Oceanshaft

Did some preparation for upcoming experiments at the towing tank, and then it was time for browsing the internet. Today's choice of topic started from budgeriars, went through raptors and falconry, on to penguins and hydrodynamics and finished off with the leatherback turtle. Finally led me to a site which I seem to recall hearing about previously but alas, never took a proper look at. Digital Morphology - which possesses an archive of CT scans of biological specimens.

Brings back memories of biology lessons in secondary school (dissection of a cockroach's mouthparts and also a goat's eye) and JC (where we dissected a rat - this had actually been removed from syllabus at the time, but our bio tutor believed it was a necessary part of our education, hear hear). Of course, for those of you who prefer less indelicate pasttimes, you can take a look at this scan of a tulip. There's also one of a pineapple, but not very much detail in that one. Besides, I'm sure you've torn into a pineapple or two before, right?

Now I'm reminded of the human specimens floating in jars at the NUS medical faculty, which I was privileged to see once. There's something faintly disturbing and yet deeply fascinating about looking at the insides of an organism. It's not exactly the same as preparing a whole fish or chicken for cooking and seeing the insides. Probably because in CT scans and anatomical specimens, everything is put together as is (what's the Latin term that would be appropriate here? like in situ), as if all the parts were still working. We're seeing something that one shouldn't be able to see. That one normally doesn't have the privilege to see. And reminded that we too, have moving parts.

Yes, bio was always very interesting, although I could do without the yeast smell that permeates the labs whenever we all perform Fehling's test. (I sense a wrong use of tense here...)

Surfing the internet, I found the following image. Taken from Malaysian Medical Resources.

Dedicated to my JC classmates.

Snowed yesterday and today. Not just a little, but a lot. Weather's really changeable these days.

Back to topic. Just read about an amphibious snake robot made by TIT on Engadget.com, and there's also a video clip here. Wow, impressive.

Actually, there are people around the world making robots based on lobsters, rays, sharks, etc. Seeing the actual things moving always impresses me.

It's March, and to think it snowed today, after such a long time of no snow. Well, it should return to normal spring weather next week.

Guess what, my scholarship allowance will decrease again starting from next month. Every year the Japanese government has been decreasing the allowance by a little. I'm not really particularly affected since the scholarship is still more than sufficient for me, but I feel for those who are here with their spouse and kids. Most of the graduate scholars here on the Monbusho scholarships have their families with them, and every little bit counts, especially here in Japan.

Seems like I'll be kept busy this month with experiments and stuff, might have to put any travel plans on hold. Was originally hoping to make use of this spring holiday to go to Taiwan or PRC or somewhere. Well, there's still one whole month to try and squeeze something out.

End of the week and no experiments tomorrow, am listening to music in my lab right now. Nakashima Mika.