed you, but you also get a feel for the breadth of research and exposure to quite a lot of different lab settings and projects. This goes on all first semester, and I will be meeting professors individually, seeing their labs, and talking to their graduate students before finally choosing a lab to work in this December...it's in effect a five year marriage, so you want to choose carefully. I have no idea who I want to work for, so this is a really crucial time-consuming process that needs to happen.

Class number three is called "Analysis of Biological Networks" and it's all about -omes. Most people have heard of the genome, which is basically a catalogue of DNA - the stuff that stores what you look like, how many liver cells are in each node of your liver, etc...However, there are many other -omes that catalogue other parts of the process that connect DNA to a physiological product in your body. For example, DNA has to be changed into a protein to be useful, but this is a complicated process with lots of players. It's kind of like an assembly line putting together a car - there are lots of different physical parts to the car, so if they're not working, the car won't work right. But, you also have to keep in mind that the machinery putting together the car has to be working correctly, or otherwise you will still have a broken car. So, studying the -omes is kind of like studying car doors, or the mechanism of the arms that attach the car doors, and so on. It's complex, and really quite fascinating. We also have to write a grant proposal for this class. Just what I wanted to do...seriously.

My final class is called "Biomolecular Kinetics and Cellular Dynamics," and this one is my engineering class. I get to do lots of math and programming, of which is kind of daunting, but I think with a lot of work I'll be able to handle it. I have to sit in the very front of the room to be able to see and hear and make sure I'm taking things in, but that's ok. The front row is for cool kids.

As expected, by that first Friday, I was sufficiently fire-hosed.

http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1991/fire_hydrant/

Former MIT President ['71-'80] Jerome Weisner coined a colorful and often quoted description of the MIT educational experience:

"Getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a fire hose.''

So, some students decided to take an actual fire hose and hack it to a drinking fountain in front of the biggest lecture hall on campus during finals week...and the phrase has reached verb-dom, and it's something you do hear around campus.

After such a week, and talking more with other graduate students about classes and such, I decided that four classes plus choosing a lab is a terrible idea. Absolutely awful. So - I ended up dropping the biochem class, mostly because I have had biochemistry, and I have not yet taken an official cell class, and the rigorous manner in which they break you into reading academic papers I think is really the way to go. So, with three classes, and lots of seminars, plus orchestra, I think I'll still have a pretty full schedule this semester. It should be fun!